March 7, 2022 by A.S. Van Dorston

Now we’re revisiting 30 years back in time. If I did full reviews every day like with 1982, I think it would kill me. But I’ll do short blurbs for this countdown and roll them out weekly. If you want to see them in real time, follow me on Twitter or Meta.

1992 was a weird year. In ’90 I was predicting either Buffalo Tom or Nirvana would get big, but I really didn’t like the effect the signing frenzy had on my beloved indie/grunge/post-punk music. Life at the time was a slog, working two jobs to scratch my way out of debt after graduating from college in a recession. I’m not very nostalgic for that year, yet life then was a hundred times better than in 1982 when I was in junior high, the bleakest time of my life. I think it partly may have to do with stages of brain development, when new experiences burn so brightly into your unformed brain, already searingly aflame with yearning and desire to know the unknown, and to be free from the shackles of childhood. As a young adult of 22-23, memories of relationships, milestones in education and career seemed to take precedence more than music. Interestingly, Cameron Crowe’s movie Singles, on the surface seemed to be a love letter to the Seattle music scene with it’s superior (to the movie) soundtrack, and members of Pearl Jam playing Matt Dillon’s band Citizen Dick. But really the music was just a hazy backdrop for the romantic dramedy about two yuppies who looked and acted more like they were in their 30s.

Or maybe, possibly, music in general had a bit of an off year. It happens. Favorite bands reached the end of their creative cycles, and others hadn’t gotten started yet. Sonic Youth’s documentary, 1991: The Year Punk Broke, came out in ’92 about their tour in Europe with Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr., Babes in Toyland, and Mudhoney. Really, punk was broke, metal was broken, and grunge spawned a thousand shit bands. Expectations for indie bands to make enough money to have actual careers exploded after the success of Nirvana, which resulted in a lot of garbage, but gradually, also a lot more music in general being recorded and released on both major and indie labels. That particular trend never really ended, with more and more bands able to self-release in the digital era so that the number of releases increased from under a few thousand in 1982, to close to 20,000 in 1992. It would eventually explode in the 2010s to over 100,000 a year. It’s safe to say that odds are increasing that there are way more good to great albums released than any one person will ever be able to track down. Indeed, that’s the biggest challenge, and time suck even with search engines and nearly all albums available digitally at our fingertips. Those who remember how much harder it was to find anything wonder if that made us value the music more.

I think that’s partly what drives the vinyl resurgence (and cassette, and now CD). Trying to tap into that feeling of putting down a chunk of hard-earned money for a physical product that you spent time tracking down, and feel obliged to listen to at least dozens of times to get a return on your investment. The thrill of discovery still exists for me. Even now, 40 years later, I found several albums I hadn’t heard during my 1982 deep dive. The same will likely happen for this one too, though they likely will not invade the top 31 of albums I’ve lived with for 30 years. I’ll summarize the new finds at the end. In the meantime, let the hunt commence!

31. Blind Guardian – Somewhere Far Beyond (Virgin)

Thanks to Helloween, Running Wild and Blind Guardian, Germany became the epicenter of the European power metal scene, drawing epic heavy metal elements from Priest, Maiden and Manowar, and fast tempos from speed metal. Blind Guardian are on a roll on their fourth album, and their next, Imaginations From the Other Side (1995) would be considered by many as the greatest power metal album of all time. This one’s not far behind.

30. Afghan Whigs – Congregation (Sub Pop)

Like Screaming Trees, Soul Asylum and others, Afghan Whigs have been a band for over six years before being unceremoniously shuffled into the grunge genre. This was simply a band from Cincinnati that played energetic live shows and incorporated psych and soul influences. “You My Flower” from Up In It (1990), their second album and first with Sub Pop, was an indicator of their future direction. Greg Dulli’s lyrics would draw the most attention as they got bigger with Gentleman (1993), but Rick McCollum’s* guitar playing is underrated. [*My friend Glenn who I first saw the Whigs live with corrected my swapping the bassist’s name for the guitarist, and pointed out that drummer Steve Earle was also underrated, and he rarely gets excited about drummers.]

29. The Jayhawks – Hollywood Town Hall (American)

Minneapolis Americana/country rockers employ producer George Drakoulias (Black Crowes, Maria McKee, Tom Petty) for their third album and hit their polished peak with tidy harmonies and consistently great tunes. All the best bits of Flying Burrito Bros/The Band/CSNY and a touch of Matthew Sweet style jangle/power pop, managing to sound timeless, no small feat in the 90s.

28. Bolt Thrower – The IVth Crusade (Earache)

Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden had decent albums this year, as did Megadeth. But most exciting were younger death metal bands like Bolt Thrower, who blew me away in 1989 with Realm of Chaos. These Brits hit a peak on their fourth album, with better material than fellow trailblazers Napalm Death, and way more interesting than Pantera. The best death metal album of the year.

27. Helmet – Meantime (Interscope)

Page Hamilton came from Band of Susans, who was never quite able to stand out from the noise pop crowd. His stripped down, spare re-imagination of heavy post-hardcore punk and metal on Strap It On released in 1990 on Amphetamine Reptile, however, did stand out, and became hugely influential on many bands in the 90s. I quickly got sick of that style, but on their first two albums, they still sounded tight and fresh.

They even got a tribute album!

26. Sugar – Copper Blue (Rykodisc)

Maybe I was pissed that Hüsker Dü broke up just weeks after I started college in the Twin Cities, robbing me of the chance to see them, but I wanted nothing to do with Bob Mould’s solo work. Not that I had any choice, I had a roommate who played Workbook (1989) and Black Sheets of Rain (1990) a lot, and it drove me bananas. His solo shit was too boring and maudlin, but his new power trio Sugar was a different, sweet, noisy power popper of a beaster. He sounded passionate again, and for a minute in 1992, it was the next best thing to my former favorite band.

25. Red House Painters – Down Colorful Hill (4AD)

Slowcore did not exist yet as a genre tag in 1992, but Galaxie 500 and Codeine were taking distinctive approaches with mixing noise pop and psych and removing most of the percussion and velocity until they hovered like a new subdivision of ambient. Mark Kozelek’s debut came out of a demo that gave the same treatment to psych folk, and what seemed like a quirky anomale then, has become a sort of genre classic. The long tracks can challenge your attention span, but let it melt into your surroundings, it definitely sounds more relevant now than many albums from that year.