HAIR METAL IN THE 1990s:

In the early 1990s, a sonic, self-loathing shockwave from the Pacific Northwest started to surge across the country.

"Grunge" would eventually take over the music industry.

With the financial backing of record labels, lots of airplay on mainstream radio, and the enthusiastic support of MTV, bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains went from obscurity to omnipresent almost overnight.

Meanwhile, the artists who had ruled the charts and video playlists in the 1980s were cast aside and mocked as the new "revolution" took control.

"Hair Metal" suffered a rapid, painful and embarrassing demise.

Bands which had been selling out arenas just a few years earlier were dumped by their labels, had to go back to performing in front of sparse crowds in clubs or simply disbanded.

The bigger "Hair Metal" acts were able to survive - at least for a while.

In the 1990s, those bands kept putting out albums, but most of those releases did not feature hit songs, or videos which received much attention from MTV.

Over the years, those albums have been mostly forgotten.

Some of them - but certainly not all - are worth remembering and giving another listen.

Here's a few ...

CINDERELLA - STILL CLIMBING (1994)

The music scene had changed in the early 1990s, but the members of Cinderella (Tom Keifer, Eric Brittingham and Jeff Labar) didn't seem to notice - or to care.

"Still Climbing" fits comfortably into the band's curiously compact catalogue of music.

The album was the fourth - and final - of their career.

Straight-forward, stripped-down and blues-driven, "Still Climbing" has plenty of memorable moments.

On "Bad Attitude Shuffle," Keifer sneers, "It's my life that I'm living ... Wouldn't wanna be no one else ... So, if you don't like how I do it ... Fucking keep it to yourself."

"Hot & Bothered" - which was originally featured on the Wayne's World Soundtrack (1992) - makes you want to crank up the volume, along with "Talk Is Cheap," "All Comes Down" and "Freewheelin."

And "Hard To Find The Words," is a touching tribute to mothers everywhere.

"Still Climbing" was delayed for more than two years because of Keifer's vocal issues.

Once the album was finally released, it only reached 178 on the Billboard Charts in the United States.

WINGER - PULL (1993)

Fans of Winger's first two albums - "Winger" (1988) and "In The Heart of The Young" (1990) - were probably a bit confused when they put "Pull" in their CD players.

On the opening track, "Blind Revolution Mad," Playgirl cover model Kip Winger delivers an unapologetically apocalyptic assessment of the world.

"Vigilante gangs dig their fangs into the streets they've overthrown... While plastic faces run for king of this disassociation land ... I'm dying to find anyone who understands."

The band which gained fame - and chart success - with a song about chasing after an underage girl, "Seventeen," and sticky-sweet ballads like "Headed For A Heartbreak," and "Miles Away," got deep, introspective and political.

"Pull" certainly isn't grunge.

But, it might just be the best album - lyrically and musically - of Winger's career, even if it hardly cracked the top 100 on the U.S. Billboard Charts.

There are still ballads - "Spell I'm Under," "You're The Lucky One" - and some bawdy, raunchy, not-so-subtle innuendo, "Like A Ritual," and "In My Veins," but there's a depth and seriousness which continue to resonate more than three decades later in songs like "In For The Kill" and "Who's The One."

POISON - NATIVE TONGUE (1992)

After three albums filled with big-time MTV video hits, the other members of the Poison - Brett Michaels, Bobby Dall and Ricki Rockett - finally got tired of the drug-fueled antics of C.C. DeVille.

He was fired and replaced by 21-year-old Ritchie Kotzen.

And the band's only album with the guitarist is unique, in large part because of his influence - as an amazingly versatile instrumentalist (piano, mandolin, dobro, bass, etc.), singer and songwriter.

"Native Tongue" is more bluesy and soulful than anything in Poison's catalogue. It showcased that - once the lipstick, mascara and Aqua Net was FINALLY gone (along with DeVille) - there was some real musical ability hiding behind a glam disguise.

They also brought in plenty of special guests during the recording sessions - something the band had really never done before.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's Billy Powell plays piano on two songs, "7 Days Over You," and "Bastard Son Of A Thousand Blues." Shelia E. also appears on the record, along with the legendary horn section of Tower of Power and Timothy B. Schmidt of the Eagles.

The lead single, "Stand," features the First AME Church Choir.

"We all carry the cross and speak what we are taught ... Lies and money become the white man's God ... We've burned all our bridges one too many times ... The time has come to draw the line ... You know you've got to ... Stand." - "Stand"

There are other serious moments, including "The Scream," "Bring It Home," and "Stay Alive."

There are not-so-serious moments too.

