1989: THE SEQUEL
HELLO, NEWMAN.
The 1990s will forever be remembered as the decade of peace, prosperity, and, of course, the internet. On the world event front, the reunification of Germany, after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, started the decade off on a positive note for humanity.
This was followed with the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project – the identifying, mapping and sequencing of all the genes of the human genome. This was a controversial undertaking at the time, with concerns that it could become a tool of political and national power (a concern that is perhaps never more relevant than today).
1990 was also the year that saw the very first episode of Seinfeld. No one could have predicted that this little show about everything and nothing would become one of the most influential sitcoms of all time. To this very day, it remains one of the most enduring and endearing shows, becoming culturally relevant the world-over.
As it relates to our chosen music, 1990 was also the inaugural year of the heavy metal festival, Wacken Open Air. Starting from humble beginnings in the village of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, it would go on on to become the largest heavy metal festival in the world, seeing attendance sky-rocketing to just under 100,000 paying visitors each year between 2011-2018.
A LUCRATIVE VIEW FROM THE ABYSS
It could be argued that 1990 was thrash’s most commercially successful year, followed by a steady decline in popularity by the mid-90s. The following year (’91), Metallica would release their eponymous self-titled album (aka Black Album), signaling a polar shift in thrash metal, with some bands either disbanding or moving away from their thrash metal roots towards the more mainstream friendly sounds of groove and alternative metal.
It can’t be understated how important 1990 was for thrash, with three of the ‘Big Four’ – Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax – releasing what are considered today to be their best albums. On the other side of the pond, the ‘Big Four’ of German thrash – Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, and Tankard – all unleashed killer albums in 1990 (Coma Of Souls, Cracked Brain, Better Off Dead, The Meaning Of Life, respectively).
1990 is truly a difficult year to curate a best-of-thrash list, as there were so many great albums. Here are but a few of the many releases…
- Megadeth – Rust In Peace
- Anthrax – Persistence Of Time
- Slayer – Seasons In The Abyss
- Death Angel – Act III
- Annihilator – Never, Neverland
- Testament – Souls Of Black
- Vio-lence – Oppressing The Masses
- Forbidden – Twisted Into Form
- Destruction – Cracked Brain
- Suicidal Tendencies – Lights… Camera… Revolution!
It would be a shame to close-out this list of thrash from 1990 without name-dropping a few more releases that are absolutely worthy of mention, including Meliah Rage‘s Solitary Solitude, Anacrusis‘ Reason, Overthrow‘s Within Suffering, Sacrifice‘s Soldiers Of Misfortune, Razor‘s Shotgun Justice, Xentrix‘s For Whose Advantage, and Morbid Saint‘s Spectrum Of Death.
LOOK WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED OUT
By the end of the eighties, hair metal had become as big as it would ever get. This would soon change, however. The ’90s started with one last hurrah for the spandex-clad clans, which saw some truly huge mainstream releases, including Poison‘s Flesh And Blood, Warrant‘s Cherry Pie, and Cinderella’s Heartbreak Station.
Heck, even the boys in Pantera foresaw the end, trading in their blow dryers, hairspray, makeup, and spandex for cargo shorts, Converse, and actual meaty riffs. Not one to go down without some kicking, clawing, screaming and scratching, glam still had a few tricks up its frilly sleeves before dying a quick and painful death…
- Slaughter– Stick It To Ya
- Extreme II: Pornografitti
- Heaven’s Edge– Self-Titled
- Ratt – Detenator
- Winger – In The Heart Of The Young
- Trixter – Self-Titled
- Warrior Soul – Last Decade Dead Century
- Love/Hate – Blackout In The Red Room
- Damn Yankees – Self-Titled
- Stryper – Against The Law
HIKING THE LEFT HAND PATH
If there is one sub-genre of metal that we can absolutely say conquered the world in the ’90s, it would have to be death metal. As the logical follow-up to thrash, death metal took things to the next level, musically, lyrically, and, of course, visually. Nothing was left to the imagination when it came to death metal. It was uncompromising in every facet.
1990 was also the year that death metal really honed its anti-religious, gory, and (sometimes) socially-conscious chops. Many of the bands we now consider the granddaddies of the sub-genre released either their debut or sophomore albums in ’90. It was also the year we saw quite a few demos from some of death metal’s most successful bands…
- Mortician – Brutally Mutilated
- Vader – Morbid Reich
- Suffocation – Reincremation
- Malevolent Creation – Demo 1990
- Sinister – Perpetual Damnation
- Nirvana 2002 – Disembodied Spirits
- Abhorrence – Vulgar Necrolatry
It’s interesting to note that death metal sprung out of the depths of hell on two continents at nearly the exact moment in time. Florida gave birth to many of the American death metal bands (Death, Obituary, Deicide, Massacre, Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation), while Europe (Sweden, Holland, United Kingdom) spewed forth their very own brand of death metal (Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Pestilence, Carnage, Benediction, Cancer, etc.).
