'90s Rock

Nothing screams the '90s quite like the scorched earth vocals and heat-seeking guitars of Metallica's "Enter Sandman". Having said that, as the rest of our set shows, there's more to '90s Rock than the signature eardrum assault engineered by Lars Ulrich and his heavy metal cohorts. Sure, the last decade before Y2K was overrun with mosh pit-imploding riffs, but there was also the occasional power ballad: like the melancholic confessionals of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge". "The Beautiful People" revealed a ravenous Marilyn Manson, and Bruce Dickinson proved his pipes were built to last with Iron Maiden's decade-opening invitation: "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter".

Don't put your mouse down just yet — this nostalgia trip's got some Next Steps to take care of first.

If grunge set the tone for the '90s, then Neil Young set the tone for grunge — Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969) and Zuma (1975) were hard-rockin' precursors to 1990's Ragged Glory, which features the bubbling stormcloud "F*!#in' Up", a track often covered live by Pearl Jam. Faith No More's "Midlife Crisis", apparently part-inspired by Madonna, weaves samples from sources as diverse the Beastie Boys and Simon & Garfunkel into its mix, to splendid glowering effect, Motörhead does what it does best, at twice the velocity and volume as anyone else, with "On Your Feet or On Your Knees", and Meatloaf recites a mantra fit for rockers the world over: "Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)".

They're gone, but not forgotten — rock out with Seahorses and Longpigs, in Deep Cuts.

Some British rock bands used the '90s as launch pad from which to blaze a trail into the 21st Century; others flared brightly before dissolving into dust as the decade thudded to a millennial close — and among the latter number, we'd have to reserve honourable mention for Britpop fringe-artists Longpigs, whose debut album, The Sun Is Often Out, featuring "She Said", is really rather brilliant — even a later appearance on the Mission Impossible soundtrack couldn't save the band, but at least guitarist Richard Hawley went on to win solo acclaim. And let's not forget John Squire's post-Stone Roses outfit, the Seahorses, who gave us one of the decade's most luscious riffs, on "Love Is the Law".

With gravity-defying hair and circulation-cutting spandex unofficially banned at the start of the '90s, rock was ready for a revival of sorts — a do-it-yourself middle ground between sold-out stadiums and barely legal basement shows. Generation X quickly found its anxiety and angst reflected in the bruised pop singles of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins, but the decade was about more than just grunge. For one thing, "alternative rock" was represented by countless subgenres and overnight scenes, including nu-metal (Korn) and pop-punk (Green Day, the Offspring). And then there were the rock 'n' roll icons that refused to give new-blood bands too much room for world domination — from Guns 'n' Roses at its peak to the Rolling Stones in their Voodoo Lounge phase. It all adds up to everything we know rock can be. Bring on the '90s.