Classic Metal Albums of the 90's

As we know, it was a pretty horrible time for the genre but like every other decade since the 60's there has to be some classics out there. i spent the entire decade drunk, stoned or otherwise off my ass on something so I was completely detached from the metal scene. Since listening to more metal again, I've discovered some great stuff, but very little from that decade, with one glaring exception....




But there has to be more than Dev, so what other records from the decade we like to forget would you consider 'classic'?

I consider Soundgarden to be metal, and Superunknown was brilliant.

Same could be said for AiC's Facelift.

Overkill's Horrorscope.

Megadeth hit hard with Countdown.

Metallica's Black album gets a lot of hate, but I think it's a masterpiece albeit some filler (I've always been of the opinion that filler happens, so why give a F*ck).

Machine Head's debut.

Stone Temple's Purple but that was less metal than Core.

Slayer did just fine in the 90's.

Tesla released two of their finest albums: Psychotic Supper and Bust A Nut. Psychotic is a definitively great record, IMO.

Ugly Kid Joe with America's Least Wanted. That was huge.

Motley Crue w/Corabi. I'll say it again, Crue's best album and the best thing those idiots ever did with their career.

Van Halen's F.U.C.K. wasn't great, but it was the best Sammy record and a fitting return to form (largely thanks to Templeman).

Morbid Angel. 'Nuff said.

And the most obvious title of the night: Vulgar Display of Power.

People always say it was a rough decade for metal. Perhaps certain subgenres, but there was a shit ton of great music back then.

I'm gonna toss in Pearl Jam here. I hear them and I think hard rock and then some. Vastly underappreciated (and misunderstood) by the metal community (not sure of the general consensus here). Brilliant songwriters, as well.

Rust in Peace

I don't know if all count as "classics", but I think they should:

Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Annihilator - Never, Neverland
Iced Earth - Night of the Stormrider
Savatage - Streets
Skid Row - Slave to the Grind
Dream Theater - Images and Words
Rage - Trapped!
Gamma Ray - Land of the Free
Impellitteri - Eye of the Hurricane
Saxon - Unleash the Beast - the best Saxon album ever!
Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth
Stratovarius - Visions
Angel Dust - Bleed

And my top two favourite albums of all time:
Blind Guardian - Imaginations from the Other Side
Savatage - Wake of Magellan

There's a ton of them. Maybe not classics, but great ones for sure. Lethal's Programmed, Metal Church with Human Factor and Hanging..., Savatage, Dream Theater's IaW, Rage with what is considered to be their classic output and millions of more. Lets not forget melodeath scene with In Flames, At the Gates (medicore at best tbh ), Dark Tranquility, the pleiad of extreme metal albums, some Tiamat and Opeth and whatever else also deserved to be mentioned. It is traditional metal that pretty much died, but imo it happend somewhere back in 87 or something.
Personally 1986-1995 is the decade I love my metal from with prog/power/speed dominating my playlists. This and recent stuff.

Trouble - Manic Frustration (1992)

Had this one on just yesterday.  Not only is it a 90's classic, but an all-time one for me.  I swear every time I play it I ended up loving it even more.

Yeah....personally I have never understood the "metal sucked in the 90's" or "metal was dead in the 90's" thinking. yes many of the thrash badnsd altered their sound and the LA scene bands went away, but death metal was still growing by leaps and bounds and many bands (many mentioned in this thread already) put out great albums. Even if you give a pass on the early 90's releases Horrorscope, Metallica, Victims of Deception as a "carry over" from the 80's there were still many great release in the mid-90's (Napalm Death, Fear Factory, Iced Earth, Gamma Ray, Testament's 'Low', etc).

Say, I couldn't help but notice that you wanted to be crushed by abrasive and creative power-thrash...




I am the unholy child of Judas Priest and Accept, and I am possessing this band.




Pantera? That's cute..... *levies bludgeoning guitar tone*




"Oh! How I wish there were a record which was full to the brim with ridiculous shredding, endless melody, aching heart, and all the speed and atmosphere of Helloween and Fates Warning thrown together in a blender.."




