For me, the 90s were an odd decade- personally it was great: worked in a record store, got married, my son was born, became an uncle, and eventually moved on to a great job, among other things.  But from a musical standpoint there was a massive sea change in what was deemed hot and trendy:  grunge and rap became huge, boy bands were everywhere, Disney stars became singing sensations, and female artists of all sorts were making their mark.  As the industry was focusing on the “fresh and new”, they were kicking many 80s bands to the curb or shoving them into the deep, dark recesses of the underground.  For a music fan like me who was used to picking up his new favorite tunes from the radio or MTV, I had to dig deeper and search farther and wider.  Thankfully, a little old thing called the Internet opened up a whole new world and offered up another option to find hidden gems after weeding through the crap.  But I digress…

So if the 90s were such an odd decade, why run off a list of favorite albums?  Well…  I wanted a challenge.  This is the first decade where I was becoming extremely disappointed in what the industry deemed as popular vs where my interests lay.  Don’t get me wrong; the start of the decade was great and I dug some of the newer bands and artists but by the end of those ten years there were plenty of bad copycats or bands that were of ZERO interest to me.  Instead of a musical progression there was a musical regression, so I started to look elsewhere.  This series of posts will cover my favorite 25 albums from the 90s, starting with an honorable mention of 15 releases followed by individual posts for each top ten entry.  And once the #1 is announced down the road, those adventurous types may want to dig into the release dates of each of these because you’ll find something VERY telling.

So without further ado, here’s albums 11-25 (in no particular order) of my favorite albums of the 90s:

Rage Against The Machine – Rage Against The Machine

Van Halen – For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge

Lynch Mob – Wicked Sensation

Elvin Bishop – Don’t Let The Bossman Get You Down

Badlands – Voodoo Highway

Armored Saint – Symbol Of Salvation

Iron Maiden – The X Factor

Cheap Trick – Cheap Trick (1997)

Pantera – Vulgar Display Of Power

Green Day – Dookie

Page/Plant – No Quarter

Megadeth – Rust In Peace

Sacred Reich – The American Way

Social Distortion – Live At The Roxy

Stone Temple Pilots – Core