10 Darkest Rock Albums Of The 90s

Kurt Cobain probably was never meant to be one of the biggest rock stars in the world. Even though he seemed to go along with the mayhem that came with Nirvana's meteoric rise, you could tell how uncomfortable he was being thrust into the public eye so quickly, with many people calling him the voice of his generation once the grunge movement really took over MTV. That kind of pressure can do numbers on anyone, and Kurt was at his wit's end when it came time to follow up Nevermind.

Not looking to make anything even in the ballpark of his last "masterpiece," Cobain hired noise rock producer Steve Albini to oversee Nirvana's next project, and In Utero certainly sounds like it as well. Taking the more punk and avant garde side of what the band was known for, every one of these songs is the sour side of what the band were capable of, from guitars that have a lot more sizzle on them to Kurt singing about his struggles with depression and fascination with the inner mechanisms of the body.

Outside of songs that have a more pointed statement behind them like Rape Me, you can tell that Kurt is absolutely miserable in his own skin, calling himself bored and old on Serve the Servants before talking about missing the comfort of being sad on Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle. Kurt may have been dropping hints about how far gone he had come since the Nevermind days, but it wasn't until he was gone that we realized just how low he had actually felt.