The year 2000 was 25 years ago. Just let that sink in a moment. While nu metal still ruled the roost so far as alternative music went, the tides were changing. Metalcore was beginning to find its footing with the likes of Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage taking their tentative first steps, while globally movements like symphonic metal and stoner metal were cementing their new champions.
But while we've already collated a list of the best metal albums of the year 2000, what of the records that aren't so obviously celebrated? We decided to dig deep and look back at the albums that sometimes slip under the radar, be they commercial disappointments from exciting bands or albums that have otherwise been consigned to the lesser-loved corners of the music world: these are 10 brilliant but underrated albums you need to hear from 2000.
1. Nightwish – Wishmaster
They might’ve been trailblazers in shaping symphonic metal as we know it today, but it took a while for Nightwish to find their feet. The band’s 1997 debut was effectively just a demo that had been cleaned up for release, making the following year’s Oceanborn their first real showcase of what they could do. These days Wishmaster is often seen as the last throes of the band’s early power metal allegiances, but that doesn’t stop it being a great album well worth exploring.
The grandeur one would expect of any Nightwish record is still front and centre, while Tarja Turunen’s operatic vocals soar with a wonderful grace that has been the band’s trademark from the off. Chuck in epic songs like The Kinslayer and live favourites Come Cover Me and the title track, and its obvious that Wishmaster deserves more love than its sometimes afforded.
2. Black Label Society – Stronger Than Death
After the more acoustically-inclined Book Of Shadows, Zakk Wylde was firmly back on the familiar grounds of howling guitars and chugging riffs when Black Label Society released their debut album Sonic Brew in 1998. 2000 follow-up Stronger Than Death trod much the same ground as its predecessor, a tight-collection of headbanging, hard thumping heavy metal tunes collected in a 10-song package.
While not as lauded as later albums like 1919 Eternal or Mafia, there’s a beautiful simplicity to BLS on Stronger Than Death that shouldn’t be overlooked. Big ballad Rust offers an emotional core to the album amidst the rumbling thunder, while Counterfeit God and the sludge-tinged title track remain firm fan favourites.
3. Orange Goblin – The Big Black
For their third album, Orange Goblin weren’t necessarily doing anything they hadn’t already done before. There were big, greasy riffs, gravel-throated vocals from Ben Ward and a pervasive air of “Sabbath meets Motorhead” in their approach. But with a beefier production and more ferocious, focused songwriting, The Big Black felt like the moment the British stoner metal group truly came into their own.
This was an earthier sounding Orange Goblin closer to the sheer force the band could bring live, songs like Scorpionica galloping atop gambolling riffs while even the more cosmic-tinged tracks like Quincy The Pigboy and Cozmo Bozo had more propulsion. Songs like Scorpionica and Quincy became mainstays of the band’s set for decades to come, cementing The Big Black as OG’s first proper classic release.
4. Shellac – 1000 Hurts
Considering his past in Big Black, Steve Albini was no stranger to sonic abrasion. But while his 90s group Shellac hadn’t traded in the same shock tactics as his prior groups, by their third record the old familiar venom was beginning to shine through.
Opener Prayer To God captures the sarcastic satire at the heart of many Albini’s lyrical characters; a spurned lover begging the heavens to smite a former lover and her new beau with typical no-bullshit minimalism that in the wrong light would come off as hateful. Speaking to The Quietus in 2017, Albini admitted “there are dudes not getting it who think I am voicing their deepest thoughts when I am trying to expose a fundamental weakness in a male identity.” It hardly brightens from there; “This is a sad fuckin’ song” Albini drawls on The Squirrel Song, while even more boppy tunes like Canaveral contain lines like “What do you think could make him/Stick his cock in my wife/What on Earth could make him stoop so low?” Hurts… might not be as impactful as Shellac’s 1994 debut At Acton Park, but it certainly reaffirmed their brilliance.
5. Everclear – Songs From An American Movie Pt. 2
The staggered double album is a difficult trick to pull off. But it looked like Everclear were on to a winner when they released Songs From An American Movie Pt. 1 in July 2000, bagging them their first top ten spot on the Billboard 200 in the US. Jaunty, deceptively dark tunes drawing inspiration from singer Art Alexakis’ divorce, Songs… Pt. 1 was a more acoustically-based offering of their alt rock sound that’d seen the band go platinum on their previous two records.
