The bass is the star: players slap and pop the strings while the guitar adds heavy riffs and the drums keep a danceable groove. Vocals are often half-sung or rapped, and the mood tends to be playful. It came out of California in the mid-1980s and was most popular around 1990. It is lighter on its feet than most metal and helped lead to rap metal and nu metal.
Artists it is known for: Faith No More, Primus, Living Colour, Infectious Grooves.
About 9,100 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have funk metal among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Funk Metal artists
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Limp Bizkit
Korn
Rage Against The Machine
Incubus
Primus
311
Snot
Bloodhound Gang
Sugar Ray
The funk metal artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.