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By then the end of the Eighties was rapidly approaching,
and metal was again becoming a jaded form of music. Every new pop and thrash
metal band sounded exactly the same, and of the old ones only a few remained.
Mötley Crüe and Guns n’ Roses still ruled the music world along with Metallica,
in the absence of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi. The thras
h
world was quickly dying as bands were repeating everything done before; and
Slayer, Megadeth, and Metallica had slowed down and softened up on their approach
in different degrees, which in turn propelled their sales and sent Metallica's
"Black" album into an unbelievably long stay on the charts. Death
and doom metal had already revived, but speed and glam needed a saviour.
Pop metal didn’t get it, but thrash metal did, courtesy of Pantera. Pantera (originally a glam metal band) practically revolutionized thrash metal. Speed wasn’t the main point anymore, it was what singer Phil Anselmo called the "power groove." Riffs became unusually heavy without the need of growling or the extremely low-tuned and distorted guitars of death metal, rhythms depended more on a heavy groove, and vocals became a mixture of snarls and sharp screams, which revived speed metal for the Nineties. But pop metal was to suffer another fate: death at the hands of alternative metal.
Alternative meta
l
had its roots on Neil Young’s Crazy Horse, and even before with bands like the
Ventures and the Velvet Underground, but the true innovators were Living Colour,
Jane’s Addiction, and Faith No More; the first an eccentric mixture of heavy
metal, jazz, blues, rap, funk, hardcore, and a good dose of black culture; the
s
econd a band that
borrowed heavily from the Seventies and developed its own unique sound with
Perry Farrel’s high-pitched squeals. As for Faith No More, its members mixed
every existing type of music available to them and fused it with their second
singer Mike Patton’s bewildered screaming to create masterful albums, a style
adpoted and developed later by Scatterbrain, Mr.Bungle (Patton’s side project)
and Mindfunk. These bands were quite successful before the alternative metal
explosion that was to occur, and obscured other bands that were stirring up
a commotion, such as the hardcore-influenced Sonic Youth, the hyperkinetic Fishbone,
the Irish Therapy?, and Seattle’s Melvins, Tad, and Mudhoney. Of course, there
was also Mother Love Bone, but the band never quite hit fame, despite its outstanding
music.
Then Nirvan
a
exploded upon the world with their song "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Its mixture
of accessible simple melodies and punk angst quickly drew hordes of fans eager
to listen to something new. Kurt Cobain’s depressed lyrics attracted millions
of Generation X teenagers who felt as if the old stars of glam metal had nothing
to do with their lives; flash and sex just weren’t reality anymore, or so everyone
thought. Until the death of Cobain in 1994, the members of Nirvana were MTV
darlings and helped impulse the so-called Seattle scene, taking away the heavy
metal scene from Los Angeles. The grunge wave was so overwhelming commercially
that new alternative metal bands began springing out throughout the world, eventually
oversaturating the scene. Few bands remained true to their original styles;
the likes of the Black Crowes and the Four Horsemen reviving the bluesier rock
of the Sixties; Pride & Glory displaying a Southern-influenced rock style; and
Love/Hate, the Almighty, and the intensely political Warrior Soul remaining
true to a more straightforward heavy metal style.
After the wake of Nirvana, several bands quickly attained
fame status. Soundgarden kept to its tried and true formula; Alice In Chains
offered a dark, broody musical landscape; and Pearl Jam, perhaps the
second most important band of the alternative scene, offered intricate guitar
arrangements and melodies, along with Eddie Vedder’s low growls and words from
the heart on its masterful debut album Ten. The alternative metal scene quickly
grew as MTV gave such bands heavy video rotation and took them to stardom. Later
came bands like Stone Temple Pilots, which evolved from a poor man’s Pearl Jam
to a force of its own, the punk-turned-alternative Soul Asylum, the unique My
Sister’s Machine, the acclaimed Saigon Kick, the drone-like Kyuss, Blind Melon,
Big Chief, Candlebox, Dinosaur Jr., Moist, and Sponge, all with different degrees
of success.
