Since its inception in the late 1960’s, heavy metal has experienced quite a few ups and downs in popularity. But there was one specific decade that sticks out as the most troubling – the 1990’s. In what seemed like one fell swoop, a style of metal that had been popular for much of the 1980’s was rendered obsolete, and in its place, was a much more real, raw, and unique approach – detected in several new metal-based “sub-genres.” Add to it several changes in the music industry and media, and it appeared as if traditional metal may have met its expiration date…before several bands (and a certain traveling festival tour) helped put headbanging rock back on track.
Written by journalist/author Greg Prato, Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990’s is the first book to focus entirely on this decade. Set in an oral history format, Survival features over 80 interviews conducted exclusively for this book, including current or past members of Pantera, Sepultura, Fear Factory, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Kiss, Def Leppard, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Exodus, Testament, Dream Theater, King’s X, Extreme, Winger, Cinderella, Living Color, Faith No More, Primus, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, White Zombie, Stone Temple Pilots, Kyuss, Danzig, Clutch, Life of Agony, Biohazard, Type O Negative, Within Temptation, Cradle of Filth, Death, Coal Chamber, and System of a Down (among many others), as well as Eddie Trunk, Riki Rachtman, and Lonn Friend. Also featured is a foreword penned by Pantera bassist Rex Brown.
Available as a paperback version [616 pages, $24.99], a Kindle download [$9.99], and a Nook download [$9.99], ‘Survival of the Fittest’ helps put the ’90s and heavy metal all into perspective.
Read an exclusive excerpt here.
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Greg Prato is a Long Island, New York-based journalist, who has written for Rolling Stone and Guitar Player, and has authored such books as Iron Maiden: ’80 ’81, The Faith No More & Mr. Bungle Companion, The Eric Carr Story, and Grunge is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music. Survival of the Fittest is his 16th book overall.
34 Responses
And now a list of my favorite “90s” bands:
1. Limp Bizkit, you guys want to hate on these guys and miss the whole point. This is rock and roll in the very classic sense. Hippies who saw the Doors at the Whiskey get these guys, and you don’t.
2. Mudvayne
3. Staind
4. Godsmack, one of the most potent live bands in the business.
5. Disturbed
6. Korn, they really didn’t hit their stride until 2000, which is when their songs got really good.
7. Alice in Chains..which brings up the question, which I will attempt to answer, which is more important, the one(s) who are the pioneers, or the ones who follow them, and improve upon it, make it better? I go with the latter, of course, sometimes you have a band who pioneers and isn’t improved upon, such as Van Halen. But, bands don’t get extra points just for doing it first, it’s the finished product, and the enjoyment it provides, this is all that matters.
So no Soundgarden or Pantera, because Soundgarden is pretty boring, and Pantera’s lead singer.