For younger fans: what was big in metal during Blaze era

Back in 1997, people genuinely believed that Oasis were as big as The Beatles and that Radiohead's OK Computer was the biggest rock album since Led Zeppelin IV.
 
If we take in account the span period between 1995 and 1998 the following metal records were released (I won't count Nu metal or Alternative Metal):

Morbid Angel - Domination
Edge Of Sanity - Crimson
Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Death - Symbolic / Sound Of Preserverance
Samael - Passage
Opeth - My Arms Your Hearse
At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul
In Flames - The Jester Race / Whoracle
Dark Tranquility - The Gallery / The Mind's I
Amorphis - Elegy
Anathema - The Silent Enigma
Paradise Lost - Draconian Times
The Gathering - Mandylion
Moonspell - Wolfheart
Type O Negative - October Rust
My Dying Bride - The Angel And The Dark River
Neurosis - Trough Silver In Blood
Godflesh - Songs Of Love And Hate
Strapping Young Lad - HAARHT/ City
GZR - Plastic Planet
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
Fear Factory - Demanufacture / Obsolete
Sepultura - Roots
Machine Head - Burn My Eyes
Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill
Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve
Testament - Demonic
Grip Inc - Power Of Inner Strength
Megadeth - Cryptic Writings
Judas Priest - Jugulator
Bruce Dickinson - Accident Of Birth/ Chemical Wedding
Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle Earth
Gamma Ray - Land Of The Free
Rhapsody - Symphony Of Enchanted Lands
Stratovarius - Visions
Hammerfall - Glory To The Brave
Angra - Holy Land/ Fireworks
Dream Theather - A Change Of Seasons
Iced Earth - Dark Saga/ Something Wicked This Way Comes
Black Sabbath - Reunion
Kyuss - And The Circus Leaves Town
Down - NOLA

Notice that I'm not even a fan of some of these records. But yeah... the mid 90's were "awful to metal". Mainly lacking diversity and quality :p
 
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Mosh said:
It definitely was. Can’t really think of any other album that has had as much of an impact since.
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It wasn't ... it's an exageration. Still one hell of an album, marked an era in rock music, and had a monstruous impact. It influenced countless bands in various genres (and is still influencing as of today... that alone speaks volumes of how pivotal OK Computer was).
 
karljant said:
If we take in account the span period between 1995 and 1998 the following metal records were released (I won't count Nu metal or Alternative Metal):

Morbid Angel - Domination
Edge Of Sanity - Crimson
Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Death - Symbolic / Sound Of Preserverance
Samael - Passage
Opeth - My Arms Your Hearse
At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul
In Flames - The Jester Race / Whoracle
Dark Tranquility - The Gallery / The Mind's I
Amorphis - Elegy
Anathema - The Silent Enigma
Paradise Lost - Draconian Times
The Gathering - Mandylion
Moonspell - Wolfheart
Type O Negative - October Rust
My Dying Bride - The Angel And The Dark River
Neurosis - Trough Silver In Blood
Godflesh - Songs Of Love And Hate
Strapping Young Lad - HAARHT/ City
GZR - Plastic Planet
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
Fear Factory - Demanufacture / Obsolete
Sepultura - Roots
Machine Head - Burn My Eyes
Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill
Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve
Testament - Demonic
Grip Inc - Power Of Inner Strength
Megadeth - Cryptic Writings
Judas Priest - Jugulator
Bruce Dickinson - Accident Of Birth/ Chemical Wedding
Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle Earth
Gamma Ray - Land Of The Free
Rhapsody - Symphony Of Enchanted Lands
Stratovarius - Visions
Hammerfall - Glory To The Brave
Angra - Holy Land/ Fireworks
Dream Theather - A Change Of Seasons
Iced Earth - Dark Saga/ Something Wicked This Way Comes
Black Sabbath - Reunion
Kyuss - And The Circus Leaves Town
Down - NOLA
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Awful list, it is a miracle how metal survived the 1990s.

Death - Symbolic / Sound Of Preserverance
Fear Factory - Demanufacture / Obsolete
Sepultura - Roots
Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill
Bruce Dickinson - Accident Of Birth/ Chemical Wedding
Dream Theather - A Change Of Seasons
Iced Earth - Dark Saga/ Something Wicked This Way Comes

I mean when you hear shitty output like this, you might wonder if metal would be alive today if it wasn't for St. Anger.
 
Yup you're right... It was Statik Magic that was released in 94 (featuring the insane Cosmic Funeral). Everything these guys did from Forest Of Equilibrium to Endtyme is pure gold. Then they got boring. Still managed to go out in style with one last great album (The Last Spire).
 