Meanwh
ile,
progressive metal would enjoy yet another zenith among commercial circles. Images
and Words, a rather complex collection of progressive-minded music delivered
by Dream Theater, reached stellar sales and took progressive metal to grounds
seldom tried before. Consisting of prodigious musicians, the band would also
release albums such as Awake and A Change of Seasons to further broaden it
s
musical horizon and appeal, and further establishing its reputation as one of
progressive metal’s most outstanding bands ever. Meanwhile, in the wake of Dream
Theater’s success, several new bands began experimenting furthermore with the
most technically apt branch of heavy metal developed previously by the likes
of Watchtower. Shadow Gallery, Damn the Machine, Altura, Enchant, Cairo, the
classical-music-meets-metal Mozart, and Spastic Ink are among these bright exponents
of music, which continuously broaden musical frontiers. Along with these, other
bands have created more whimsical approaches, like the progressive thrash metal
composed by Anacrusis and the progressive
combination of death metal and fusion jazz harbored by Atheist and Cynic.
While the hype around Seattle was continually growing, a unique musician named Trent Reznor, the brains behind Nine Inch Nails, took the spotlight increasingly as he revolutionized industrial metal through his angry, hateful lyrics. Impulsed heavily by tracks like "Head Like A Hole," "Broken," and "Closer," alongside a memorable performance at the second Woodstock Festival, Reznor has achieved quite a household name through the years.
Amidst the reigning alternative scene, Primus and
Ugly Kid Joe had quite important stints of
brilliance. Primus, which’s lineup included Larry LaLonde, formerly a member
of Possessed,was perhaps the most eccentric of the alternative metal roster.
Les Claypool’s nasal whines and often funky and catchy bass runs, coupled with
Tim Alexander’s manic rhythms, have sometimes been called the "parallel universe"
version of Rush. Musical excellency is quite fluent within the unit, and the
group’s songs are quirky and extremely unique. Ugly Kid Joe, meanwhile, enjoyed
two short flashes of fame, only to have its popularity fall afterwards like
a bomb, despite its strong musical out
put.
On albums like As Ugly as They Wanna Be and America’s Least Wanted the band’s
members provided the world with energetic funk metal outings. Previous to and
during Ugly Kid Joe’s efforts, the relatively unknown Kingofthehill, 24-7 Spyz,
Infectious Grooves (derived from the Suicidal Tendencies line-up), and White
Trash would constitute the underground backbone of the scene while Mordred created
interesting and groundbreaking mixtures of thrash and funk metal. Meanwhile,
the funky pop metal of Extreme garnered the genre, which had begun its growth
during the Seventies with bands like Deep Purple during David Coverdale’s stint,
considerable repute. The roadworthy veterans Red Hot Chili Peppers were also
vital in the popularization of the trend, especially after their hit song "Under
the Bridge" played on every radio station imaginable to mankind, and still enjoy
a stellar status as, arguably, the strongest exponent of funk metal ever.
However, by the middle of the Nineties, alternative
metal was dying out. Nirvana had ceased existing with the death of guit
arist/vocalist
Kurt Cobain, Pearl Jam had abstained from touring because of a legal feud with
Ticketmaster, Alice In Chains gradually became less public as vocalist Layne
Staley’s drug addiction deepened, and, just like in the Eighties, bands started
imitating tried and successful formulas. Only a couple of bands kept breaking
new grounds, like the musically simple Helmet and the sometimes psychedelic
Smashing Pumpkins. Relatively new punk bands like the Offspring, Green Day,
and Rancid (which came out of the ska-punk Operation Ivy) had helped with the
initial impulse of the Seattle scene, actually and mistakenly being called alternative
by MTV, but their lack of musical fierceness when compared to older punk bands
eventually contributed to their own downfall, excepting the Offspring. The hardcore
Bad Religion, Social Distortion, and NOFX, the latest of punk bands to reach
wide media exposure after several years of existence, seem to be making a small
commotion, but the matter of punk rock surviving in commercial circles for much
longer is rather questionable.
| Prologue | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Main | Part VII |
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