Good major Label Rock/Metal albums from Late 90's-2008?

Would Nimrod count? It ain't great, though.

totally love downward is heavenward, but yeah, I don't think that it counts.

I suppose this helps to explain why I was buying so much old jazz and electronic music around that time period.

Same here. Late 90s was a lot closer to the death of rock than the Elvis-in-the-Army -> Beatles era ever was.

http://www.galeon.com/allmusic/caratulas/a/Andrew_WK-I_Get_Wet-Frontal.jpg

I have Downward Is Heavenward too, and yeah it's pretty good. Wish Kerr would stop listing all his favourite artists and being all "now if only they were on a major label they might make this list..."

shut it oceansize fan

are Beggars Banquet a major label, come to think of it?

werent they owned by a major?

There's some sort of connection to a major with them but I can't think what it is. Probably to do with distribution. Which would also mean that McLusky would technically qualify but in practical terms it's not all that relevant

Lots of labels must have a distribution with a major but that doesn't qualify them as being on a major, it might disqualify them from being 100 % independent.

I'll give you Radiohead. Maybe QOTSA, I guess. Aside from that, this is pretty weak sauce. "Lean times," indeed.

Sepultura - Roots (1996)

Stopped reading after that. Besides, since when is Roadrunner a major?

Seriously, it's pretty hard to find a better rock album on a major than A Matter Of Life And Death.

Has anyone mentioned Damone yet? Because their last album was on Interscope, and it was great.

Besides, since when is Roadrunner a major?

Roadrunner is now a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. But at the time Roots came out, it was still an indie AFAIK.

A couple more from 1997:
The Flaming Lips - Zaireeka (Warner Bros.)
Prodigy - Fat of the Land (Maverick/Warner Bros.)

Both were covered in Kerrang actually so do count I suppose.

Shasta OTM re AWK, and I'll hold out for 'Mechanical Animals'

like-minded thread that i just remembered:

hey writer-types, do you ever get any big label rock records that are worth listening to twice?

Slim pickins on that thread, too, when you consider the time-frame imposed by this thread, and screen out the discs listed there that are, in fact, on non-major labels (and were mistakenly listed as having come from "big labels," e.g., TVOTR's discs, which are on 4AD and/or Touch and Go, neither of which is a major (please correct me if I'm mistaken)).

Be Your Own Pet are on Universal, well Ecstatic Peace!, but Universal are at least involved enough to have the best tracks taken off their last album.

I thought HIM's Razorblade Romance was quite good, and that came out on a major.

xpost

Opinions vary, as usual. The Darkness and Flyleaf have been screened out here. Where's Evanescence, too? All of the heavy or hard-and-fast conventional rock bands thrown into the emo category also gone missing. Quite a few of them have been on majors.

1996
Weezer - Pinkerton (DGC)
Local H – As Good As Dead (Island)
The London Suede – Coming Up (Nude/Columbia)
Fluffy – 5 Live (The Enclave/Polygram EP)
Ruth Ruth - Laughing Gallery (American)

1997
Prodigy: The Fat of the Land (Maverick/Warner Bros.)
Everclear – So Much For The Afterglow (Capitol)
The Dandy Warhols – Come Down (Capitol/Tim Kerr)
Night Ranger – Neverland (Legacy/Sony)

1998
Kid Rock – Devil Without A Cause (Atlantic/Lava)
Monster Magnet – Powertrip (A&M)
The Living End – It’s For Your Own Good/Hellbound (Reprise)
Metallica – Garage Inc. (Elektra)
Hole – Celebrity Skin (DGC)
The Hunger – Cinematic Superthug (Universal)
Local H – Pack Up The Cats (Island)
Bloque – Bloque (Luaka Bop/Warner Bros.)

Night Ranger! I loved that band, way back when. I didn't realize they were still around (aside from the nostalgia circuit) in 1997.

