why was the 90's so bad?

i get scared buying a cd from a band in the 90's i almost never do it anymore unless i for sure know that it will be good, does this happen to anyone else and why in your opinion was the 90s so terrible. was it over production, writers block, selling out, or what?

The 90's weren't all bad. At least not for me. I was listening to a lot of death, black, and doom during this time.

there were so many damn good albums in the 90's. you must've been asleep. you "old school or nothing" guys crack me up.

there were some good releases in the 90's.I think alot of people associate the 90's with grunge and the taking over of metal.But it wasnt all bad.

Classic thrash was still huge in the early 90's. Death metal was fairly new in the 90's. I found plenty of great music to listen to in the 1990's. You just had to stay away from the popular, trendy garbage. Nevermore, Testament, Dark Angel, Grip Inc., Grave Digger, U.D.O., Anvil, Believer, Mortification...I can probably think of 50 bands off the top of my head that put out great music in the 90's.

However, I do know what you mean. There was a lot more crap released in the 1990's than any other era of rock and metal. Pop metal had gotten ridiculous and basically killed good time rock and roll and metal giving way to the vile infection that was Grunge. Gangsta rap was huge in the 90's as well. Many of the great thrash bands either disbanned or changed styles in order to keep up with confusing, ever changing trends. It was indeed a musically depressed era.

I can understand what the butcher is talking about. My favorite
musical style went deep underground, great bands where trying to stay
"current" and churning out alot of crap, gigs were unplentiful, and I
could not relate to most of the splintered genres. Our parents
say the 80's sucked. The kids that grew up in the 90's will say
this decade sucks. It is just how things work. But I have
noticed that if a album was released in 1997 (specifically), it has a
99% chance of being sub-par. Not sure I have one single cd from
that year.

SAXON1500 wrote:

I can understand what the butcher is talking about. My favorite
musical style went deep underground, great bands where trying to stay
"current" and churning out alot of crap, gigs were unplentiful, and I
could not relate to most of the splintered genres. Our parents
say the 80's sucked. The kids that grew up in the 90's will say
this decade sucks. It is just how things work. But I have
noticed that if a album was released in 1997 (specifically), it has a
99% chance of being sub-par. Not sure I have one single cd from
that year.

I agree. I think that there were plenty of fine releases in the 90's, however, since the climate of music started to change (grunge, rap-rock, hip-hop, etc.), bands and styles that we have an appreciation for were no longer profitable for the record companies and became harder to find in the mainstream.

Quote :

But I have
noticed that if a album was released in 1997 (specifically), it has a
99% chance of being sub-par. Not sure I have one single cd from
that year.

From '97 I can think of that I like:
Hammerfall - Glory to the Brave
Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth
Judas Priest - Jugulator
Gamma Ray - Somewhere Out in Space
Aerosmith - Nine Lives

Ultimatum - Puppet of Destruction was recorded in 1997 as well, although due to some record company problems it wasn't released until 1998.

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From '97 I can think of that I like:

Hammerfall - Glory to the Brave

Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth

Judas Priest - Jugulator

Gamma Ray - Somewhere Out in Space

Aerosmith - Nine Lives

I have the Dickinson (great!) and JP (low point of thier catalog). Never bothered with the other three.

The new drug came across so the glamers ran out and the grunge reached its peak.

There were lots of good metal in 90s anyway, but it's of course far from the 80s (at least in my book).

SAXON1500 wrote:

Quote :

From '97 I can think of that I like:

Hammerfall - Glory to the Brave

Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth

Judas Priest - Jugulator

Gamma Ray - Somewhere Out in Space

Aerosmith - Nine Lives

I have the Dickinson (great!) and JP (low point of thier catalog). Never bothered with the other three.

I don't think Jugulator was a high point for Priest either, but it does contain a few EXCELLENT songs. I wish they would resurrect "Bullet Train" and "Cathedral Spires" with Halford on vox.

