Around 94-97 there were the deftones, korn, coal chamber, sugar ray (only first album in 95), powerman 5000, sevendust, snot, downset, phunkjunkeez, 311, limp bizkit, bloodhound gang, rage against the machine. They would be called rage rock/ alt.funkcore or rapcore at this point and in time. The sound was different than what would be come to known as nu-metal in 1998.

These bands got airplay alongside alt metal (tool and helmet), industrial (nine inch nails, stabbing westward, manson), and post-grunge/grunge (bush, silverchair, soundgarden, pearl jam), ska/ revival punk ( Sublime, Rancid, green day) who that were popular on MTV at the time.This was also before the overplayed crazy town/kid rock/limpbizkit stuff that dominated the charts in 99-01.

Anyone remember this period? or fan of these bands from this period?

Yeah, I remember that period pretty fondly, since it was the first era I heard music on the radio. I specifically remember:

"Down" by 311
"Sex Type Thing" by Stone Temple Pilots
and "What I Got" by Sublime
being popular. It was also the last era where Nirvana was still played on the modern rock stations.

I'm always suprised how few people remember it. Its kind of a pop culture black hole.

yeah i remember the nu metal era. trl kinda introduced to limp bizkit and korn.

Remember "Possum Kingdom" by The Toadies? I'm too young to recall when it came out in 1995, but they still played it a lot on the radio in the early 2000s.