10 Darkest Rock Albums Of The 90s

Once the grunge movement really kicked in, the next few years were not going to be all that kind to metal music. Along with some of the heavy hitters like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden switching up singers at the time, some of the biggest bands in the world like Metallica were also going down the rabbit hole of alternative music in the wake of becoming superstars. There was still room for darkness in metal though...it just had to be filtered through something else.

Coming out of California, most metal fans weren't even sure what to make of Korn on their debut record, putting legitimately painful lyrics on the album while also playing guitars that seemed to be tuned lower than even what Black Sabbath would take on. While there was no set name for this music, what Korn were mining was the beginning of what would become nu metal, taking the grooves of what the old guard of metal started and putting different elements of hip hop into the mix.

What makes this one of the darker entries in metal music though is the way that Jonathan Davis sings these songs, switching from the sounds of actual torture on songs like Daddy and Shoots and Ladders to bringing his voice down incredibly low on a song like Blind, giving off the impression that he's a man locked up with his own thoughts before exploding on every single chorus. The entire nu metal genre was laying at their feet, but there's a good chance that not even the greatest nu metal acts could channel the same kind of darkness here.