The Early 1990s, The Rise of Grunge and Changing Tastes in Metal

In past blog posts, I have briefly mentioned how heavy metal’s popularity declined once grunge was introduced in the early 1990s. In this post, we are going to examine that era of heavy metal a little more closely.

In the early 1990s, the tastes of the American public began to change. In 1991, four very important albums were released. Metallica released The Black Album, which totally changed the mindset of thrash metal bands around the world. The Black Album took a more mainstream approach to Metallica’s music, incorporating elements of hard rock. The album was such an immediate success that record labels started pressuring other thrash metal groups to follow in Metallica’s example.

Certain bands managed to adapt and become more mainstream, but many bands could not keep up and were either tossed from the mainstream to the underground world of heavy metal, or were forced to break up. The success of The Black Album coincided succinctly with the rise of grunge. The American public was more interested in dark rock music than ever before. They wanted albums by bands that weren’t flashy with their music or image. Henceforth, thrash metal quickly lost popularity and no longer became supported by mainstream record labels.  

The disappearance of thrash metal left a void in the heavy metal mainstream. That void was kind of filled by groove metal bands such as Pantera, Machine Head and Lamb of God, but groove metal still struggled to maintain popularity, and only Pantera was really successful at first. Pantera was seen as an anomaly for the most part. The difference between Pantera and other groove metal groups is that Pantera's attitude was similar to those of grunge acts. Their angsty vibe was appealing to both fans of grunge and thrash metal alike. That was what made Pantera such an instant success in the eyes of the public.

Alternative metal took the place of thrash metal more fully. The genre became popular because of its similarities to grunge. Alternative metal artists (just like grunge artists) were down to earth and never tried to look flashy or play over-the-top music. The genre was mixed in terms of what was musically acceptable, but for the most part, the music was darker and filled with more angst. Alternative metal musicians were the first metal musicians to really not dress up or try and “look metal.” Most of them looked like average members of the American youth, but just so happened to harbor musical talents. This resonated with the audience in the 1990s and led to the fast paced growing of the genre. 

Alternative metal’s rise came very shortly after the release of Nirvana’s Nevermind, Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger and Pearl Jam’s Ten in 1991 (the three other important albums mentioned above). Nevermind, Badmotorfinger and Ten helped launch grunge and alternative rock into the world of mainstream rock music. The public fell in love with these acts that bridged hard rock and heavy metal in a way that had never been done before. 

As grunge rose, glam metal got totally obliterated. The images and music of the bands in these two scenes completely contrasted with one another. Grunge was down to earth, had more relatable lyrics and dark music. Glam metal, on the other hand, was based in a heavy metal wonderland and was a genre that focused on almost unrealistic dreams and desires. One genre definitely had to go, and it ended up being glam metal. 

With changing trends in the taste of the public, heavy metal became completely different within the scope of only a couple of years. The genre of music started to become an underground phenomenon as fans fell in love with grunge, alternative rock and more hard rock-based metal groups. Beneficial changes to the genre came from the grunge scene, and now metal is much more diverse and eclectic than it ever was before.

Alternative Metal

This week on “Into the Pit: A Metal Blog,” we are going to discuss what it means to be an alternative metal band. Alternative metal is an interesting term and very broad in scope.

Alternative metal was a term that was thrown around during the 1980s to describe certain bands that were hard to categorize into a heavy metal subgenre. However, alternative metal didn’t become a legitimate subgenre until the 1990s. Alternative metal bands are generally characterized by their use of heavy guitar riffs, unconventional sounds and somewhat experimental approaches to music. In the 1990s, alternative metal consisted of well-known groups such as Helmet, Rage Against the Machine, Primus, Faith No More, Tool and White Zombie.

Usually in each blog entry after I mention some important bands in a subgenre, I go on to talk about them each in depth. It’s hard for me to do that this week though because of alternative metal’s nature. There are so many influential alternative metal bands and that is because of the broadness of the subgenre.

Recently, alternative metal has been a term that has been thrown around kind of carelessly. It is very common for a band to be categorized as an alternative metal band just because they make use of heavy guitar riffs. This has been a very recent trend and because of this there has been a huge overlap between post-grunge and alternative metal music.

Beyond that, many bands are simply categorized as alternative metal because they bend the rules of heavy metal music. Take the band Tool for example. Their style of heavy metal is unlike any other band in the genre. They take a completely different approach to writing music, and by themselves could be considered an entirely different subgenre from anything else that came before them. However, because their style was so abstract and unique, they were simply thrown into the alternative metal category because no one else could think of a term to use to classify their sound. 

This lenient nature is an important characteristic of alternative metal, but it becomes a problem when talking about the subgenre as a whole. Alternative metal includes so many different types of bands, but that is what makes the subgenre unique. It’s a place for bands that don’t belong, and also for bands who just manage to scrape the heavy metal genre of rock music.

That being said, it is still my job to talk a little bit about specific alternative metal bands, so I will do just that. Tool is a very important alternative metal band because of their use of odd time signatures and interesting song complexities. Their music is very experimental, artistic and emotional, and since their inception, they have influenced countless other rock bands. 

Rage Against the Machine was one of the first metal bands to use rap-styled vocals. This helped to inspire the development of nu metal, which is the subgenre we will discuss in depth next week. The band also carried a strong political influence with their lyrics, which was fairly uncommon for most metal bands of the time.

Faith No More also messed around with rapping vocals as well as other experimental styles. Along with Primus, they experimented with the idea of combining heavy metal and funk rock, though Primus did this to a much greater extent. Still, Faith No More greatly inspired the nu metal movement that would come later in the 1990s, and their experimental music influenced countless other bands to take obscure musical directions with their music.

Helmet is a band that is often overlooked by many metalheads. The truth of the matter is, Helmet was a very influential metal band. Their album Meantime was completely unique upon its release. It inspired nu metal as well as metal bands that made use of noise rock elements. Helmet combined many different heavy metal techniques to form a strong sound that influenced many bands forming at the time. 

The last very important alternative metal band of the 1990s was White Zombie, led by their well-known mastermind, Rob Zombie. Their fantastical themes and bizarre image was very unique at the time, and their last two records are well-known by metalheads everywhere. Rob Zombie later continued White Zombie’s musical style through his solo work, though his solo work was never quite able to top White Zombie’s masterfully written, rugged, monstrous metal masterpieces. 

Alternative metal is a broad term, but it’s a very important subgenre in heavy metal. Some of the most creative and fascinating metal bands of all time are a part of the alternative metal subgenre. For this reason, it is a subgenre that simply demands exploration.