10 Best Metal Albums Of The 90's

10. Queens of the Stone Age-Queens of the Stone Age

At the end of the decade, the stoner rock genre had quickly rose to prominence, with bands like Sleep and Monster Magnet taking the metallic sludge of metal and combining it with hard rock flair. One of the leaders of the genre was the group Kyuss, who came out of the underground scene in the California desert.

After a few albums together, guitarist Joshua Homme felt that the music was getting stagnant in Kyuss and quickly left the band to start his own project. Teaming up with drummer Alfredo Hernandez, Homme ventured to Joshua Tree and began to carve out a new creative path for himself.

While later albums by Queens of the Stone Age are much more hard rock based, the band's 1998 debut is the closest thing to metal that the band had ever been. Trying to find an authentic sound, Homme tuned his guitar down to unheard-of levels and played through bass amps. This resulted in a broad sonic wall of guitar that poured across your eardrums on songs like "Mexicola" and "Regular John." With even bigger rock accolades just on the horizon, Queens of the Stone Age's debut is the sound of Joshua Homme at his most feral and raw.