For a few months in 1987, the Beastie Boys symbolized Middle America's worst fears that hip-hop would turn white children into drunken hoodlums. But they were really just three Brooklyn punks who joined forces with producer Rick Rubin for a rock-rap cataclysm that turned Led Zeppelin ("She's Crafty") and Aerosmith ("The New Style") samples into boombox hits and frat-party perennials. King Ad-Rock's nasal croak, MCA's hoarse rasp and Mike D's whiny shouting, combined with sharp mic-trading routines learned from mentors Run-DMC, made for a combination mimicked by lesser artists ever since.
Obviously, the mainstream success of Rage Against The Machine afforded Inside Out a level of exposure it wouldn't otherwise have received. Featuring a young Zack de la Rocha, the short-lived group (just three years) released this EP on Revelation in 1990. Though they hailed from the O.C., their brand of hardcore (muscular, littered with breakdowns and metal-tinged) had more in common with New Yorkers Youth Of Today and Gorilla Biscuits than it did anything going on in California at the time. The highlight is the title track, offering as it does a glimpse into de la Rocha's raging future.
For years you could only get this album on cassette, where the lo-fi fury of Bad Brains seemed to make the most sense. This remastered version loses none of the hiss and absolute crushing power that the group had at its peak. No one outside of Minor Threat could play with such blinding passion and sound melodic, and still sound like they were going to kill you. Essential.
Strap It On is basically Meantime's skuzzy older brother. But despite the lo-fi grime smeared across every track, Page Hamilton's unique vision -- the grafting of NYC's post-industrial scum zone to the then-burgeoning merger of hardcore and metal -- arrived fully formed. Helmet are most ferocious when shifting into third gear: "Repetition," "Bad Mood," "Blacktop," "Distracted." Said tracks don't boast much variety, but that's not the point. The trio was all about crafting a wildly minimal alt-rock sound pivoting on whiplash-inducing start-stop dynamics and guttural, drop-D power riffage.
When Nation of Millions was released, it seemed to give hip-hop a whole new cultural and political identity. But it proved an impossible standard. Produced by the Bomb Squad, it features more than 100 samples (most famously The JBs' "Funky Drummer" in "Rebel Without a Pause"), a feat too legally expensive to duplicate. With lyrics about New York's crack plague in "Night of the Living Baseheads" and Louis Farrakhan in "Bring the Noise," verbal pugilist Chuck D and his court jester Flava Flav captured a moment in history. This is rap's Mount Rushmore, a feat that won't be equaled.
This is it: the single most important metal record of the past few decades. Brutality, ferocity, wholesale mayhem -- the English language fails Reign In Blood. The real way to experience this high speed rallying cry for all that's metal in this world is to listen to it wearing a suit made from the skin of your enemies.
Mother's Milk is the album that took the Chili Peppers from college radio and plastered them on MTV, thanks mostly to the band's cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" and the tribute to fallen member Hillel Slovak, "Knock Me Down." The band is tight and moving in a less funky, more rock direction. There's plenty here for all to appreciate.
Straight Outta Compton's near-mythic reputation belies its contents. It is justifiably celebrated for classic gangsta raps like "F*ck Tha Police," Ice Cube's "Gangsta Gangsta" and "Straight Outta Compton." But the rest of the album is straight-up MC'ing and funky hip-hop, from MC Ren freestyling "Quiet on Tha Set" to Dr. Dre clowning suckers on "Compton's N the House." Then there's Dre's radio-friendly hit "Express Yourself" and Arabian Prince's electro-bass interlude "Something 2 Dance 2," the latter sounding out of place on this seminal exploration of "the strength of street knowledge."
This commercially successful opus is not your standard metal record, and that's exactly what's so brilliant about it. From opener "From Out of Nowhere" to closing slow-burner "Edge of the World," Mike Patton and Co. cover A LOT of groove-oriented ground. There's the viral hit "Epic," the catchy funk of "Falling to Pieces," the spastic thrash of "Surprise! You're Dead!", the soulful urgency of "Zombie Eaters," the shape-shifting instrumental "Woodpecker from Mars" and the astounding Sabbath homage "War Pigs." Forget 1989; this influential album is still untouchably mind-blowing.
The band's first album for a major label, How Will I Laugh Tomorrow... leaves the Tendencies' punk rock trappings in the dust for more straight-up thrash metal, with expansive, purely metal songs and the sort of clean recording only the big bucks can buy. The shift in the band's sound can also be attributed to new guitarist Mike Clark. Regardless of the more streamlined approach, the skate kids ate this one up. "Trip at the Brain" says it all; fans of the old stuff are directed to "Suicyco Mania."
Released in 1990, Biohazard's debut features the Brooklyn-bred mixture of hardcore, metal and hints of hip-hop the band became associated with throughout the '90s. With fat metal riffs and group-yell vocals, the album is not all that different sonically from The Beasties' License To Ill, just minus any tongue-in-cheek smart-aleck-ery. The songs on Biohazard are not so much about partying with 40s of malt liquor as getting into fist-fights and the various reasons Brooklyn is, in their opinion, the best.
The second album from BDP, this 1988 release is an unfrontable classic. Although his partner Scott La Rock had recently been killed, KRS comes hard, delivering an ill collection of timeless hip-hop standards. Includes "My Philosophy," "Jimmy," "Stop The Violence," "Illegal Business," and more.
