Part X Page 2
Perhaps the most important subgenre associated with metal to emerge from the debris that the wake of alternative metal had left behind, however, was stoner rock. Initially deprived of such a specific label, and later acquiring it due to obvious hallucinogenic references, stoner rock was led mainly by pioneers Monster Magnet and, more importantly, Kyuss. The style was enormously reminiscent of Sabbath and yet could not really be labeled doom, as it was in a groovier vein, despite elements like lower tunings, thick distortion, a penchant for extended mini-suites (a la Black Sabbath), and riffs that Tony Iommi himself could have come up with. Sadly, however, most of the genre's artists were to stay underground for much of the Nineties, with Kyuss being relegated to an extremely strong cult band status in which the act released gems such as Welcome to Sky Valley and ...And the Circus Left Town before sadly calling it quits.
The problems by the middle of the Nineties, however, were way beyond the realms of stoner rock only, as alternative metal was dying out. Nirvana had ceased existing with the death of guitarist/vocalist Kurt Cobain, Pearl Jam had abstained from touring because of a legal feud with Ticketmaster, Alice In Chains gradually became less public as vocalist Layne Staley's drug addiction deepened, and, just like in the Eighties, bands started imitating tried and successful formulas. Only a couple of bands kept breaking new ground, such as the musically simple Helmet and the sometimes psychedelic Smashing Pumpkins. Relatively new punk bands like the Offspring, Green Day, and Rancid (which came out of the ska-punk Operation Ivy) had helped with the initial impulse of the Seattle scene, actually and mistakenly being called alternative by MTV, but their lack of musical fierceness when compared to older punk bands eventually contributed to their own downfall, excepting the Offspring. The hardcore Bad Religion, Social Distortion, and NOFX, the latest of punk bands to reach wide media exposure after several years of existence, seemed for a short moment to be making a small commotion, but nowadays the matter of true punk rock surviving in commercial circles for much longer is rather questionable, the scene being taken up by comparably weak and unoriginal outfits such as Blink 182.
