10 Most Important Hard Rock Bands Of The 90s

Once the alternative scene split the entire rock scene wide open, there were a million ways for the eccentric side of rock to get on the charts. While there may have been some people trying to wear the grunge sound like a costume, there were also weird acts like the Presidents of the United States that could have only been birthed in the '90s. Of all the bands that were able to crossover though, the man with the keyboard covered a lot more ground than you would imagine.

Going into the studio after Pretty Hate Machine, Trent Reznor was prepared to unleash Hell on every single record he made in the '90s, getting more and more ferocious on stuff off of the Broken EP and the Downward Spiral. While the band's '80s output was already pretty angry, this was the kind of rage that felt painfully real, as Trent tore his soul apart in the process of making these records.

Even when the band started to get embraced on MTV as leaders of the industrial rock movement, the violent streak didn't let up for a second, with the Fragile being the perfect companion to the Downward Spiral in terms of raw emotion being laid out onto the tape. As much as digital effects might not scream hard rock to you, nothing stands in the way of a man who's soul is pitch black.