10 Best Hard Rock Bands Of The 90s

Grunge music was always labelled as a dark genre when it first started to pick up traction, but not every band seemed to fall into that specific category. Nirvana didn't sound very much like Mudhoney, who didn't sound that much like the Melvins either. However, if there is one band who embodied that sense of dark melancholy, Alice in Chains fits the bill.

For all of the hard rock present in Seattle, AOC were the rainy city's resident metal band at the alt-rock inception, with songs like "Man in the Box" balancing the hard edge of metal and the more introspective reflection of their contemporaries. As the band got bigger and bigger, the release of their drug-fueled Hellscape Dirt reinforced their position as true hard rock heavyweights.

It wasn't all just about the sludgy riffs though. The harmonies from Jerry Cantrell and Layne Staley brought a musical sophistication to the eerie nature of the riffs. Even when they toned down their sound for songs like "No Excuses," the deep pain felt in the lyrics and performance still had that hard-edged bent. Of all the hard rock bands to burst out of the alt-rock movement, Alice in Chains's music was absolutely transcendent while also being the most tortured.