In a year of game-changing albums, Burn My Eyes was truly one for the ages. Sadly, Helmet never hit the same heights again, but Biscuit For Smut’s pneumatic thrill ride and Milquetoast’s heavy bass underpinning forged DNA that’s still rampant to this very day. More generous in tone, the grooves now spring-loaded, it was a masterclass in fuss-free dynamics where every lunge of riff found an exhilarating counter-reaction. Helmet made their mark with 1990’s Strap It On and 1992’s Meantime, their bracingly stripped-down, staccato groove distilling frontman and founder member Page Hamilton’s jazz background into off-kilter time signatures that felt like a palpitating heartbeat on steroids.īetty, however, made the whole enterprise fun. The fact that Kyuss not only managed to sound as exciting and contemporary as any other modern band, while leaning so heavily on the tropes of the past, but were clearly totally disinterested in playing the music business game, is why fans of the time still continue to speak about Welcome To Sky Valley in the sort of hushed tones reserved for royalty. Guitarist Josh Homme monolithic riffs sounded the rumble of an earthquake and the power of a tornado happening at, while singer John Garcia’s vulpine how lent it a classic rock edge. Their legend was cemented on Welcome To Sky Valley, their third album and major label debut. Myriad bands emerged from the early 90s desert rock scene, but only one were the kings: Kyuss. Over 25 years later, they're still carrying the flame.
And as for Korn, their career as modern metal's standard bearers was set. The record transformed the landscape of alternative music through the 90s and the 00s. To call Korn’s self-titled debut a game changer would be a bit of an understatement – the album that jumpstarted the nu metal revolution sounded like nothing that had come before it. Keyboards swirled like avenging angels of death, guitars surged as if attempting to reach escape velocity from this mortal realm and Emperor tore open new spaces that drew in innumerable voyagers in their wake.
In The Nightside Eclipse amplified black metal’s invocation of otherness as it imprinted the inhuman on an immeasurably vast and majestic canvas. Not many people will argue against the case that Emperor are the greatest black metal band of all time, or that they raised the genre into new realms of art. But with their 1994 debut album, black metal’s leading lights grew up quickly, bringing symphonic ambition to the crepuscular murk. Churches were burned to the ground graves were desecrated and at least three homicides were connected with the scene.Īt the centre of the soon-to-be-circus were Emperor. Norwegian black metal in the early 90s was a far different beast to the polished, unit-shifting phenomenon we’re used to these days.
It may have been released at a time when grunge still ruled all before it - as the lukewarm and/or baffled reviews that greeted Awake showed – but there was no arguing with the sheer quality of songs such as Lie, Caught in A Web and The Silent Man. Prog metal was on its way to becoming a major commercial force, and Dream Theater were leading the charge. The violent title track is still a setlist mainstay, but the pulsing dark romanticism of The Black Goddess Rises and The Forest Whispers My Name nailed the band’s distinctive MO right off the bat.Īfter the success of 1992’s Images And Words, the New Yorkers’ third album solidified their place as the most important prog metal band of the decade. It may seem primitive now, but The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh sounded daringly lavish at a time when black metal production was concertedly ugly and raw. The self-proclaimed “Only True Black Metal Band In The UK” gave the predominantly Norwegian style a decisively English twist on their debut album, piling on the mordant eccentricity, Victorian libertinism and gothic Hammer Horror ambience to irresistible, far-reaching effect. Cradle Of Filth - The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh