The dawn of the 90s remains one of the most turbulent and important eras in the history of hard rock. Grunge - catapulted onto the map by Nirvana’s Nevermind in the fall of 1991 - was already well into its swan song; with the titanic infusion of big label money into anything that sounded vaguely “grungey,” the genre quickly dissolved into dreary, mid-tempo cat shit, artlessly hailed as either “alt-rock” or “alt-metal.” The metal community faced its own identity crisis, with Metallica turning in their outsider credentials by way of a polished collection of jock jams known as the Black Album. Meanwhile, bands that dominated mainstream radio in the 80s faced the prospect of either evolving with the times or staying the course and hoping to ride out the storm. With a new generation of bands hungry for radio play, it was a sink-or-swim proposition for the big names. In short, it was an absolutely phenomenal time for rock and metal fans.
While 1992’s Singles soundtrack found meteoric commercial success with its eclectic smorgasbord of heatseeking Seattle acts like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, the soundtrack to the 1993 Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Last Action Hero, delivered a juicy, cherry-picked microcosm of heavy music in the early-90s.