The extended punk-metal jams that formed side two of this when it came out in '84 either alienated what was left of Black Flag's original fan base or changed the way kids thought about music. Judging from the emergence of bands like Born Against, Saint Vitus, Eyehategod and countless others representing the breadth of extreme music, it's the folks that dug it that mattered. The title track is brilliant Henry paranoia/Ginn axemasnship but it's "Scream," the "War Pigs" homage "Three Nights" and especially "Nothing Left Inside" that make My War one of Black Flag's most important albums.
On the band's major label debut, Jane's Addiction show the world why they were so relentlessly pursued by A&R types, as their thunderous, Metal-meets-Funk explodes from the speakers right from the get-go. Nothing's Shocking established Jane's Addiction ability to set the pace musically, and it remains one of best representations of the band to date.
Though Quicksand would receive greater exposure three years later, with the release of their debut Slip, the group first became an underground sensation via this EP for Revelation Records. Their sound was already locked in place: a wiry and angry fusion of New York hardcore (the band boasted ties to Gorilla Biscuits) and Fugazi's more progressive tendencies. The latter influence is particularly noticeable on the angst-ridden "Unfulfilled;" both "Omission" and "Clean Slate," in contrast, possess a real metal edge, in large part due to Walter Schreifels' and Tom Capone's twin-guitar power chug.
Still going strong on his fourth LP, the Iceman serves up more ghetto tales fueled by dramatic production and his trademark monotone flow. Released in 1991, it sports several clutch singles, including the title track and "New Jack Hustler." Also features the debut of his hardcore band Body Count.
Cowboys From Hell was the first place any of us heard the raunchy, utterly distinctive and totally rad guitar playing of unfairly dead Dimebag Darrell. Phil Anselmo was a force of his own here and anyone who claims to like metal has to admit that even though Pantera won fans in the millions they were the real deal. There wasn't much music heavier than this in 1990.
Anthrax demolished some of the established prejudices that metal is stupid with their fourth record. With a fully cranked barrage of hardcore and metal (the form was still just becoming known as thrash in 1987) tempered by a subversive wit and subject matter that wasn't the norm -- see "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)," for starters -- Among the Living is generally considered the band's creative high point. All the hits are here: "Caught in a Mosh," "Indians," "I Am the Law," "Imitation of Life."
Released in 1984, this first full-length from the seminal New York hardcore/thrash unit is one of the definitive examples of the genre, with yelled vocals, abrupt songs and almost no changes in tempo -- except to go faster. Lyrically, frontman Roger Miret rails against "the system," calls for unity and makes it clear that he will not tolerate poseurs of any kind. Regardless of any sameness some hardcore suffers from, its effect on isolated, pissed-off teens cannot be overstated. That said, best song "With Time" is anything but "traditional" in hardcore terms.
Many have tried to top The Geto Boys' violent fantasies, but no one can equal its initial impact. This major label re-release of 1989's Grip It! On That Other Level adds three tracks (and subtracts "Seek and Destroy" and "No Sellout"). "F*ck 'Em" launches a barrage of funk noise, and "City Under Siege" indicts police state tactics. "Assassins" is one of the sickest songs ever, an orgy of rape and murder that got the album banned around the country. Meanwhile, this version of "Gangsta of Love" replaces the original's unauthorized Steve Miller sample with "Sweet Home Alabama."
After devoting three EPs to the chiseling of their sound (which most certainly is sculptural and full of dizzying angles), Fugazi unveiled Repeater in 1990. In no time it became one of the most beloved albums in the American underground. A foundation of the post-hardcore movement, it was an exercise in democratic principles on both the lyrical and aesthetic level (i.e. the grafting of hardcore's for the kids philosophy with post-punk's avant-garde deconstruction of both funk and prog-rock). Needless to say, the anthems come fast and hard, including "Repeater," "Blueprint" and "Merchandise."
"Cult of Personality" was nothing short of revelatory when it came crashing down on the heads of white America in 1988. For a band made up entirely of African American men to play utterly enraged funk metal with such proficiency was either exhilarating or terrifying, depending on how red the back of your neck was. The band's intensity was a force of nature. Discovered by (and taken on tour with) The Rolling Stones, Living Colour's debut album didn't disappoint after its initial hit, with "Funny Vibe" and "Glamour Boys" keeping them in the public consciousness for the rest of the decade.
Start Today is definitely a creature of history. Zap back to late-'80s New York. Violent meatheads and rampant drug abuse had overrun the city's punk scene. Emerging from the chaos were "youth crew" bands like Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits. Start Today embodies that aesthetic: hyper-charged, straight-edge hardcore bursting with optimistic anthems and titanic breakdowns. Although thrash had yet to permeate the scene, the title track boasts some serious power-metal riffage. "So let's start today ..."
The first Fishbone album to point to the mind-rattling spray of styles that made them famous, Truth and Soul is a hyperactive pastiche of ska, punk, funk, alternative rock and even metal that may not have launched them into the Top 10, but did cement their rep as the coolest band to know about in 1988. Setting the tone with a cover of Curtis Mayfield's signature hit "Freddie's Dead," the band delivers an education on the limitless potential of funk music -- in "Slow Bus Movin' (Howard Beach Party)," they either get away with playing country or eviscerate it.
Debate has always swirled around Youth Of Today's musical accomplishments. Were they merely regurgitating what had come before, or did they represent a genuinely new voice in New York hardcore? Their detractors had a point: While Break Down the Walls explodes with an energy and anger that at times is truly overwhelming, it doesn't break any new ground, sonically. Then again, the record was far more of a cultural event, with singer Ray Cappo's bombastic political sloganeering and moral self-righteousness helping turn "youth crew" (as well as straight-edge philosophy) into a national movement.
