10 Underrated Hard Rock Albums Of The '90s

5. Earthling - David Bowie

There's no real reason for David Bowie to get brought up amid the thousands of other hard rock artists making waves back in the '90s. Sure, his glam rock period in the '70s had already cemented him in hard rock history, but why would anyone care to hear that kind of thing in the era of Nirvana? Well, here's the thing...David didn't want to hear that kind of sound either.

In another career left turn, Earthling is something else entirely removed from Bowie's catalog, as he takes on more electronic genres like drum and bass into his musical repertoire. However, hooking up with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails made this album sound huge, with everything coated in a dark industrial haze. Just when you think you have a handle of what Bowie was doing, the sound will drench itself in melancholy and turn into one of the heaviest things you've ever heard.

Songs like I'm Afraid of Americans are a great mission statement for the sound, as Bowie creates soundscapes that are heavy not by guitar standards, but in the pure sonic mayhem that he has going on underneath his vocals. While a lot of Bowie's contemporaries were done and working off of nostalgia, this shift into heavier territory showed that he still had that creative mindset he had back in 1972.