10 Best Metal Albums Of The 90's

At the turn of the 90's, Pantera had been a band with almost a decade of experience under their belt. After playing glam-infused hard rock for most of the 80's, things began to turn a corner once the band found the growl of vocalist Phil Anselmo.

Quickly ditching their glam rock tendencies, the band started to mine a certain playing style that was more in line with the heavier acts they loved like Slayer and Metallica. Infused with a distinctive groove aspect to their riffs, Cowboys From Hell was the clarion call for the heavier side of the metal spectrum. Across every track on the record, the band displays tremendous finesse from the visceral "Primal Concrete Sledge" to the closest thing to a power ballad the band could muster on "Cemetery Gates."

After the record's release, the band realized exactly what they had on their hands. Once the record picked up traction, suddenly there was a whole different fanbase coming out of the woodwork that were looking for something heavier than the typical thrash metal bands. Right at the start of the decade, Pantera took metal in a more feral direction that would signal the rise of even heavier metal acts looming on the horizon.