It’s a tale as old as time: the music pedalled by bands during the so-called hair metal era – a phrase which started off life as a snide, sneering retro-fitted jibe – stripped metal of its ferocious credibility and left the genre battered, bruised, and firmly in the shadow of grunge’s rapid ascension as the 90s rolled around. But that’s far from the whole story.
In fact, as metal staggered to its feet and limped out of the 80s, it was on the cusp of becoming stronger than ever before. Here, we take a look back at how the genre reinvented itself as the decade drew to a close, and how that spurred its own cultural revolution.
