Really, when we reference the shift into the 90s, generally people mean thrash and glam because they're seemingly the two genres hit the hardest by musical shifts in the 90s. I suppose also that USPM got hit really hard, but it, generally speaking, didn't reach the heights that thrash and glam did. Death metal scooted along mostly unscathed, probably due to the relative obscurity of the style, and power metal didn't seem to shift much at all, probably to do with the genre being mostly in Europe and Japan where the shift wasn't quite so hard or sudden.


I say that because the thrash bands are the most interesting to look at with the way they reacted to the floor of their scene bottoming out and being left with no support. Testament is really interesting because rather than attempt to go commercial like Anthrax or Exodus (I'm discounting Metallica and Megadeth because the impetus for their shifts were due to other reasons than a change in popular music), or try to ape Pantera like Forbidden, they decided to let in a lot of death metal influence. Low is a cool album that's really underrated, and The Gathering is an absolute monster. Sadly, Demonic, the most extreme, kinda sucks. Regardless, it was cool to see Testament hold it together in terms of quality while so many of the other thrash bands were shitting the bed.

A couple bands that come to mind that haven't been mentioned are Tankard and Vicious Rumors. Though, I don't believe Tankard's 90's albums live up to what they released in the 80s.

I second the comments on Blind Guardian. Somewhere Far Beyond and Imaginations From The Other Side are hard albums to beat in the power metal realm and they really stuck to their sound in throughout the 90s.

Hell yeah, those two albums are a lot of fun, have a lot of great songs, and have a really nice emotional component that i always appreciated.

I've also never bought into that bullshit idea of combining tracks from Load and Reload into one "good" album. The good album was already released and it was entitled Load.

I find Tankard to be consistently good throughout their discography, but they have random albums that are much better than their standard level of quality. Some of that comes in the 80s (Zombie Attack), 90s (Stone Cold Sober), 00s (Beast of Bourbon, The Beauty and the Beer), and even the 10s (Vol(l)ume 14). They are absolutely a band that lost no quality in the 90s though. Great choice.

Yah, Reload kinda had its moments, like Fuel, Attitude, Memory Remains and Slither. But overall it's just a really damn mediocre, lifeless hard rock album.

Whilst I've only heard Tankard's first 7 albums, there's definitely no drop off in quality in the 90s, though there is more of a move into a less thrashy, more standard metal sound; The Tankard sure as hell don't sound like The Morning After.

I love Demonic. It was actually a blind buy for me as I was just browsing at Best Buy and saw it and bought it. When I saw Diabolus In Musica, I had a bad feeling, as the cover sucked and their logo was gone. Then The Gathering comes out and blows everyone away.

I should mention that probably the worst album for me in the late 90's is probably Generation Swine.

Oh, I disagree, they totally do. Well, the late '90s/early oughts albums do. It's mostly the same kind of riffing, but the production gets super heavy during that time period. I've only listened to a smattering of Tankard albums that came out in the early '90s and beyond the early oughts, so I don't know how that stuff sounds.

I can't dislike ReLoad, I think all the songs are good or entertaining. I don't think there's a single song I dislike. But the title of this thread is "lose any quality" and I think Metallica almost objectively had a drop-off in quality with their 90s albums: you can't claim Black-Load-ReLoad are anything near to their 80s material. They're good heavy rock, at best, not epoch-making thrash.

Metal Church! They not only didn't lose quality, but put out their best albums in the 90's! The lineup and accompanying style changed up quite a bit, but they always maintained a high level of excellence. All the while people were complaining metal was dead because Metallica sold out... The fools.

^ Agreed. We all know "Masterpeace" is more or less a neglected album by most fans and certainly by the band, but if that's the one real blemish in their career, it's still a much better result than what could've been. All the hallmarks are still there and the songwriting quality is still formidable, certainly no signs of trying to be trendy or contemporary at the time. I just wonder how much better it would've been received and remembered if it were Mike Howe on vocals. It's really apparent to me that David Wayne didn't have it anymore by then but since getting signed by Nuclear Blast to make and release the album was contingent on his involvement, it's futile to speculate otherwise. Nevertheless, it's a fine bridge between two eras.

I think too many people approach the Load albums from a Metallica = thrash perspective. While the associated image and attitude surrounding the albums were heavily reflective of what was happening at the time, the music showed more influences than the NWOBHM influence over the first 4 albums.

A lot of those influences are 70s hard rock though, not metal. I like the Loads for what they are, but nearly every riff is grooving around on the E minor pentatonic. The songwriting is simplistic, if highly competent, but it's a big change from the technical thrash of Justice. And almost (ALMOST) objectively a step down in quality.

Like, I love the Loads, so I don't mind they happened. St Anger of course is objectively awful shit though

John_Sunlight was right about Metal Church. Their early works were amazing, David Wayne had a killer voice especially on "The Dark". Though this is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine, Def Leppard's early works were great in the 80's. I personally liked "Adrenalized".. But afterwards I lost interest in the band during the 90's since I found heavier bands that grabbed my attention.

