Five years on from the 1991 release of Nirvana's game-changing Nevermind album, the alt. rock renaissance showed no signs of slowing down. In 1996, Nirvana's fellow Sub Pop alumni Soundgarden scored another huge success with Down On The Upside, Beck took over the airwaves, and the world's dancefloors, with Odelay, Londoners Bush scored a first US number one album with the multi-platinum Razorblade Suitcase, and No Doubt went supernova with Tragic Kingdom.
The same year saw Weezer and Rage Against The Machine release fan favourite sets Pinkerton and Evil Empire, while Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots broke new ground, respectively, with No Code and Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop.
Arguably the biggest indication of the strength of the mid '90s scene, however, was not the success enjoyed by the scene's A-listers but by the diversity and outstanding quality of albums released by a host of brilliant left-of-the-dial bands who never became household names. Here at Louder we recently saluted largely unsung '90s cult heroes such as Kerbdog, Handsome, Shudder To Think and Compulsion, but really those bands only represented the tip of the iceberg, and there's a ton of other artists from the era who merit acclaim and (re) discovery.
Here then is our guide to 10 killer alt. rock records from 1996 that deserved a much bigger audience.