Death called....they want to sound just like this.




"I was looking for the new Lacuna Coil album.."

"Sorry, but all we've got is this... extremely atmosphere gothic metal with a three-vocal-attack made up of brutal grunts, tortured clean male vocals, and shimmering female vocals, with tons of guitar and a lethal sense of rhythm."

White Zombie - La Sexorcisto Vol. 1
Stryper - Against the Law,
Tesla - Bust a Nut, Psychotic Supper
Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
Metallica  - Garage Inc., Black Album
Fear Factory - Demanufacture
Type O-Negative - Bloody Kisses
Anthrax - The Sound of White Noise
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Saigon Kick - The Lizard

I personally can't stand Type-O or Bush-era Anthrax, but they did make a dent in the music scene with their personal brands of music. Metallica and Megadeth had MONSTER albums with the Black Album and Countdown, respectively. These 2 albums introduced me to metal. Ugly Kid Joe, Tesla, Stryper, and Cinderella all released stellar albums in the early 90's. You can't forget bands like Prong, Fear Factory and Sepultura that released some great albums as well. Europe had some fantastic stuff with Helloween's Master of the Rings, Time of the Oath and Better than Raw. Rage, Gamma Ray and Grave Digger released stellar albums and the mighty Angel Dust made a return. Then there are one-offs that are fantastic as well like Bruce Franklin's Generation and Argyle Park. Six Feet Deep made 2 brilliant crossover albums and Betrayal and Haven rolled deuces while Suicidal Tendencies and the Crucified released some brilliant cross-over thrash. Frankly, there are a ton of gems from the 90's but you have to dig through the layers of radio endorsed crap to find them.

CAULDRON BORN - Born of the Cauldron
JUDAS PRIEST - Painkiller
ANTITHESIS - s/t
CYNIC - Focus
CANNIBAL CORPSE - The Bleeding
EMPEROR - Anthems to the Welkyn at Dusk
DREAM THEATER - Images and Words
SPASTIC INK - Ink Complete
MACHINE HEAD - Burn My Eyes
CRIMSON GLORY - Astronomica
MORBID ANGEL - Blessed are the Sick, Covenant
MERCYFUL FATE - In the Shadows
MEGADETH - Rust in Peace
DARK ANGEL - Time Does Not Heal
HYPNOSIA - Extreme Hatred
FATES WARNING - A Pleasant Shade of Gray
ANNIHILATOR - Never Neverland
LETHAL - Programmed
PESTILENCE - Testimony of the Ancients
MIND OVER FOUR - Half Way Down
MINDFUNK - s/t
PANTERA - Cowboys from Hell
SANCTUARY - Into the Mirror Black
MONSTROSITY - Millennium
SINISTER - Aggressive Measures
EXCITER - The Dark Command
SUFFOCATION - Pierced from Within
ANACRUSIS - Manic Impressions
DEATH - Symbolic
G/Z//R - Black Science
HAMMERFALL - Glory to the Brave
NEVERMORE - Politics of Ecstasy
INTRUDER - Psycho Savant
TESTAMENT - The Gathering
ARTILLERY - By Inheritance, B.A.C.K.
FORCED ENTRY - As Above, So Below
BRUTALITY - Screams of Anguish

Interesting choices in 'Anthems' over 'Nightside Eclipse' and 'Symbolic' over 'Individual Thought Patterns'. Me, I think if you combined the best of those two Emperor records or the best of those two Death records you'd have a perfect album.

How could I forget Rust in Peace?

I think we tried to put more the stuff that is less known about. I would HOPE most people would know RIP and the Cynic record at least.  

True, true...

Helloween and Gamma Ray did some great albums. The Europeans didn't stop with the metal.

Dark Horseman wrote:

Helloween and Gamma Ray did some great albums. The Europeans didn't stop with the metal.

 

There are TONS of albums from thje 90's I consider 'classics'. Here's some that come to mind...