A few of the more memorable death metal albums released in 1990…
- Deicide – Self-Titled
- Entombed – Left Hand Path
- Cancer – To The Gory End
- Napalm Death – Harmony Corruption
- Cannibal Corpse – Eaten Back To Life
- Death – Spiritual Healing
- Carnage – Dark Recollections
- Obituary – Cause Of Death
- Benediction – Subconcious Terror
- Sadus – Swallowed In Black
Counter to what was happening in thrash, where we would see fewer bands with fewer releases, 1990 saw a boom in the amount of death metal bands and albums that would infect and indoctrinate unsuspecting ears, including..
- Tiamat – Sumerian Cry
- Paradise Lost – Lost Paradise
- Impetigo – Ultimo Mondo Cannibale
- Winter – Into Darkness
- Master – Self-Titled
- Pungent Stench – For God Your Soul… For Me Your Flesh
- Morgoth – The Eternal Fall
- Opprobrium – Beyond The Unknown
- Merciless – The Awakening
- Thanatos – Emerging From The Netherworlds
POWER AND RESPECT
With both thrash and death metal garnering all the headlines in 1990, behind-the-scenes there were many power/traditional metal bands releasing very cool albums that didn’t quite get the respect or attention they otherwise deserved. On the periphery, power metal bands such as Psychotic Waltz, Riot, Apocrypha, and Morgana Lefay all dropped stellar albums in 1990.
Of course, 1990 was also the year we saw many of the already legendary bands and personalities releasing some of their best work. Who can forget Iron Maiden’s hyper-energetic frontman, Bruce Dickinson, who released his first solo album, Tattooed Millionaire, to rave reviews. This was also the year that Judas Priest, already twenty-one years into their stellar career, released their heaviest album yet, the bordering-on-thrash stylings of Painkiller.
A few of the more notable power/traditional metal releases from 1990 include…
- Sanctuary – Into The Mirror Black
- Blind Guardian – Tales From The Twilight World
- Scorpions – Crazy World
- Iron Maiden – No Prayer For The Dying
- Gamma Ray – Heading For Tomorrow
- King Diamond – The Eye
- U.D.O. – The Faceless World
- Dio – Lock Up The Wolves
- Queensrÿche – Empire
- Iced Earth – Self-Titled
GET YOUR GROOVE ON
If thrash, glam and death metal weren’t quite cutting it for you, 1990 also saw an explosion of bands experimenting with groove and alt-rock. As mentioned earlier in this article, ’90 was the year that the four formerly spandex-clad warriors of Pantera rode into town with guitars and guns blazing.
Their fifth album, Cowboys From Hell, shed every aspect of their previous glam metal stylings in favor of a heavier sound inspired by that of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, as well as bands from the then-current scene of thrash and alt-rock such as Metallica, Slayer, Faith No More, Soundgarden and Overkill.
With their sudden shift in sound, Pantera would go on to rule heavy metal throughout the 90s and into the early 2000s. In fact, it was the groovy sounds of Pantera, Prong, and Exhorder that would go on to inform bands such as Lamb Of God, White Zombie, Machine Head, Gojira, among many others.
Here are a few outliers from 1990 that made huge waves…
- GWAR – Scumdogs Of The Universe
- Danzig – Danzig II: Lucifuge
- Alice In Chains – Facelift
- Prong – Beg To Differ
- Quicksand – Self-Titled
- Primus – Frizzle Fry
- Exhorder – Slaughter In The Vatican
- Neurosis – The Word As Law
- Helmet – Strap It On
- Janes Addiction – Ritual de lo Habitual
THE NEW BREED
1990 also saw an explosion of newly formed bands, with many of those bands going on to have very successful careers. It’s interesting to note that almost none of these bands were glam/hair metal, as that ship had already set out to sea. Many of these new bands were of the extreme kind (death metal, melo-death, death-doom, black metal, grindcore), and of the alt-rock/groove/sludge variety.
The following is a list of some of the more notable bands to have sprung to life in ’90…
- Amorphis (Sweden)
- My Dying Bride (UK)
- Brutal Truth (New York)
- Temple Of The Dog (Seattle)
- Body Count (Los Angeles)
- Tool (Los Angeles)
- At The Gates (Sweden)
- In Flames (Sweden)
- Crowbar (New Orleans)
- Marduk (Sweden)