I hate grunge.

Too bad these guys never got that major break through they deserved. They had this raw edge sound more founded in the tradition of Led Zeppelin.
 
I listened to Giant's Last of the Runaways on a whim while working a few days ago, and the good songs were really fucking good. Maybe a couple too many ballads, but whatevs, they can groove when necessary.


 
have the same freaking problem damn near every single time i download an entire whole album
songs i love mixed with songs i hate
 
Interesting thread. Didn't read most of Nick's walls of text but I got the general jist.

Personally I find hair/glam metal to be rather pretentious wankery and something that I never liked at all. GNR were ok (mainly the song Mr Brownstone) but apart from that it's a really shallow, trendy & limited sub-genre (traits that don't align with the metal ideal at all).

If anything, "Grunge", what with its anti-establishment stances, roots in punk, and general "dirtiness" actually has much more in common with traditional metal than "Glam" ever did. I find Sonic Youth's first few albums to be some of the most unfriendly, hard to digest & ugly albums ever released. Now I'm not saying that they're metal albums, but they have a lot of traits in common with "true" metal, more so than Glam.

Plus, there is actually a lot of difference between many of the grunge bands. Out of the Seattle big 4 you've got bands which are rooted in rock/metal (AIC/Soundgarden), punk (Nirvana) and traditional rock (PJ). Then you've got the dirge of bands like Tad & Kyuss. The avant-garde nature of Sonic Youth & Mudhoney. As well as the theatrics of Smashing Pumpkins. Lots of flavours for everyone.
 
Interesting thread. Didn't read most of Nick's walls of text but I got the general jist.

Personally I find hair/glam metal to be rather pretentious wankery and something that I never liked at all. GNR were ok (mainly the song Mr Brownstone) but apart from that it's a really shallow, trendy & limited sub-genre (traits that don't align with the metal ideal at all).

If anything, "Grunge", what with its anti-establishment stances, roots in punk, and general "dirtiness" actually has much more in common with traditional metal than "Glam" ever did. I find Sonic Youth's first few albums to be some of the most unfriendly, hard to digest & ugly albums ever released. Now I'm not saying that they're metal albums, but they have a lot of traits in common with "true" metal, more so than Glam.

Plus, there is actually a lot of difference between many of the grunge bands. Out of the Seattle big 4 you've got bands which are rooted in rock/metal (AIC/Soundgarden), punk (Nirvana) and traditional rock (PJ). Then you've got the dirge of bands like Tad & Kyuss. The avant-garde nature of Sonic Youth & Mudhoney. As well as the theatrics of Smashing Pumpkins. Lots of flavours for everyone.
Interesting thread. Didn't read most of Nick's walls of text but I got the general jist.

Personally I find hair/glam metal to be rather pretentious wankery and something that I never liked at all. GNR were ok (mainly the song Mr Brownstone) but apart from that it's a really shallow, trendy & limited sub-genre (traits that don't align with the metal ideal at all).

If anything, "Grunge", what with its anti-establishment stances, roots in punk, and general "dirtiness" actually has much more in common with traditional metal than "Glam" ever did. I find Sonic Youth's first few albums to be some of the most unfriendly, hard to digest & ugly albums ever released. Now I'm not saying that they're metal albums, but they have a lot of traits in common with "true" metal, more so than Glam.

Plus, there is actually a lot of difference between many of the grunge bands. Out of the Seattle big 4 you've got bands which are rooted in rock/metal (AIC/Soundgarden), punk (Nirvana) and traditional rock (PJ). Then you've got the dirge of bands like Tad & Kyuss. The avant-garde nature of Sonic Youth & Mudhoney. As well as the theatrics of Smashing Pumpkins. Lots of flavours for everyone.
In that wake of Grunge there were a lot of Heavy Metal bands that didn't deserve to be thrown by the wayside. I believe Cobain was a one trick pony and he was aware of it. It tortured him to the point of taking himself out to end the risk of being found out. They did to Heavy Metal and Rock music in the early 90s what Limp Bizkit would do in the late 90s, and you can thank them for abominations like Seether and Creed.
Nirvana in the rock class was the same as color me bad in the hip hop class. No talent and pushed on you by mtv.... they sucked...
 
