Pearl Jam’s cover of “Last Kiss” can fuck off forever. Turned me off the band for a solid decade.
I despise The Macarena in ways I cannot put into words.
As general commercial acts… probably Tad? They were a proto-grunge band that did nothing interesting and vanished once Nirvana took off. They tried being ‘heavier than God’s balls’ and utterly whiffed at out-heavy-ing the then-struggling thrash-metal market. Honestly, not even Slayer thought they could top Reign In Blood, and it wasn’t until 1994’s apparently fantastic heroin glut that albums like Jar Of Flies and When The Kite String Pops started really challenging the limits of chugga-chugga music. Destroy Erase Improve reset the scoreboard in '95, but nobody noticed until years later.
This is an interesting analysis. ‘Heavy’ is a nebulous enough concept in music that being so definite with assertions like this is basically inviting contention. It can only ever really be a discussion as opposed to anything concretely absolute.
I’m just saying there was plenty going on between '86 and '94 to challenge the limits of chugga-chugga as you put it. And I won’t argue against Destroy Erase Improve being a watershed album, and I’d even consider it a respectable stance if you want to say it might be the heaviest record ever if that’s your opinion, but it’s not like it’s an unquestionable monolith that no other records from around or before then could stand up to.
Pearl Jam’s cover of “Last Kiss” can fuck off forever. Turned me off the band for a solid decade.
I despise The Macarena in ways I cannot put into words.
As general commercial acts… probably Tad? They were a proto-grunge band that did nothing interesting and vanished once Nirvana took off. They tried being ‘heavier than God’s balls’ and utterly whiffed at out-heavy-ing the then-struggling thrash-metal market. Honestly, not even Slayer thought they could top Reign In Blood, and it wasn’t until 1994’s apparently fantastic heroin glut that albums like Jar Of Flies and When The Kite String Pops started really challenging the limits of chugga-chugga music. Destroy Erase Improve reset the scoreboard in '95, but nobody noticed until years later.
This is an interesting analysis. ‘Heavy’ is a nebulous enough concept in music that being so definite with assertions like this is basically inviting contention. It can only ever really be a discussion as opposed to anything concretely absolute.
… as opposed to the objective “worst” in the root question?
Yeah, that’s fine.
I’m just saying there was plenty going on between '86 and '94 to challenge the limits of chugga-chugga as you put it. And I won’t argue against Destroy Erase Improve being a watershed album, and I’d even consider it a respectable stance if you want to say it might be the heaviest record ever if that’s your opinion, but it’s not like it’s an unquestionable monolith that no other records from around or before then could stand up to.
I didn’t care for Last Kiss, but I did like that they released it for charity and made $10 million for Kosovo refugees.