The latest ‘Buzzjack Presents’ edition returns once more to the heavier side of the music scene, focusing this time on ‘90s Rock and era which required a huge amount of severe editing of choice cuts. Therefore, as ever, we’re treading the fine line between ballads and the extreme Metal category and trying to represent big hits and significant milestones. Pop Punk was also dealt short shrift as it’ll likely get its own set in time. The decade was a time of great upheaval and creativity in the genre, inspiring a marked shift in the styles and sounds within the scene, and long admired underground acts surged in popularity to crossover into the mainstream. Others crafted new musical furrows and created new sub-genres that still provoke strong debate among fans as to whether or not they really are ‘Metal’. By the end of the decade the scene was almost unrecognisable from that which existed in 1990. With that, let's go on a little journey... Disc One As 1990 dawned you could be forgiven for thinking the decade would continue to be business as usual and this first disc concentrates almost exclusively on the period of 1990-91. Metal and Rock enjoyed broad popular appeal and bands regularly had notable hits. Iron Maiden kicked of 1990 by scoring a UK #1 single and AC/DC dropped one of their most well known hits in Thunderstruck, with its famous intro. Guns n Roses were still making a reasonable claim to be the biggest Rock band in the world. But the combination of their Punk injected Glam, and the 1988 Penelope Spheeris documentary The Decline of Western Civilsation: The Metal Years, had struck the first heavy blow for the L.A. Metal scene that had dominated the latter part of the ‘80s. Between them they had shown the world how formulaic and out of touch with the kids, the scene had become. Those same kids were starting to look elsewhere for their kicks. Thrash Metal had been the most prominent alternative but bands like Slayer, Anthrax and Metallica had realised that they needed to find a new angle to survive. The rise of Grindcore and Death Metal had taken things much harder and faster then they were looking to go. At the end of the ‘80s Slayer had decided to slow things right down – it gave them a more menacing edge but the same trick played into Metallica’s more melodic strengths. They scored a big hit with Enter Sandman, followed up with a multi-million selling album and became global stars, and so began the debate over whether they were still Metal. New York’s Anthrax, who’d been born from the same melting pot that spawned Hip Hop teamed up with Chuck D and Flava Flav to cover Public Enemy’s Bring Tha Noize. They’d fused Metal and Hip Hop before but not so effectively. This interpretation was so influential it can be claimed to have inspired a generation of musicians. Meanwhile, a handful of bands like Jane’s Addiction, Faith No More and Red Hot Chili Peppers had been plugging away for a number of years with little mainstream recognition, but they were now being picked up on by MTV and college radio and they began to notch up minor hits and acclaimed albums. Further blurring the lines between what could now be defined as Rock music. Elsewhere, U2 had decamped to Germany and had a rethink after the poor reception to the excesses of the Rattle and Hum era, releasing The Fly toward the end of the year. Trent Reznor’s solo project Nine Inch Nails capitalised on the ground Ministry had broken when they welded Industrial to Metal. Head Like a Hole, from NIN’s debut album took him from the bedroom studio to MTV fame. Former Goth legends The Sisters of Mercy dropped their Vision Thing album and showed that they could ramp it up for the new decade by turning into the ‘Rock n Roll groove machine’ they always claimed to be. And, Pantera, the L.A. Glam Metal also rans, ditched their lead singer, cut their hair, switched spandex for baggy shorts and reinvented their sound, playing slower, harder and more aggressive becoming the foremost pioneers of the burgeoning Groove Metal sub-genre. All of this and we’re barely at 1992. Disc Two By November 1991 you needn’t have been looking very hard to see that the times were a-changing for the Rock and Metal scene. A swelling of new sounds was pushing up from the underground and the 1991 Reading Festival, Friday bill was a pointer of things to come. Low down on the bill, between Silverfish and Chapterhouse were a decent if unspectacular Seattle band with just the one album behind them. The album, Bleach had been well received but they were overshadowed by contemporaries like Mudhoney, Pixies or Sonic Youth. The 4th song in their set was a new unreleased song called Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was released in November that same year and would be the catalyst for a sea change in both Rock music and the entire music scene the world over. It became the de facto anthem for Generation X. The band went supernova and literally hundreds of bands, who’d been plugging away in the same scene, followed in their wake. Grunge’s had its own ‘Big 4’ Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains swiped the flag from L.A. and moved the capital to Seattle. Overnight, ‘Hair Metal’ was out of favoutr and began its painful decline. Behind the Seattle bands were many more - L7, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Stone Temple Pilots all became stars in the new ‘Alternative Rock’ era with bands like Rage Against the Machine building of the Rap/Rock crossover or Manic Street Preachers who saw themselves as kindred spirits to Nirvana, despite the musical divergence. Yet by 1994 things had turned again. The scene was built largely by the disaffected youth and many had grown up with personal problems of mental health. Add fame to the mix and it’s a recipe for disaster. The scene’s popularity had given a voice to many who were disenfranchised but it imploded following the death of Kurt Cobain and a desire for something else, perhaps something less introverted and more… fun. In the popular consciousness of the UK, Britpop took over the role for the more Indie inclined parts of the crowd. However, there were was once again a variety of styles emerging for those who liked things heavier. In 1994 within months of each other, Korn released the groundbreaking Blind, the ripples from which wouldn’t be felt above ground for a good few years and Green Day slipped out Basket Case, another whose influence would become obvious later. Nirvana’s drummer Dave Grohl created his polished Grunge-lite of Foo Fighters, Tool fused Prog Rock with Metal and Type O Negative added a dash of Black No.1 (as in the hair dye) to help create what has become known as Gothic Metal. Marilyn Manson created his trilogy of concept albums, the second part of which – Antichrist Superstar – turned him into conservative America’s worst nightmare and the by the 2000s the scapegoat for all the countries problems, which whatever he may be guilty of it isn’t that. Finally by the late ‘90s the effects of Korn’s debut were plain to see – Nu-Metal had arrived in the forms of Slipknot and Limp Bizkit becoming two of the biggest bands of the era. As the decade came to an end the two biggest genres in Rock would be Nu-Metal and Pop Punk One Two The Lot