I must say that I couldn’t have cared less about this album when it came out, I was only vaguely aware of Metallica as the band responsible for those videos from The Black Album. (I did not know it was The Black Album.) I wasn’t aware that they were now playing the kind of music …
Tag: Alternative Metal
Break the Cycle (2001) by Staind
So this is what happens when post grunge meets nu metal? Good, I needed to know. Really, I did. Imagine if you were a fan of post grunge and you were like “This just isn’t heavy enough some of the time (really, a tiny bit) and the way we should make it heavier is to …
Tonic Immobility (2021) by Tomahawk
I possibly anticipated this record too much, despite being sort of underwhelmed initially by Oddfellows. (And I’d say I’ve come to like it more than I did on my first listens, but I haven’t listened to it in forever.) There are things about this record that just aren’t completely working for me right now – …
Time’s Up (1990) by Living Colour
I’m a big fan of the debut, but it’s a been a couple years since I listened to it. From memory, this record feels a little more scattershot – perhaps due to ambition – than that one.
Facelift (1990) by Alice In Chains
Alice in Chains are, to me, the least immediately appealing of the big Seattle grunge bands. I think that’s because they have the least catchy songs – though Cantrell is a good songwriter he is not necessarily a writer of particularly catchy songs. Though I do wonder how much of my experience of this band …
White Pony (2000) by Deftones
I really thought the Deftones were a Nu Metal band for most of my life. And, while it’s true, that some of their music veers into Nu Metal, they are far more musically diverse than their Nu Metal contemporaries.
Strap It On (1990) by Helmet
This is some aggressive and and aggressively loud but knotty post hardcore/alternative metal that should be sought out by anyone who is a fan of either genre, or who wishes hardcore bands were more accomplished musically or metal was weirder.
Frizzle Fry (1990) by Primus
At some point early in his career Les Claypool, the Jimi Hendrix of the Bass Guitar, made a decision. He decided he wanted to be the leader of his own band, the lead singer and primary songwriter. The thing is, though I would argue incessantly that Claypool is the “greatest” bass player in the history …
Fear Inoculum (2019) by Tool
Tool goes Rush (circa late ’70s/early ’80s)!
Operation Paralysis (2010) by The Dillinger Escape Plan
Despite my familiarity with this band – I’ve listened to all of their Puciato albums now that I’ve heard this one, as well as their debut, and I’ve seen them live – I always have the same experience when I listen to one of their (Puciato) records: I like it less than the ones that …
Korn (1994)
So this is it. Where it all began. I must admit that, had I listened to this record when it came out, I would have hated it. Had I listened to it a few years later, during peak Nu Metal, I would have dismissed it. And I might have dismissed it later, too. I hope …
Troublegum (1994) by Therapy?
When I first heard “Knives” I thought “YES!” and figured I had just found a new favourite band. But that track turns out to be the album’s most immediate track – it’s a smart thing to lead off with in some respects but a bad idea in others.
Ultramage OK (1988) by Soundgarden
Chris Cornell apparently didn’t like the production of their debut and I must say that, as someone who is really familiar with their ’90s efforts, this doesn’t sound like Soundgarden to me. Even Cornell himself doesn’t quite sound like himself. I’m not sure how much that can be blamed on the production, how much it …
Judgment Night Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1993)
I know this record was a big deal to fans of these bands at the time, but I had literally no idea about it until an anniversary of it maybe 5 years ago. I had low expectations, despite how many of these rock bands I like.
Follow the Leader (1998) by Korn
Despite being everywhere for a chunk of my high school years, I have very little memory of Korn now. Had you asked me before I listened to this album what I remember of them, I might have been able to come up with the name of “Freak on a Leash”…maybe. I bet I would have …
°BSΩLE+e (1998) by Fear Factory
I have still not listened to all that much industrial metal in my life, given how much metal I’ve listened to, and so I can’t really say where this sits in the evolution of the genre. The only thing I can really say is that it sounds a whole hell of a lot better than …
System of a Down (1998)
I’ve come at this backwards – what else is new? – having heard all their albums but this one a number of years ago, and just getting to this now. Oops.
Leitmotif (1998) by dredg
Apparently these guys were Nu Metal once upon a time. You can sometimes hear that in the vocals – without actually knowing anything about Linkin Park, I’d say I hear a similarity in the way this guy sings – but on the whole the idea that this was a Nu Metal band on their EPs …
Undertow (1993) by Tool
I have come at Tool backwards from the very beginning of when I started listening to them: The first time I ever listened to a full album was 10,000 Days. When I discovered I liked them I got Lateralus. Then once I finally discovered I liked Lateralus, I got Aenima. This is relevant (for my …
Rage Against the Machine (1992)
So much of what Rage did became cliche by the end of the decade that approaching this after hearing too much Rage and too many Rage imitators, it’s really hard to imagine how fresh this must have sounded in late 1992.
Around the Fur (1997) by Deftones
Whenever I first heard the Deftones, I thought they were Nu Metal. I thought that because a) they were definitely marketed as part of that moment in time by the music video channels and b) I wasn’t one who was going to discern – it was all noise to me. Later on, I read some …