Armored Saint - Symbol of Salvation (1991)
Anvil - Speed of Sound (1998)
Dark Angel - Time Does Not Heal (1991)
Deliverance - Weapons of Our Warfare (1990)
Deliverance - Stay of Execution (1992)
Black Sabbath - Dehumanizer (1992)
Sanctuary - Into The Mirror Black (1990
Nevermore - The Politics of Ecstasy (1996)
Nevermore - dreaming neon black (1999)
HammerFall - Glory to the Brave (1997)
HammerFall - Legacy of Kings (1998)
Death - The Sound of Perseverance (1998)
New Eden - Through the Make Believe (1997)
Destiny's End - Breathe Deep the Dark (1999)
Iced Earth - Dark Saga (1996)
Iced Earth - Something Wicked This Way Comes (1998)
Grave Digger - Tunes of War (1996)
Grave Digger - Knights of the Cross (1998)
Grave Digger - Excalibur (1999)
The Moshketeers - The Downward Spiral (1991)
Recon - Behind Enemy Lines (1990)
Steel Prophet - Dark Hallucinations (1999)
Tourniquet - Stop the Bleeding (1990)
Tourniquet - Psycho Surgery (1991)
Mortification (1991)
Mortification - Scrolls of the Megilloth (1992)
Mortification - Post Momentary Affliction (1993)
Mortification - EnVision EvAngeline (1996)
Megadeth - Rust in Peace (1990)
Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction (1992)
Motörhead - Bastards (1993)
Motörhead - Sacrifice (1995)
Motörhead - Overnight Sensation (1996)
Motörhead - Snake Bite Love (1998)
Anthrax - Sound of White Noise (1993)
Aerosmith - Get A Grip (1993)
Aerosmith - Nine Lives (1997)

I'm sure there are tons more, but those are some that came to mind.

Carcass - Heartwork (1994)
Pantera - Cowboys from Hell (1990)
Sepultura - Arise (1991)
Sepultura - Chaos A.D. (1993)

Most of the other albums I would list have already been mentioned, so I'll be the predictable fanboy and simply add:

Warrior Soul - Salutations from the Ghetto Nation

Not to forget Hexenhaus - The Edge of Eternity from 1990!

You guys have them all covered rather well. I'd be hard pressed to add anyone to the list. Funny thing is, after about 1993 or so I didn't really pick any new metal up, mainly because of lack of knowledge of said items. I may have read about them here or there but didn't have any way to sample any new stuff to give it a try. I've more than made up for it since then, though.

I think a more appropriate point of discussion would be "classic metal albums of 94-99.

Up through 93 or so, I feel things were business as usual. Maybe mainstream radio didn't care about metal, but the bands didn't seem to notice. Bands put out some of their very best and heaviest material in the early 90s.

So much good stuff has been mentioned already, and most of it is from the early 90s.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I think a more appropriate point of discussion would be "classic metal albums of 94-99.

Up through 93 or so, I feel things were business as usual. Maybe mainstream radio didn't care about metal, but the bands didn't seem to notice. Bands put out some of their very best and heaviest material in the early 90s.

So much good stuff has been mentioned already, and most of it is from the early 90s.

 
 
I would agree with this....at least from what I remember from that era.

Its so nice to see that so many people on this forum are respecting the 90s. Some of my fave albums ever by bands of RUNNING WILD, SAVATAGE, AXEL RUDI PELL, MAIDEN, ATTACK, SAXON, MOTORHEAD, RAVEN, etc...came out during those years. Great decada.

Grip Inc. - Power of Inner Strength
Suffocation - Pierced from Within
Machine Head - Burn My Eyes
Morbid Angel - Blessed are the Sick
Crowbar - Crowbar
Devourment - Molesting the Decapitated
Psychotic Waltz - Bleeding
Burzum - Det som engang var
Unleashed - Where no Life Dwells
Fear Factory - Demanufacture
Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
Trouble -Trouble
Napalm Death - Fear, Emptiness, Despair
Enslaved - Frost
Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings
Deicide - Legion
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Holy Moses - Reborn Dogs