SEBASTIAN GAMBOA — Few periods in music history featured as dramatic a shift in the mainstream sound as the early 1990s. As hair metal’s dwindling popularity was swiftly eradicated by the gloomier sound of alternative rock, groundbreaking albums carried now iconic bands into the mainstream. 1992 especially stands out amongst its decade by the number of legendary albums released. Below are a few of those albums and the effect they had on the genres they came to define.
Alice In Chains–Dirt
Riding the wave of Seattle’s recent explosion into the mainstream with releases such as Alice In Chains’ Facelift, Pearl Jam’s Ten, Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger and Nirvana’s Nevermind, Alice In Chains’ sophomore album Dirt was released on September 29, 1992. Considered by many to be their magnum opus, the album veered into the darker, sludgier sound that would come to define them as a group. Featuring thirteen songs written by lead singer Layne Staley, who overdosed on heroin ten years later in 2002, and guitarist Jerry Cantrell, a then clinically depressed alcoholic, the album evoked a foreboding darkness in both lyrical content and composition. Cantrell composed the melody while Staley crafted the lyrics, with the exception of “Hate To Feel” and “Angry Chair.” These songs fall within the concept album portion of the composition, chronicling the experience of an addict from drugs’ initial appeal in “Junkhead” to total emptiness and despair in “Angry Chair.” A satirical untitled song featuring vocals from Slayer’s Tom Araya interrupts the section and precede the final song on the album titled “Would.” This song became one of the group’s top singles as a result of its inclusion in the soundtrack of the movie Singles. The other primary single from the album was “Rooster,” which Jerry Cantrell wrote as an homage to his father about his service in the Vietnam War. On the first day of recording the album, the L.A. riots erupted, and Cantrell witnessed both a store he was in getting looted and a man getting dragged from his car and beaten in the road in front of him. Out of concern for safety, the band’s members, along with Tom Araya, relocated to the Joshua Tree desert for five days before returning to their L.A. recording studio. Cantrell credits the dark atmosphere of the time for helping to inspire the album’s somber tone, and the band’s stay in the Joshua Tree desert may well have inspired the album’s cover art, photographed by long-time partner of the band Rocky Schenck. The album peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and has since returned to number nine following its recent 30th anniversary.
Loneliness is not a phase
Field of pain is where I graze
Serenity is far away
Saw my reflection and cried
So little hope that I died
Feed me your lies open wide
Weight of my heart, not the size
Stone Temple Pilots–Core
Another definitive product of the Seattle music scene, Stone Temple Pilots’ debut album Core was released on the same date as Dirt, and surpassed it at number three on the Billboard 200. The album’s name comes from the biblical story of Adam and Eve, and the cover was shot by Katrina Dickson. The album’s central theme, according to vocalist Scott Weiland, is that “humanity is confused,” with songs about social justice such as “Sex Type Thing,” which adresses the persecution of women, as well as personal and relationship issues in songs such as “Sin” and “Creep.” The album received harsh criticism for seeming to imitate other bands of the time, namely Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains. Additionally, many misunderstood the aggressively sarcastic tone of “Sex Type Thing” to be a misogynistic song, in favor of the very subjects Weiland wrote it against. Despite sharp division among critics, the album’s videos featured heavily in MTV rotation and the band broke into the mainstream alongside other alternative groups of its time.
I’m a young man with a knife to my back
Some things never seem to change
Nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide
Sing the song or keep it inside
Rage Against the Machine–rage against the machine
Released on November 3, 1992, Rage Against the Machine’s fiery debut album shook the alternative rock and metal scenes and laid the foundations for what would later become nu metal. Drawing upon the funk influences of rap-rock pioneers Faith No More and Living Colour, Rage Against the Machine came to characterize funk metal as a genre. The lyrics are biting and aggressively political, crediting members of the IRA and the Black Panthers as inspiration. The album cover features a picture of Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese monk who burned himself alive in protest against the persecution of Buddhists in Vietnam in 1963. The album was well received critically and reached number 45 on the Billboard 200 chart, which landed the band a slot in 1993’s Lollapalooza alongside fellow alternative rock icons Alice In Chains, TOOL, and Primus. Despite recent controversy over issues such high ticket prices and the accused hypocrisy of some band members, the album nevertheless stands the test of time in its uncompromising, revolutionary attitude and paved the way for the rap-metal sound of the late ‘90s.
In the right light, study become insight
But the system that dissed us
Teaches us to read and write
Neil Young–Harvest Moon
As alternative rock and metal bands dominated the mainstream of the early ‘90s, Neil Young, sometimes called “The Godfather of Grunge,” harkened back to the mellow, folk-inspired soft rock of the ‘70s with his release of Harvest Moon on November 2, 1992. Young’s nineteenth studio album, the release served as an unofficial sequel to his 1972 album Harvest, with the two albums sharing many of the same backup musicians. Young has spoken about the artistic significance of the moon for him, and is known to time his work to coincide with full moons. The album went certified gold in January of 1993 and eventually multi-platinum in 1997. Though not a part of it himself, Neil Young’s influence on the Seattle music scene cannot be overstated. Kurt Cobain famously quoted him in his suicide note, and Pearl Jam’s members attribute much of their inspiration to his work. Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan even credited his music as being his “only companion and lifesaver during one of the lowest points of my life.” Fully original and yet still true to his style, Harvest Moon counterbalanced the heaviness of the early ‘90s music scene and serves as a classic addition to Young’s enduring catalog.
She’s been running half her life
The chrome and steel she rides
Colliding with the very air she breathes
The air she breathes
The Dutch Report 