part_10

While the hype around Seattle was continually growing, a unique musician named Trent Reznor, the brains behind Nine Inch Nails, took the spotlight increasingly as he revolutionized industrial metal through his angry, hateful lyrics. Impelled heavily by tracks like "Head Like A Hole," "Broken," and "Closer," alongside a memorable performance at the unmemorable second Woodstock Festival, Reznor achieved quite a household name through the years. Meanwhile, far away from the fickle support of MTV and the music media and embedded in the underground, a band called Fear Factory was meshing the mechanical sounds of industrial metal with the roughness of death metal and creating a bleak and intense vein of industrial metal that would later gain considerable momentum. Thus the seeds for the incoming waves of industrial-influenced artists were sown and would later prove to be quite influential.
Also amidst the reigning alternative scene, Primus and Ugly Kid Joe had quite important stints of brilliance. Primus, which's lineup included Larry LaLonde, formerly a member of Possessed, was perhaps the most eccentric of the alternative metal roster. Les Claypool's nasal whines and often funky and catchy bass runs, coupled with Tim Alexander's manic rhythms, were sometimes called the "parallel universe" version of Rush. Musical excellence is still quite fluent within the unit, and the group's songs are quirky and extremely unique. Ugly Kid Joe, meanwhile, enjoyed two short flashes of fame, only to have its popularity fall afterwards like a bomb. On albums like As Ugly as They Wanna Be and America's Least Wanted, the band's members provided the world with energetic funk metal outings. Additionally, previous to and during Ugly Kid Joe's efforts, the relatively unknown Kingofthehill, 24-7 Spyz, Infectious Grooves (derived from the Suicidal Tendencies line-up), and White Trash would constitute the underground backbone of the scene, while Mordred created interesting and groundbreaking mixtures of thrash and funk. Meanwhile, the funky pop metal of Extreme garnered the genre, which had begun its growth during the Seventies with bands like Deep Purple during David Coverdale's stint, considerable repute. The roadworthy veterans Red Hot Chili Peppers were also vital in the popularization of the trend, especially after their hit song "Under the Bridge" played on every radio station imaginable to mankind, and still enjoy a stellar status as, arguably, the strongest exponent of funk metal ever.
Perhaps the most important subgenre associated with metal to emerge from the debris that the wake of alternative metal had left behind, however, was stoner rock. Initially deprived of such a specific label, and later acquiring it due to obvious hallucinogenic references, stoner rock was led mainly by pioneers Monster Magnet and, more importantly, Kyuss. The style was enormously reminiscent of Sabbath and yet could not really be labeled doom, as it was in a groovier vein, despite elements like lower tunings, thick distortion, a penchant for extended mini-suites (a la Black Sabbath), and riffs that Tony Iommi himself could have come up with. Sadly, however, most of the genre's artists were to stay underground for much of the Nineties, with Kyuss being relegated to an extremely strong cult band status in which the act released gems such as Welcome to Sky Valley and ...And the Circus Left Town before sadly calling it quits.
The problems by the middle of the Nineties, however, were way beyond the realms of stoner rock only, as alternative metal was dying out. Nirvana had ceased existing with the death of guitarist/vocalist Kurt Cobain, Pearl Jam had abstained from touring because of a legal feud with Ticketmaster, Alice In Chains gradually became less public as vocalist Layne Staley's drug addiction deepened, and, just like in the Eighties, bands started imitating tried and successful formulas. Only a couple of bands kept breaking new ground, such as the musically simple Helmet and the sometimes psychedelic Smashing Pumpkins. Relatively new punk bands like the Offspring, Green Day, and Rancid (which came out of the ska-punk Operation Ivy) had helped with the initial impulse of the Seattle scene, actually and mistakenly being called alternative by MTV, but their lack of musical fierceness when compared to older punk bands eventually contributed to their own downfall, excepting the Offspring. The hardcore Bad Religion, Social Distortion, and NOFX, the latest of punk bands to reach wide media exposure after several years of existence, seemed for a short moment to be making a small commotion, but nowadays the matter of true punk rock surviving in commercial circles for much longer is rather questionable, the scene being taken up by comparably weak and unoriginal outfits such as Blink 182.