1999
Hardknox – Hardknox (Jive/Zomba)
Cyclefly – Generation Sap (Radioactive/Universal)
Boom Boom Satellites – Out Loud (Epic)
Crazy Town – The Gift Of Game (Columbia)

2000
Everclear – Songs From An American Movie: Vol One: Learning How To Smile (Capitol)
Green Day – Warning (Reprise)

(2000 is the worst so far, looks like)

2001
Montgomery Gentry – Carrying On (Columbia)
Kid Rock – Cocky (Lava/Atlantic)
Beautiful Creatures – Beautiful Creatures (Warner Bros.)
Days of the New – Days of the New III (Uptown/Universal)

2002
Montgomery Gentry – My Town (Columbia)
The Donnas – Spend The Night (Atlantic)
Cyclefly – Crave (Radioactive/Universal)

1996
Ruth Ruth - Laughing Gallery (American)

this was '95. their '96 release was an EP on Epitaph that I thought was way way better than the full-length.

btw, fav major label rock album from '97 that may or may not be 'too indie' for this thread's criteria:
Skeleton Key - Fantastic Spikes Through Balloons

2003
Brooks & Dunn- Red Dirt Road (Arista Nashville)
H.I.M. – Razorblade Romance (Universal)

2004
Big & Rich – Horse Of A Different Color (Warner Bros.)
Montgomery Gentry – You Do Your Thing (Columbia)
Courtney Love – America’s Sweetheart (Virgin)
The Mooney Suzuki – Alive & Amplified (Red Ink/Columbia)

2005
Miranda Lambert – Kerosene (Epic)
The Living Things – Ahead Of The Lions (Jive/Zomba)
Shooter Jennings – Put The O Back In Country (Universal South)
Brooks & Dunn – Hillbilly Deluxe (Arista Nashville)
The Rolling Stones – A Bigger Bang (EMI)
The Darkness – One Way Ticket To Hell…And Back (Atlantic)

2006
Montgomery Gentry – Some People Change (Columbia)
Damone – Out Here All Night (Island)
Eric Church – Sinners Like Me (EMI)
Def Leppard – Yeah! (Mercury)
Rammstein – Rosenrot (Universal)

Etc. (And I can already think of a bunch I missed, but never mind. Too tired to do '07 and '08 now.)

can already think of a bunch I missed

Including other Darkness and Shooter Jennings and Rammstein albums, for starters. And, uh, White Stripes.

Bon Jovi -- Lost Highway When it gets to the point the entire album is played as a concert in public television ... not my favorite, but the performances and songs really kick live after a year of performing them.

xp

And hell, Skye Sweetnam's great debut album Noise From the Basement (Capitol, 2004) is basically a pop-metal record, too. As is Ashlee Simpson's great second album I Am Me (Geffen, 2005).

Also ZZ Top Mescalero (RCA, 2003), one of the best rock records of this decade, easy.

Aerosmith's Honkin On Bobo 2004

Also in 2004, Silvertide's Show and Tell Clive Davis' label.

this thread is getting ridiculously far away from HARD ROCK/METAL...

this thread is getting ridiculously inclusive of HONKIN ON BOBO...

Make a new thread and fume about it. You can have a campfire for all the hardmen and the death-to-false-metal philosophy of Manowar.

i would like to start that campfire here, and roast some rock critics in it

death to false s'mores

The Darkness

It's supposed to be good major Label Rock/Metal albums!

The Bronx (island)
The Distillers (sire)
Funeral for a friend (atlantic)

Rammstein – Rosenrot (Universal)

Mutter even more so - good one, forgot they're on a major but of course they are.

Ruth Ruth - Laughing Gallery (American)

Man there was one song on this that they played a bit on rock radio that really kicked ass.....

(not listed already I don't think)
Rammstein-Sehnsucht (Slash, which had major distribution)
Best of King's X (Atlantic)
Danger Zone (Polygram comp)
Third Eye Blind-Blue (something major I'm sure)
Rachid Taha-Made in Medina and Live (Ark 21, major distribution)
Linkin Park-Meteora
Dandy Warhols-Welcome to the Monkey House
Kid Rock s/t
Trail of Dead-Worlds Apart
I'm getting tired.

Do similar lists of major-label rock albums from the 70s and 80s, and compare them to the lists done for this thread. I think they'll prove what was said above: These are lean times. And -- despite my being old -- I'm not one of those "everything was better when I was young" types. I think today's music in many genres is as good, or better, than ever. Just not this genre (if "major-label rock albums" can be considered a genre).

But, as I always add as a qualifier: WTFdoiknow?nothingthatswhat.

You can bet a 60s/70s/80s even early 90s thread would list SHITLOADS more.

I think they'll prove what was said above: These are lean times.

Uh not really, given that the vast majority of the best rock albums (I'd say this would be a near-consensus opinion, not just mine) come out on independent labels, of which there are an astronomical amount compared to any time before the 80s