90's Mixtape #1: Heavy shit

A few months back I was at a party and I was more than inebriated. As happens a lot, I got ranting to my friend about music. My particular point of conversation this night was the 90s and how so much good music came from then. Apparently I told her I'd make her a mixtape of good stuff from the 90s that she may not have heard. Being that her background is mainly punk and hardcore from this millenium, there was lots to be put in! It's finished, but I thought I'd share.



I made my own liner notes too and it started like this:

Dear Lxxx,

With these CDs I tried to pick bands you may not have heard of, or listened to. So I avoided a lot of the stuff I’d figure you’d already know, hence no Pearl Jam or Nirvana. You probably won’t like half of the crap, but if you do, I can hook you up with more.

Also, was way too hard to make it a single CD, so I tried to group it into 4 categories.

Regards,

Chuck

#1 - 90's Heavy Shit

Ahh the nineties in heavy music, where it was just becoming a more popular genre. The hardcore punk of the 80’s got faster and heavier to start becoming hardcore like we know it now. The hair metal of the 80s was dying and the guitars were getting detuned while the vocalists started growling more. And how could we ever forget that wonderful thing that was nu-metal in its youth. As much as we hate it now, listening to bands like Korn and Limpbizkit got most people, including me, away from the radio and into less mainstream music.

1. Turbonegro - The Age Of Pamparius (5:59)

A Norwegian glam-punk band, these guys at times, especially in this song, are channelling bad 80’s glam rock. Every time I hear this song I imagine the mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, where they have a similar song with midgets dancing around a fake miniature stone henge. This song was also the theme for Wildboyz, one of the sequels to the Jackass TV show.

2. Danzig - Five Finger Crawl (3:43)

Danzig was the original lead singer of the horror-punk legends the Misfits. He left, formed his own band and made gloomy songs like this that sounded like a less-punk version of the Misfits rather unsurprisingly.

3. Filter - Welcome To The Fold (7:41)

Filter was formed by the touring guitarist from Nine Inch Nails in the mid 90s. They had a stream of charting hits in the 90s and 00s, but this song was the first I ever heard of them. They do a more stylised industrial rock sound, with some electronic songs and acoustic songs (which are the ones that got famous, of course).

4. Coal Chamber - Loco (4:09)

These guys have been blamed as pioneering the Nu-Metal sound. They were novel as they were one of the heaviest ones, even more depressing subject matter, and had a reasonably attractive female. Apart from that... well it’s nu-metal.

5. Fear Factory - Edgecrusher (3:39)

This band is still kicking around today and is a staple of most metal fans. They do industrial metal and are one of those bands not afraid to add electronic to their songs. In fact, a lot of their songs are about technology.

6. Dope - Everything Sucks (3:01)

Stoner industrial metal. They actually used to be drug dealers to finance their records. They do a pretty awesome cover of You Spin Me Right Round as well.

7. Ministry - Bad Blood (5:00)

As far as I’m concerned, these guys are the fathers and the best of industrial metal. They’ve been kicking around since the 80s, when they were actually a synth-pop band. Weird to think about.

8. Atari Teenage Riot - Digital hardcore (4:10)

ATR invented the genre digital hardcore and I guess this song is one of the better examples of it. Its dance music meets hardcore/metal basically. They try to produce as much noise as possible over a dance track.

9. Boysetsfire - In the Wilderness... No One can Hear You Scream (3:23)

I don’t actually know much about these guys, but they were a hardcore band which I downloaded after hearing a Metallica cover. This is one of their earlier songs, they are a lot more mellow after this album.

10. Coalesce - Burn Everything That Bears Our Name (2:23)

A metalcore band that many consider one of the first mathcore bands. Drummer on this album is James Dewees, the keyboardist/backup vocalist of the emo band Get Up Kids and the touring and recording keyboardist for New Found Glory and My Chemical Romance. Complete turn around from the start of his career.

11. Walls of Jericho - Changing Times (1:05)

A very extreme hardcore band with a female lead singer.

12. Zao - Savannah (2:46)

Christian death metal. This was one of the first self-proclaimed Christian bands I had ever heard. And they are brutal. Also one of those bands that have changed lineup about 100 times and have none of the original members.

13. Helmet - In The Meantime (3:08)

An old-school hardcore style, this song was the opening track to their acclaimed album Meantime, which debuted at number 63 in the USA. This wasn’t their hit single from the album (that was Unsung) but I like this song better. Evergreen Terrace has a song named after the lead singer/guitarist of Helmet (Chaney Can’t Quite Riff Like Helmet’s Page Hamilton). Still touring, they come out here every year or so. Page also guest stars on a lot of great albums, including a few Norma Jean songs.

14. Sevendust - Black (4:08)

The only band I have ever seen live in this list. They open nearly every concert with this song (hopefully at Soundwave next year). Although they came about during the nu-metal days, they were more of a radio friendly rock and have been very successful in the USA for the last 12 years.

15. Blindside - Superman (2:42)

Swedish Christian band that actually started as a Deftones cover band. This is from their first album when they were channelling the Deftones’ first album. Eventually they found their own sound which is a lot more punk than this. Still a great band. My mates in the states are obsessed with them. They generally play shows in Toowoomba when they come here, but never Brisbane, because of the Christian scene up there.

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