Somewhere in the late '90s it became apparent that electronica would never gain enough mainstream ground in heartland America to replace fist-in-the-air proletarian rock as the younger generation's opiate of choice. From that point on, artists such as the ones featured on this MTV compilation have mixed classic '70s hard-rock riffs with hip-hop, industrial gloom, metal, electronic touches, and whatever else is handy, all in pursuit of the teen demographic. Such is the context of RETURN OF THE ROCK, an unabashed middle finger at teen divas and boy bands. This is clearly not your father's heavy rock. The verbal gymnastics of Kid Rock and Slipknot could give the No Limit roster a run for its money, while Korn seems to have learned the lessons of sampler and breakbeat well. There's no lack of sheer rock power, though. Kittie's piledriver riffs split the difference between Ministry and Metallica, obliterating everything in their path, and Stain's metal-via-grunge riffs sound like they should be supporting TV ads for unsafe power tools. So the rock does indeed return, but it arrives with some new tricks up its sleeve.

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Somewhere in the late '90s it became apparent that electronica would never gain enough mainstream ground in heartland America to replace fist-in-the-air proletarian rock as the younger generation's opiate of choice. From that point on, artists such as the ones featured on this MTV compilation have mixed classic '70s hard-rock riffs with hip-hop, industrial gloom, metal, electronic touches, and whatever else is handy, all in pursuit of the teen demographic. Such is the context of RETURN OF THE ROCK, an unabashed middle finger at teen divas and boy bands. This is clearly not your father's heavy rock. The verbal gymnastics of Kid Rock and Slipknot could give the No Limit roster a run for its money, while Korn seems to have learned the lessons of sampler and breakbeat well. There's no lack of sheer rock power, though. Kittie's piledriver riffs split the difference between Ministry and Metallica, obliterating everything in their path, and Stain's metal-via-grunge riffs sound like they should be supporting TV ads for unsafe power tools. So the rock does indeed return, but it arrives with some new tricks up its sleeve.