"Stop beating around the bush ... You're just wasting time ... Let's get down to the business, baby ... and lay it on the line ..." - "Body Talk."

Of course, there are ballads, "Until You Suffer You Some (Fire and Ice)," and "Theatre Of The Soul."

And in between, there's lots of rift-driven boogies which don't sound like "Talk Dirty To Me," or "I Want Action."

The album had more success than most of the releases by "Hair Bands" in the 1990s. It peaked at 16 on the Billboard Album charts.

WARRANT - DOG EAT DOG (1992)

"I've got a lust ignited fever ... and I can't put out the flame."

Warrant's third album - and last with the original line-up - opens up with a pair of hard-charging, down-and-dirty anthems.

"Machine Gun" and "Hole In My Wall," must have left fans wondering if this was the same band which had pranced around playfully on stage wearing matching white leather pants as they performed poppy ballads during the late 1980's.

"Dog Eat Dog" was a dramatic change in Warrant's sound.

The album was darker, heavier and moodier.

And it wonderfully showcased some of the best songwriting in the career of the late Jani Lane.

"I want to bathe in your light ... I want to be on the news ... If I take your life ... It's nothing personal ... Just a boy and his toy gun ... Dying for attention," - "Andy Warhol Was Right"

On "April 2031," Lane imagines life after nuclear war, sorrowfully signing about a "World beyond resuscitation, even by God's hands."

"The Bitter Pill" features a piano intro and an operatic interlude, sung in German.

The album does have its lighter moments.

"Bonfire" is groovy and raunchy, "Inside Out," is fast and furious with a few "F" bombs, while "Hollywood (So Far, So Good)," takes on an optimistic view on the difficulties of living in Southern California.

There are ballads, of course, highlighted by "Sad Theresa."

"Dog Eat Dog," went Gold in America, selling more than a half a million copies.

It was the last album before the band, unsuccessfully, tried to embrace the Grunge sound.

BON JOVI - THESE DAYS (1995)

Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora still seemingly had a pretty optimistic view of the world in the early 1990s.

New Jersey's favorite sons were still writing songs about women, love, rock n' roll and partying all night, while encouraging us all to keep "Keep The Faith."

A few year later, things were very different.

"These Days" is brooding and bleak, painting a grim picture of the world - and the future.

The opening track sets the tone for an album which even Tommy and Gina must have found a bit depressing.

"I seen a dyin' man, too proud to beg, spit on his own grave ... Was he too gone to save? ... Our did you even know his name? ... Are you the one to blame?" - "Hey God"

After that angry message to the almighty, the band desperately seeks "Something For The Pain," and then "Something To Believe In."

"I lost all faith in my God, in his religion too ... I told the angels they could sing their songs to someone new," - "Something To Believe In"

In between, the album's title track delivers another dark assessment of society - "It's a graceless age ... Even innocence has caught the midnight train."

"These Days," doesn't have many upbeat - or optimistic - moments (even the "love song" isn't a "love song - "This Ain't A Love Song").

The subject matter and more soulful style, though, provide a great showcase for Sambora to shine, both on guitar and on backing/harmony vocals.

The album reached No. 1 in 13 countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom.

SKID ROW - SUBHUMAN RACE (1996)

Skid Row had a No. 1 album on the Billboard charts in the 1991 with "Slave To The Grind," but five years later, the music scene had changed dramatically.

The New Jersey-based band, however, wasn't going to go "Grunge."

They just got louder and heavier.

"Subhuman Race" is an ear-splitting symphony of metal which sounds more like Pantera (which Skid Row toured with the early 1990s) than "Hair Metal" contemporaries like Poison.

Sebastian Bach screams out vicious lyrics with anger and violence - probably amplified by the growing in-fighting which was troubling the band.

"Beaten, burned ... I'll take the fall ... And get up right in your face .. Walk all over what I believe ... But, I'm still here ... You disappear without a trace" - "Firesign"

"An empty shotgun ... shooting your mouth off ... Something's on your mind ... The cheap messiah of persecution is alive and doing fine" - "Bonehead"

Skid Row's last album to feature Bach doesn't feature any heart-felt radio friendly love ballads or cheesy party-rock anthems.

"Subhuman Race," is hard and heavy - with a few melodic moments, like "Breakin' Down," "Into Another," which were both (not surprisingly) released as singles by Atlantic Records.

"Beat Yourself Blind," builds on the fat, thick bass lines of Rachel Bolan into a screaming crescendo, while "Medicine Jar," "Iron Will," and "Subhuman Race," blast off with crunchy, screeching riffs.

Bolan and Bach have both expressed negative feelings about the album over the years, but that negativity might really be more of a reflection of their attitude towards each other than anything else.