With a sequel set for release in November and bringing back the punkier edge of 1995’s Sparkle And Fade, it looked like Everclear were about to hit a home run. Only, things didn’t work out that way. Pt. 2 was their worst charting release since their 1993 debut and its singles failed to make any major impact on MTV, even with songs like Rock Star eventually popping up in the movie of the same name (which admittedly, probably didn’t help the band’s case). It’s a shame though: from the careening bounce of opener When It All Goes Wrong Again to the mosh-friendly Babytalk and All Fucked Up, Songs… Pt. 2 contained some clear earworms among the finest in the post-Nirvana alt rock boom.
6. Queenadreena – Taxidermy
Nu metal might’ve helped opened the floodgates for more experimentation, but even with the likes of Korn and Deftones changing the boundaries for what metal could look and sound like, there was nobody else like Queenadreena in 2000. Londoners who took a magpie approach to music, the band’s 2000 debut offered up everything from goth to noise rock, shimmying along serpentine grooves and distinct vocal stylings from KatieJane Garside.
More than that though, it’s an absolute delight to listen to. Unpredictable and delivered with an excitable, spooky energy that evokes Mike Patton via Siouxie Sioux, Taxidermy feels way ahead of its time, a trailblazer for future acts like Julie Christmas, GGGOLDDD or Chelsea Wolfe who’ve taken a similarly fluid approach to their sonic offerings.
7. Corrosion Of Conformity – America’s Volume Dealer
Commercially, there’s no denying that America’s Volume Dealer was a disappointment for Corrosion Of Conformity. Since shedding their hardcore punk roots for sludgy stoner metal on 1994’s Deliverance the band had reached wider audiences and even broke into the Billboard 200 in the US. But America’s Volume Dealer broke that streek, failing to place at all.
Yet, America’s Volume Dealer was easily the most accessible Corrosion Of Conformity album to date. Songs like Over Me, Congratulations Song and Stare Too Long kick the record off in fine fashion and brim with single potential – sure enough, Congratulations reached number 24 on the Mainstream Rock charts in the US – while songs like Zippo, Sleeping Martyr and Gettin’ It On could easily rank highly in a best COC songs list.
8. The Yo-Yo's – Uppers And Downers
The Wildhearts rise and demise in the mid-90s was the stuff legends are made of. A brilliant, idiosyncratic group whose creativity was only matched by their appetite for mayhem, the group collapsed after the release of 1997’s divisive noise experiment Endless Nameless. But from their demise arose new groups featuring former Wildies, each offering a different aspect of rock’n’roll.
While singer Ginger embraced explosive glam rock pomp with Silver Ginger 5, bassist Danny McCormack went the opposite direction towards a Motorhead-meets-Sex-Pistols mash-up of punk and 50s rock & roll. The result was 14 tracks of careening, bouncy brilliance, ear-worms like Keepin’ On Keepin’ On, Half Hour Heartache and 1000 Miles From Me showing that the old magic still shined bright.
9. Mondo Generator – Cocaine Rodeo
Initially recorded in 1997, it wasn’t until 2000 that Nick Oliveri saw fit to release the debut album by his stoner punk group Mondo Generator. The timing couldn’t have been better: Oliveri had just established himself as a creative force in Queens Of The Stone Age on their breakthrough Rated R, and the Generator debut Cocaine Radio featured appearances from many of his ex-Kyuss bandmates including Josh Homme, Brant Bjork and John Garcia.
If Oliveri represented QOTSA’s more anarchic punk roots, Mondo Generator let him go hog wild. Songs like 13th Floor and Miss Mary Gets A Boob Job deliver the same shrieking intensity as QOTSA songs like Quick And To The Pointless and Millionaire, bridging the gap between stoner rock, hardcore punk and radio friendly sensibilities.
10. Spiritual Beggars – Ad Atsra
Between his stint on guitars in Carcass and forming melodeath troupe Arch Enemy, Michael Amott took a decided left turn with the project Spiritual Beggars in the early 90s. Drawing on classic rock influences, Beggars were a formidable stoner rock force, drawing on everyone from Montrose to Sabbath, Zeppelin to Deep Purple to craft songs steeped in 70s stylings.
1998’s Mantra III had taken the band in a decidedly more psychedelia-hued direction, chugging riffs fed into cosmic freakouts that placed the band as members of the same cosmonautical headspace as groups like Fu Manchu or Monster Magnet. 2000’s follow-up Ad Astra therefore was a more straight-ahead rocker, kicking off with the buzzing tones of Left Brain Ambassadors before rumbling forth with an hour’s worth of fuzzy, blissed-out old school rock’n’roll.