Heartily agree with Metal Church. The Human Factor is awesome and I honestly think Hanging in the Balance may be my favorite of theirs. It's especially fascinating how they picked up more of a hard rock slant without losing their edge.

Also, Vanderhoof's very public dismissal of Masterpeace makes me wonder if the title was an ironic thing or if there was more enthusiasm when they were putting it together. Either way, that one is a bit mediocre.

I love Metal Church but totally agree that they were just as good in the 90s.

Their first three albums (all in the 80s) are head and shoulders better than anything since.

In fact, I would put Wayne's solo album above anything they did after that.

They became more of a hard rock band and focused less on METAL. It just made them weaker. They're not really a top-tier hard rock band but I think their style of metal was innovative. "Merciless Onslaught" may very well be the first thrash song ever recorded!

I guess I'm the only person on planet earth that likes Reload more than Load.

I'm going to throw Skid Row in the mix. They only put out one record in the 80's, but their following albums in the early 90's were so much fucking heavier.

What on earth are yo talking about??

Melvins 100%. Their 80s stuff is awesome, but their 90s stuff builds on that and gives us something even better. We have amazing drone doom albums like Lysol, completely experimental albums like Honky and Prick, catchy and epic albums like Houdini and Stoner Witch. The Maggot is a personal favorite of mine from their catalogue, as it has some incredibly doomy tracks. While Gluey Porch Treatments and Ozma are great albums, it's hard to go wrong with albums like Bullhead.

Re: The entire thread:
I too dig Load and Metallica.

I also agree with the Megadeth comment (their 90s shit was good whether it's thrash or not).

To the hair band comment, I'm glad to see that other people can see past the big hits and recognize that a lot of it was great honest music, instead of letting a label hurt their metal ego.

To the Tesla comment, I agree.

Testament I somewhat agree, although I think their weakest point was everything after Souls of Black up until The Gathering, so I'm kinda eh on that one.

Other bands that come to my mind personally are the obvious Pantera, Queensryche (well, at least the first two '90s albums), KISS (Revenge and Psycho Circus were amazing), Faith No More, Anthrax (Bush albums rule, get at me!), Overkill (no 'meh' records until early 2000s), I'm sure there are more I can't think of on the spot.

Excluding bands with only a single release in the 80s, Coroner is the only band I can think of. No More Color was a huge improvement over the first two, and they kept that creativity going for everything they did in the 90s. I guess Testament comes kind of close too, especially since their early 90s stuff was worse than the mid/later 90s stuff.

Sodom, Running Wild and Grave Digger were my first picks. Speaking of Germany, I'd include Blind Guardian as well.
200% agree with Motorhead, Mercyful Fate and King Diamond.



Probably not, but all the same, Still not Black Enough is a fantastic record in my book.



As someone who loves all eras of Death, I have to agree. Bolt Thrower's insane consistency doesn't need to be explained any further.



Same here; Better than Raw is one of my favourite albums of all time. Shit, I even enjoy most ofChameleon!
Speaking of which...



...fuck me, I thought I was the only one!



Same as above!



I dig most of Reload as well. There's a bit of filler on both albums, but the good parts are damn good.

...and for the grand finale: I like 90s Slayer, even Diabolus In Musica. Not better than the 80s material, but I never regretted buying any of those albums since.

Yeah, I understand how they objectively were releasing material in the 80's, but I do not think of them as an 80's band. They were just ahead of the death metal boom of the 90's so they didn't have to change their sound since they were part of the bands shaping the whole genre. I don't think they fit the description.



Both bands also do not really fit the bill here. The OP mentioned grunge as a genre of the 90's that kind of forced other bands to change their sound. But Nirvana and Soundgarden were not changing their sound, they were creating a genre. Both bands, even if they did release stuff in the late 80's, made most of their iconic work in the 90's, so they are more 90's bands in essence, IMO.



But death metal was on the rise at the time in the 90's. That's why I have a hard time accepting Bolt Thrower (or Death, or Sepultura) as 80's bands. They objectively are, but the 90's didn't bring negative change for these bands. It was not a decade that forced them to change their sound like the thrash metal bands or other heavy acts like Judas Priest. The 90's were the golden age of death metal. So of course death metal bands that started in the 80's found success in the 90's. Bolt Thrower and Death both had an amazing 90's decade though!



Voivod did good throught the 90's, yes.



I think you might be missing the fact that many people just hate these albums because they are bad. Thrash metal or not, the Load and Reload albums were a huge stepdown in there of quality riffs and song-writing. They also didn't seem to know what they wanted to be... commercial radio-friendly alternative rock with simplistic song structures and choruses or heavy metal music. So their just a confusing mish-mash of both.

Megadeth, however, did good in the 90's. Risk is the only blight on an otherwise decent-to-masterpiece collection of records they released in the 90's.