Good releases from classic hard rock & metal bands after 1993

As we all know, after 1993, a lot of the classic '70s/'80s/early '90s bands that were still around tried to update their sound, and flirted with alternative, grunge, industrial, groove metal or nu metal.
I haven't heard much of this stuff, but from what I've heard, in most cases it didn't go too well.
So, I'm looking for good releases by older bands from mid-'90s and on - I'm mostly looking for releases that have the band's classic sound, but I'm ok with grungy releases as well, if they're good.

This is mainly concerning hair metal and thrash metal bands - seeing that in most cases, traditional metal bands such as Iron Maiden, Riot, Dio, Running Wild, Virgin Steele, Manowar etc. didn't follow the trends in the '90s/'00s,
although in most cases, it's not as good as their older stuff.
However, with thrash and glam, I just stop at '92-'93, and never get to listening to their later releases - for some reason I get afraid I'll hear some lame post-grunge smurf poo.
The latest albums from Whitesnake, Mr. Big, Extreme and Ratt sound pretty good, but I'm clueless when it comes to the rest.

Any suggestions?

Since you mentioned thrash metal, a few bands that kept their sound and in some cases made it more aggressive are Testament, Exodus, Destruction from the early 00s onwards.

As far as hard rock goes and since you mentioned Whitesake, check out House of Lords.

Good Metal releases during the Grunge Explosion ('91-'98?) are a rarity, unless we're talkin about those hardcore Independent labels
Don't be afraid to experiment with Nostalgia-sounding Metal bands of today, altho I still believe 90 percent of them suck, but once you spot something worthwhile It'll definitely click on you.

The Only album that I can think of is Winger's PULL (1993), that is , if you dig their sound

Actually, I'd consider Pull to be within the "classic metal" timeframe, despite grunge being at it's peak during that time.

Have you ever tried Nevermore? Their debut came out in '95 I believe. They were pretty unique. A nice blend of power, thrash and goth. Check 'em out.

http://www.amazon.com/Nevermore/e/B000AQ6KZS/ref=ntt_mus_dp_pel

I really like Warrant's latest "Rockaholic" not to mention the album they did with Black 'N Blue's singer called "Born Again", I like it as well.

I like Dokken's "Lightning Strikes Again" as well.

others to checkout:

Motley Crue - Saints of Los Angeles
Def Leppard - Euphoria
Arcade - 1 and 2
Airbourne - Runnin' Wild

and Jani Lane and Bobby Blotzer's
Saints of the Underground - Love the Sin, Hate the Sinner (around 2008ish)

Ultimatum never went for the trends in the 90's.

...and I second Nevermore. Great band that came out in the 90's.

The worse heavy metal years were between 1993 and 1996 but here you have a list that i made for you with some great real heavy metal albums released during 1993 to give you a exemple(no thrash or hard rock) from my personal collection:
1993:
ACCEPT:OBJECTION OVERRULED
ANGELES DEL INFIERNO:A CARA O CRUZ
AVALANCH:READY TO THE GLORY
BLIND GUARDIAN:TOKYO TALES (LIVE ALBUM)
CRUSH:KINGDOM OF THE KINGS
DORO:ANGELS NEVER DIE
EXCITER:BETTER LIVE THAN DEATH (LIVE ALBUM)
GAMMA RAY:INSANITY AND GENIUS
GRAVE DIGGER:THE REAPER
HELICON:HELICON
LIGHTMARE:CERTAIN DEATH
MARSHALL LAW:POWER GAME
MERCYFUL FATE:IN THE SHADOWS (great great comeback album)
NOT FRAGILE:LOST IN A DREAM
OMEN:ANARCHIA (hungarian heavy metal band, great)
PHANTOM:CYBERCHRIST
PROROCK:ROCKOK
RAGE:THE MISSING LINK
RATA BLANCA:EL LIBRO OCULTO
RIOT:NIGHTBREAKER (killer album)
If you want more, i can give you my fave heavy metal releases from 1994, 1995 and 1996.

Annihilator were a little hit and miss during these years. They kept their sound though, and released a few solid albums.

S.D. wrote:

Yes and YES!

AC/DC - The Razor's Edge, Ballbreaker, Stiff Upper Lip, Black Ice
Aerosmith - Honkin' on Bobo
Deep Purple - The Battle Rages On, Purpendicular, Abandon, Bananas, Rapture of the Deep
KISS - Sonic Boom
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell
Rush - Test for Echo, Snakes and Arrows
Van Halen - For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (although I think this one came out in '91?)