In that wake of Grunge there were a lot of Heavy Metal bands that didn't deserve to be thrown by the wayside. I believe Cobain was a one trick pony and he was aware of it. It tortured him to the point of taking himself out to end the risk of being found out. They did to Heavy Metal and Rock music in the early 90s what Limp Bizkit would do in the late 90s, and you can thank them for abominations like Seether and Creed.
Nirvana in the rock class was the same as color me bad in the hip hop class. No talent and pushed on you by mtv.... they sucked...

Times change though. Black Sabbath killed off the flower power movement, NWOBHM killed of the bluesy prog-metal bands, and finally grunge killed off hair metal. IMO the glam-bands of the day had just as much backing from MTV as Nirvana would receive years later, Guns N' Roses & Van Halen weren't exactly underground bands, now were they? I would also argue that "grunge" music (or whatever the media wants to call it) didn't do anything to metal to harm it, it's just a lot of metal bands from around the time sold out by trying to be trendy & "grungier". Fast forward to the late 90's & you probably saw the same bands jumping on the nu metal bandwagon. There were heaps of bands who survived the 90's by sticking to their roots. Death, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Iron Maiden & Testament to name a few.
 
Interesting thread. Didn't read most of Nick's walls of text but I got the general jist.

Personally I find hair/glam metal to be rather pretentious wankery and something that I never liked at all. GNR were ok (mainly the song Mr Brownstone) but apart from that it's a really shallow, trendy & limited sub-genre (traits that don't align with the metal ideal at all).

If anything, "Grunge", what with its anti-establishment stances, roots in punk, and general "dirtiness" actually has much more in common with traditional metal than "Glam" ever did. I find Sonic Youth's first few albums to be some of the most unfriendly, hard to digest & ugly albums ever released. Now I'm not saying that they're metal albums, but they have a lot of traits in common with "true" metal, more so than Glam.

Plus, there is actually a lot of difference between many of the grunge bands. Out of the Seattle big 4 you've got bands which are rooted in rock/metal (AIC/Soundgarden), punk (Nirvana) and traditional rock (PJ). Then you've got the dirge of bands like Tad & Kyuss. The avant-garde nature of Sonic Youth & Mudhoney. As well as the theatrics of Smashing Pumpkins. Lots of flavours for everyone.
Grunge was nothing more than a corporate music and fashion industry term used to create another subculture ripe for marketing purposes. It wasn't until Nirvana hit big time that the term got picked up by commercial entities and was thrown at bands outside of Seattle like Stone Temple Pilots and Smashing Pumpkins to cash in on their alt-rock sound, and it just expanded from there into fashion, cultural attitude, and language. There was nothing Metal about what they called grunge. It was directed exactly the opposite way of Metal. If anything, "Hair Metal' breathed new life into metal. Disco and new wave were massive at the time(early 80s) and then a lot of glam metal bands started breaking out into the mainstream and reintroducing metal to a whole new generation. "Hair" metal also gave us bands like Alice in Chains and Pantera. If it wasn't for "hair" metal band W.A.S.P. influence, you wouldn't have black metal as we know it today. A lot of people got into metal via the power ballads of the glam/hair metal bands. "Hair" metal is one of, if not the, most glorious periods of metal both musically and visually. The makeup and feminine clothes were cool at the time because they were shocking; they are still cool today if you look at them from that point of view. The songs were great - party anthems and heartbreaking love ballads. It was great, and the only time Metal was truly mainstream. Judas Priest also has an over the top look and I don't see metalheads whining about that. Thrash Metal bands have their denim jackets full of patches. Black Metal bands have their war paint. I find it stupid to pick on glam metal bands just because they went for the make up and colorful clothes. "Hair" metal actually got lots of people interested in Metal back in the day. "Hair" metal was a party and everyone was invited. Songs were shallow, never getting deeper than basic juvenile emotions other than wanting fun, living in the present, falling in love or the pain of being alone. The guitars were beautiful and designed to allow you to play the majestic notes in your head, and the big players of the day were all heroes. If those bands never put on makeup or spandex where would metal be? I think that is the bigger question. Not if it ruined it but if it would have survived at all. And if so where would it be without the decadent era. Glam is just an offshoot of punk I think. Same attitude different uniform.