10 Underrated Metal Albums Of The 1990s
Heaviness of the Grunge Era.
The 90's were not exactly kind to metal. While the genre definitely had its fair share of highlights at the beginning of the decade, the arrival of grunge and the caricature of nu metal made all of the original heavy sounds feel stale and out of date.
That's not to say that the decade was completely devoid of highlights though. While bands like Pantera and Tool were still dominating the landscape, there were several lowlights that ended up having more bright spots than you probably remember. Some of these records even took the more conventional grunge and alternative sounds and turned them into something much heavier than you might have thought.
These records may not have exactly set the world on fire, but their influence may carry a little more weight than you might think. What these releases didn't acquire in mainstream attention they have made up for in the thousands musicians who have shouted their praises over the years.
Whether it's metal fed through grunge, glam, alternative or just a straight-ahead bludgeoning, the songs present on these albums are sure to leave any metalhead with a smile on their face. It may have been the decade of brooding angst, but at the time, these are the albums that you could really bang your head to.
10. Bleach - Nirvana
Many metalheads point to the grunge movement being the reason why metal suffered in the early 90's. While bands like Metallica and Megadeth held their own at the beginning of the decade, everything seemed to change once Nirvana's Nevermind went screaming up the charts. Though Kurt Cobain quickly garnered a reputation as king of the alternative scene, Nirvana's first record would fit nicely in any metalhead's collection.
Released on the legendary indie label Sub Pop records, Bleach is the sound of Nirvana before they got in touch with their pop sensibilities, with riffs that have a solid amount of weight to them. This is metal with a punk twist, with songs like "Blew" having the same low tuning present in most sludge metal tunes. The band also knows how to pick up speed on this outing with the maniacal "Mr Moustache," whose riff sounds like it could have been played through Slayer's amplifiers.
The frayed nature of these tunes also give the music extra character, which makes sense given that the band only spent a total of 30 hours recording these tracks. Long before they became the godfathers of modern rock, Bleach showed that Nirvana had quite a few metallic chops behind their harsh assault.