4 1990s Gen X Bands That Blended Heavy Metal and Punk Rock

Tom Morello recently appeared on Billy Corgan’s podcast The Magnificent Others to discuss 1990s Gen X rock bands.

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The Rage Against The Machine guitarist explains the “punk rock guilt” shared by many bands in the 1990s. New bands formed out of a love for Kiss and Black Sabbath but also Minor Threat, Fugazi, and Bad Brains. And the ethos between heavy metal and punk rock created an ethical dilemma.

He said that the “music married well to make the festival crowds go absolutely bananas.” But Morello said it also created “conflicting ideologies” that formed tension between the two.

Connecting heavy metal and punk rock undeniably works. And Gen X bands made great use of combining these genres. Morello, of course, became a guitar legend by playing his instrument like a DJ. And what do DJs do? They sample, merge, recycle, and stitch together a patchwork of musical styles and sounds.

Returning to the age of early Lollapalooza, this list gathers four Gen X bands from the 1990s that blended heavy metal and punk rock.

Rage Against The Machine

If you bought Rage Against The Machine’s debut in 1992, the opening “Bombtrack” tells you everything you need to know about this band. Not a track, but a bomb track. By the time the jam kicks in, it’s a furious noise, unlike anything out at the time. You’ve heard rock and rap music merged on many Rick Rubin productions. But this was different.

Guitar riffs straight out of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. The kind of protest and politics once heard in albums by The Clash or underground hardcore, with the sheer anarchy of the Sex Pistols. Many copycats followed, but none had the power of the collective of Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk.

Nirvana

Nirvana became the touchstone of grunge, but you don’t get to grunge without equal parts metal and punk. The doom riffs of Black Sabbath also shaped what was stirring in Seattle. Kurt Cobain fused Black Sabbath’s gloomy blues with the jagged edges of Gang of Four. And he offset the darkness with pop melodies.

Then Cobain discovered a pivotal album: Pixies’ Surfer Rosa. The quiet/loud songwriting of Black Francis provided a blueprint for extreme dynamics. But Nirvana’s debut Bleach remains closer to Cobain’s heavy metal roots. “About a Girl” foreshadowed the culture-shifting records ahead of him, but a song like “Love Buzz” shows how the combination of two competing genres produced something entirely new.

Weezer

One month after Kurt Cobain’s suicide, Weezer released the Blue Album. And Rivers Cuomo had unwittingly filled the giant hole left by Cobain’s death. Cuomo initially moved to Los Angeles with a glam metal outfit called Avant Garde. He wanted to be Yngwie Malmsteen. Though the Blue Album is chock-full of slacker rock anthems, really listen to the guitar solos. This isn’t the work of a slacker but of someone who spent years alone in their bedroom running scales and burning solos.

Yet Cuomo also wrote hits as infectiously catchy as “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. He studied the songs of Nirvana, Pixies, Oasis, and Green Day, then added a dose of Randy Rhoads guitar licks.

Soundgarden

Chris Cornell wailed like Robert Plant, and Kim Thayil played guitar like Tony Iommi. (If Iommi had been in Bad Brains instead of Black Sabbath.) Soundgarden’s heavy blues also borrowed from the drawn-out sludge metal of The Melvins, who also influenced Nirvana. While the Seattle groups connected with classic rock and heavy metal, they distanced themselves from the rock star lifestyle. A dissonance between the music and rock star behavior led to visible anguish as grunge and alternative Gen X rock bands from the 1990s sold millions of records and became the thing they raged against.

Economic uncertainty shaped heavy metal and punk rock. They each began as reactionary movements. And it also shaped the teen-angst and alienation in the Pacific Northwest. Something had stirred, and by the 1990s, rock music had forever changed.

Photo by Eitan Miskevich