Yes, i agree with THE BATTLE RAGES ON by DEEP PURPLE and the AC/DC albums. Also RAINBOW did a cool album back in 1995 and BLACK SABBATH´s DEHUMANIZER was cool too.

Tesla-Bust a Nut(1994)
Cinderella-Still Climbing(1994)
Dokken-Erase the Slate(1999)
Poison-Native Tongue(1993)
Motley Crue-New Tatoo(2000)
Vince Neil-Exposed(1993)
Aerosmith-Nine Lives(1997)
Van Halen-Balance(1995)
Coverdale Page-st(1993)
Mr Big-Bump Ahead(1993)
Alice Cooper-The Last Temptation(1994)
Slash's Snakepit-It's 5 o Clock Somewhere(1995),Ain't Life Grand(2000)
The Cult-Beyond Good and Evil(2001)

Quote :

and Jani Lane and Bobby Blotzer's
Saints of the Underground - Love the Sin, Hate the Sinner (around 2008ish)

They actually released an album? Original material or covers? I thought that was just a live, club thing they did. I didn't know they recorded anything.

Quote :

Poison-Native Tongue(1993)

This album was lame. Poison's failed attempt to be taken more seriously in the age of grunge. Avoid.

http://www.heartofmetal.net/t2823-favorite-albums-1995-1999?highlight=1995

anything by Motorhead.

krokus wrote:

ACCEPT:OBJECTION OVERRULED
NOT FRAGILE:LOST IN A DREAM
OMEN:ANARCHIA (hungarian heavy metal band, great)
PHANTOM:CYBERCHRIST

Awesomness.

It took Ratt a long time to finally release a good album (their post-grunge stuff sucks except for Detonator), but Infestation is a great album

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Quote :

and Jani Lane and Bobby Blotzer's
Saints of the Underground - Love the Sin, Hate the Sinner (around 2008ish)

They actually released an album? Original material or covers? I thought that was just a live, club thing they did. I didn't know they recorded anything.

Quote :

Poison-Native Tongue(1993)

This album was lame. Poison's failed attempt to be taken more seriously in the age of grunge. Avoid.

Many people consider Native Tongue is Poison's finest hour.

Anyway, i think it's not lame; i think it's a fine bluesy hard rock album, with some good songs on it and outsanding guitars provided by Ritchie Kotzen.

and it's certainly not a sell out, or a poor attempt at moving towards grunge/alternative.

thejokeriv wrote:

It took Ratt a long time to finally release a good album (their post-grunge stuff sucks except for Detonator), but Infestation is a great album

Detonator's pre-grunge.

TheGreatDuck wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

It took Ratt a long time to finally release a good album (their post-grunge stuff sucks except for Detonator), but Infestation is a great album

Detonator's pre-grunge.

Yep - just checked the release date - 1990. It didn't do as well as their earlier albums and I think it gets lumped in the "Grunge killed the album" because it came out 1 year prior to Nevermind

Quote :

Many people consider Native Tongue is Poison's finest hour.

And those people would be wrong.

Native Tongue is exactly what I stated. A lame, contrived attempt to sound "mature" and "relevent" in a grunge soaked world. Bret Michaels even says so. They didn't know what to do. They lost an important member of the band and their good time party rock was no longer popular. It was an act of desperation. And I don't know what the numbers are today, but it was the 1st Poison album that didn't go platinum. As depressing as that might sound to some.

Richie Kotzen is a brilliant, talented guitarist, but not for Poison. Like 'em or not, Poison is Bret, CC, Bobby & Rikki. Those 4 have a chemistry and sound that sells.

Honestly, I haven't heard Native Tongue in eons. I think I brought it as a new release on tape, but never bothered to upgrade. No plans to either. Maybe it's a decent blues-rock album. But it's not a good POISON album. I don't want Bret telling me to "stand for what you believe" with a gospel choir. I want nothing but a good time.

Allot of folks hate the Crue album with John Corabi too. It's a good album, but not a good Crue album.

Ha! Anything that had massive MTV airplay sucked at the time, it's like endless looping torture,

I remember back in the day when our Local MTV played nothing but EXTREME's 'Tragic Comic', POISON's 'Stand' and A whole bunch of GNR's and NIRVANAs and other first-Wave Grunge Acts


There were almost no fresh Thrash or Heavy Metal releases, I was happy listening to my KREATOR cassette tapes tho

Anything by Sodom is great!
Kreator - Violent Revolution
Kreator - Enemy of God
everything Tankard has put out.
Celtic Frost - Monotheist