Quote :

I don't think Jugulator was a high point for
Priest either, but it does contain a few EXCELLENT songs. I wish they
would resurrect "Bullet Train" and "Cathedral Spires" with Halford on
vox.

I must say that I prefer Ripper over Halford (I didn't say that I prefer the Ripper-era over Halford-era! ). Tim Ripper Ow(e)ns!

I love TONS of music from the 90's. Deliverance, Morty, Tourniquet, Bride, Maiden, Blind Guardian (NIME!!!), some Megadeth, Gamma Ray...that's just to name a few....

Oh, and I might get killed for this, but Fight is BY FAR the best thing Halford's done in my opinion. Also, I agree about the "Ripper"...I like his pipes and anything I've heard from him seems to rock. I prefer his Iced Earth to the others as well (more killing words). Let me have it!

Love Ripper! That guy is METAL!

And, yeah, Fight was awesome - but it does not touch Screaming for Vengeance, Hell Bent for Leather, Painkiller, etc.

What bothered me most about the 90's was the bands that already had a name made out for themselves that took it upon themselves to change their styles. Metal has always been about an attitude of my way or the high way, but during the 90's, so many great bands felt they needed to experiment to please the record industry people. It darn near wiped out the Christian metal scene alltogether, when bands like holy Soldier, Bride, Guardian etc. started to go "modern". and in the secular scene? Well, Kreator and Exodus comes to mind. Horrible attempts to please....

Kmorg, that's a really good point. Shoot, Bride has JUST NOW recovered from that, I think, and they still have a little of the chameleon in them.... Deliverance did this as well, although Jimmy P. has the vocals ability to pull off anything....we'll see soon if they've recovered!!

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why was the 90's so bad?

Undiagnosed mental disorders?

trogdawn wrote:

Quote :

why was the 90's so bad?

Undiagnosed mental disorders?

More like undiagnosed METAL disorder!

I think for me it was so bad because I did not have the internet and had no idea what bands like Blind Guardian,Gamma ray,etc. sounded like. I expected all music to sound similar to what was popular then. Once I got the internet,found sites like nolifetilmetal.com (thank you Scott !) and discovered that metal was still viable and enjoyable,my thirst started anew and haven't looked back since !

but all this is just what i mean, all of the metal went progressive, they all down tuned, overproduced their albums, had very repeditive songs lacking energy, and some bands like megadeth put stupid sirens or computer sounds of cars crashing or the cops over a megaphone- thats just assine!
but in all fairness, i am only 16, i was born in 91 so saw none of the 80's and did'nt even know what metal was in most of the 90's but since the 2000's i have been searching for good thrash and just hav'nt found much if any decent thrash from the 90's.

Well if you are looking for decent thrash from the 90's. Here are some:

Bewitched - Diabolical Desecration (1996)
Bewitched - Encyclopedia of Evil ep (1996)
Bewitched - Pentagram Prayer (1997)
Bewitched - Hell Comes to Essen live (1998)
Bewitched - At The Gates of Hell (1999)
Guillotine - Under the Guillotine (1997)
Gehennah - Hardrocker (1995)
Gehennah - King of the Sidewalk (1996)
Gehennah - Decibel Rebel (1997)
Sodom - Get What You Deserve (1994)
Sodom - Tapping The Vein (1992)
Sodom - Masquerade In Blood (1995)
Sodom - Marooned Live (1994)
Sodom - 'Til Death Do Us Unite (1997)
Sodom - Code Red (1999)
Abstrakt Algebra - Abstrakt Algebra (1995)
Dekapitator - We Will Destroy... You Will Obey (1999)
Defleshed - Abrah Kadavrah (1996)
Defleshed - Under The Blade (1997)
Defleshed - Fast Forward (1999)
The Haunted - The Haunted (1998)

From a hair/glam/sleaze fan's point of view, the 90's KILLED the genre... I know, I know...everyone says the genre killed itself, and to an extent that is true, but as badly as everyone jumped on the "hair bandwagon" people were just as bad or WORSE jumping onto the grunge/alternative bandwagon. IF you want to talk about bandwagoners, look no further than MTV! Man, once they decided that Pearl Jam, AIC, STP, Soundgarden, and Nirvana were the saviors of rock, metal bands couldn't PAY to get a video aired! That right there was a HUGE death knell for metal in the 90's.

