10 Underrated Hard Rock Songs Of The 2000s
Overlooked Licks of the New Millennium.
The appeal of the harsher side of rock and roll looked pretty dismal at the start of the new millennium. Whereas the various stripes of nu metal and grunge had started the '90s off strong, the influx of boy bands and the pop punk explosion kicking into high gear didn't really sit well with those who wanted pulse pounding riffs. There was still a lot of hard rock to be had though.
As elements of garage rock, old school rock and roll, and even the last traces of nu metal reared their head, hard rock proved to have a much larger voice than many people intended, with acts like System of a Down becoming heavyhitters in the scene. Though many may have risen to the top, there are a lot of the unlucky few that managed to slip through the cracks. As opposed to being the platinum selling singles that they were supposed to, these songs ended up being buried either as album tracks or found themselves slowly sliding off the charts.
It's a shame too, considering that many of these had the potential to build entire careers on if they were shown in the right context. Whether they were outshined by something better or just left to die in the wild, these tunes deserve to be heard by a lot more than just the hardcore fans.
10. Black Math - The White Stripes
At the start of the '00s, it felt like the rock scene snapped on a dime the first time we heard the White Stripes. Stripping away all of the trickery coming with other bands at the time, the music blaring from Jack and Meg White was some of the most inventive back to basics that the rock scene had to offer. Then again, not even the professionals were able to swing like they could on Black Math.
Coming from their colossal album Elephant, Black Math is a bit of a lowlight on the album compared to the other tracks like The Hardest Button to Button and Ball and Biscuit. Clocking in at just a few minutes, the blues worship that you normally expect from Jack is traded in for a much more punk-leaning direction, which comes in his rapid fire guitar stabs. As apocryphal as it sounds though, Meg White truly is the killing blow here, matching Jack with each strike and bringing a ton of urgency into her performance.
On the other hand, when you're coming off an opening track like Seven Nation Army, this kind of song was bound to fly under the radar regardless. That being said, when you go back to Elephant, take a second look at this sonic fireball to see what you've been missing all these years.