Mmmmm not my cup of tea. After a way heavier and doomiest album in Endtyme seems they tried to mix the Ethereal Mirror/ Carnival Bizarre groove with that gloomiest side and it sounds to me that it is stranded somewhere in no man's land. Not bad though.
 
srfc said:
Feeder - Polythene
Entombed - To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth
3 Colours Red - Pure
Foo Fighters - The Colour And The Shape
Deftones - Around The Fur
Radiohead - OK Computer
Paradise Lost - One Second
Prodigy - The Fat Of The Land
The Verve - Urban Hymns
Faith No More - Album Of The Year
Sick Of It All - Built To Last
Misery Loves Co. - Not Like Them
Strapping Young Lad - City
Metallica - Re-Load
Kerbdog - On The Turn
Green Day - Nimrod
Reef - Glow
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes - Have A Ball
Oasis - Be Here Now
Life Of Agony - Soul Searching Sun
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We had most of these albums in the house at the time and I wasn't a fan of most of them. I preferred earlier efforts by Paradise Lost, Metallica, Green Day, Oasis and The Prodigy. Wasn't keen on the others. This was a big time in music for me, I was 13 and I was discovering my own bands through reading the magazines and buying cds. And it mostly depressed me. I didnt like alot of what I was hearing and found myself mostly listening to my brothers older stuff; GnR, Metallica, Leppard, Budgie, Credence, Maiden, Lizzy. I have fond memories of this period because I was finding stuff for myself but I never listen to any of that stuff these days.
The year or 2 previous was better for me, there was great stuff from Therapy?, The Wildhearts, Paradise Lost but 95/96 sucked balls, for me.
 
karljant said:
If we take in account the span period between 1995 and 1998 the following metal records were released (I won't count Nu metal or Alternative Metal):

Morbid Angel - Domination
Edge Of Sanity - Crimson
Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Death - Symbolic / Sound Of Preserverance
Samael - Passage
Opeth - My Arms Your Hearse
At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul
In Flames - The Jester Race / Whoracle
Dark Tranquility - The Gallery / The Mind's I
Amorphis - Elegy
Anathema - The Silent Enigma
Paradise Lost - Draconian Times
The Gathering - Mandylion
Moonspell - Wolfheart
Type O Negative - October Rust
My Dying Bride - The Angel And The Dark River
Neurosis - Trough Silver In Blood
Godflesh - Songs Of Love And Hate
Strapping Young Lad - HAARHT/ City
GZR - Plastic Planet
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
Fear Factory - Demanufacture / Obsolete
Sepultura - Roots
Machine Head - Burn My Eyes
Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill
Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve
Testament - Demonic
Grip Inc - Power Of Inner Strength
Megadeth - Cryptic Writings
Judas Priest - Jugulator
Bruce Dickinson - Accident Of Birth/ Chemical Wedding
Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle Earth
Gamma Ray - Land Of The Free
Rhapsody - Symphony Of Enchanted Lands
Stratovarius - Visions
Hammerfall - Glory To The Brave
Angra - Holy Land/ Fireworks
Dream Theather - A Change Of Seasons
Iced Earth - Dark Saga/ Something Wicked This Way Comes
Black Sabbath - Reunion
Kyuss - And The Circus Leaves Town
Down - NOLA

Notice that I'm not even a fan of some of these records. But yeah... the mid 90's were "awful to metal". Mainly lacking diversity and quality :p
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Good list. I would add other albums, starting with Helloween's 1996 The Time of the Oath (nowadays, "Power" appears to be pretty much an anthem in South America).

Ugly Kid Joe's Menace To Sobriety (1995) going largely unnoticed is also one of the cruellest consequences in the turn of the tide of mainstream tastes.

Besides, the failure of Queensrÿche's Hear in the Now Frontier (1997) exemplifies how mainstream audiences wouldn't give established but still not yet "made" bands the chance to crossover -even if (or because?) they got a Grammy nomination a few years before or featured as one of the main bands in the OST of a blockbuster, namely "Real World" in Last Action Hero. In 1998, Rob Halford's 2wo (album Voyeurs) faced the same problem: too "different" for the average metal fans and labeled as old-fashioned from the start for mainstream audiences.

1997 is also when Marillion released This Strange Engine on the modest Castle Records, after being dropped by the major EMI.
 
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Just on the topic of people listing great albums from the 90's:

1) the point of the thread is about what was popular at the time. a lot of those great albums you are listing were not popular.
2) also, that's not a lot of great albums you are listing. If you went back to the 70's and 80s you would have the same amount of great stuff being released in a single year
 
Black Bart said:
Ugly Kid Joe's Menace To Sobriety (1995) going largely unnoticed is also one of the cruellest consequences in the turn of the tide of mainstream tastes.
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Yep. I loved America's Least Wanted but Menace is a far better album and I never heard it in 95, in fact I only bought it in the last 2 years.
 
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