I think if a lot of the good, name hair bands (or bands people associate with the genre) had been financially smart as far as recording and touring went, they could have survived and still done fairly well for themselves. But so many refused to scale back their 15-20 truck, 5 bus, 50 roadie tours, still trying to play 20,000 to 30,000 seat venues, and it killed them. The smart bands went ahead and scaled back a bit. Look at Def Leppard, Poison, and Bon Jovi, for example. They still sold well (Bon Jovi still goes platinum and Leppard went Gold as late as their Euphoria album), but they didn't put on the huge arena shows anymore. Poison's tours are still very popular. Of course, Van Halen was able to stay strong until VHIII, but they are also one of the few 70's bands that perservered as well (along with Aerosmith, for example). Even KISS took a step or two back in terms of stage shows and were able to keep plugging along.

Some bands survived by being smart. Great White is a very good example. They kept plugging away, selling maybe 10,000 or 15,000 copies of their albums in the US, but also doing about half that number in Europe and Japan as well. They weren't getting rich, but at the same time, they weren't killing themselves financially trying to be something they no longer were, and they put out some very strong albums in the 90's. Same can be said for Slaughter who still recorded and toured. Cinderella would have done better had Tom not lost his voice and had
the band not gotten all tied up in legal problems with their label. And even Dokken, like them or hate them, continued to find niche marketing during the 90's and managed to stay afloat. Firehouse also scaled back and survived. Jackyl survived BECAUSE of their road-warrior mentality, which is what always drove them.

But as for other bands....excess killed them. And yeah, I know the scene was about excess, but if these guys would have just gutted things out for 5 or 6 years, I truly believe they could have weathered the 90's and made it into the 2000's where glam and especially sleaze are doing VERY well in Europe again, and slowly making a comeback in the US (though I doubt we will ever see the 80's hair scene again...).

Also, look at the bands that simply imploded from the scene. Motley Crue didn't resurrect themselves for real until very late in the 90's, and we still don't know if it is for real or not. Guns N Roses completely self-destructed. Warrant died. Ratt became a running joke (and I love that band...). Whitesnake simply went into hiding for all intents and purposes.


My other favorite genre, thrash, has been pretty well discussed, but I think there were some KILLER discs put out in the 90's by thrash bands. Not mentioned by some people were the great Testament releases (I really love their 90's stuff...), and the resurrected, Bush-era Anthrax.


Arttie

I agree with you kmorg, bands started experimenting at the same time they were trying to break into the grunge scene or whatever.But its not just those bands, it was the labels forcing them to. Metallica is a prime example.

Myself, I continued down the death, doom and black metal path. Bands like Edge of Sanity, Grave, Dismember, Dark Throne, Morgion, Solitude Aeturnus, Cathedral, Morbid Angel, etc all were really doing well. Once the late 90's came along, the whole death metal scene was really oversaturated just as the glam/hair band scene was in the late 80's.

Another thing to look at is that when Republicans are in office, metal flourishes! When the Democrats are in office, metal goes away. At least in the US! The 90's were a big Democratic era.

kmorg wrote:

trogdawn wrote:

Quote :

why was the 90's so bad?

Undiagnosed mental disorders?

More like undiagnosed METAL disorder!

Veddy veddy funny!

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Another thing to look at is that when
Republicans are in office, metal flourishes! When the Democrats are in
office, metal goes away. At least in the US! The 90's were a big
Democratic era.

Death to Metal! Bring on the Polka era!!