10 Best Hard Rock Albums Of The 90s
The gritty cousins of grunge.
As the 80's quickly dissipated, the rock world quickly began to cater to the alternative scene that was ignited in Seattle. It was as if the world of rock had been replaced with bands trying to ride the coattails of Nirvana. That doesn't mean there wasn't any good hard rock coming out of this era though.
Concurrently with the alternative boom, new bands were coming out of left field bringing new heavy sounds that left hard rockers dumbfounded. Around the same time, some familiar faces from the 80's were returning bringing stunning feats of hard rock grandeur for the next generation of rock fans. Hell, even some of the alternative bands from Seattle were shocking fans across the world with their great riffs.
Each of these acts were not only hard rock oddities, but future legends of the genre who would go on to redefine hard rock through their inventive works in the studio. At a time when alt-rock was getting way too concentrated, these albums kept rock fans' heads banging for years and decades to come.
10. Images And Words - Dream Theater
In most rock circles, prog is known as a very niche genre. Aside from the more musically inclined fans, many hard rock aficionados didn't have time for the complex time signature changes and mindless guitar shredding. Dream Theater helped buck the trend by proving that prog could be complicated and still have a soul.
Across Images and Words, each member of the band tests their chops with fantastic epics like "Metropolis" and album closer "Learning to Live." The former of these tracks was so beloved by fans that the band ended up writing a sequel song before scrapping the concept and made the single idea an entire album in 1999. Remarkable standouts from John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy make the music sound like Metallica by way of Rachmaninoff.
This record also yielded the band's closest thing to a hit with "Pull Me Under," which features the captivating vocals of frontman James Labrie. This album opened the door for future prog metal legends like Mastodon and Between the Buried and Me to flex their musical chops with their projects later down the line. From this album forward, it didn't matter how many musical movements and time signature changes a song had as long as it kicked ass.