I used to dig through the CD racks looking for albums that had interesting album art to find new, unknown bands to check out. There are 3 that to this day stand out as excellent finds.

1. The God Machine "Scenes from the Second Story". This record was released in 1993, and I found it around that time. They had some amazing soundscapes and feel to their music, and they created some awesome guitar hooks. I loved this fricking record, and I highly recommend hitting up youtube to give it a shot. It's a dark metal sound with some killer orchestrations.

The bassist died of a brain anneurism, so the band stopped playing after this. They did release a second album that was pretty good, but it is nowhere near as great as the first one.

2. Mansun "Attack of the Grey Lantern" This was released in 1997, and it's one of the best records to be released that year in my opinion. Maybe even of the late 90s. If they would've gotten some label support here in the States they would've been huge. I listen to this record to this day. This is a must listen for any music fan. I do see on Spotify that one of their songs "Wide Open Space" has over 10million plays, so I am guessing it was used in a movie or commercial at some point in time. Check it out, and definitely check out the entire album.

Avoid all others though, because they suck. This is a lightning in the bottle type record.

3. Haunted Garage "Possession Park". This is another early 90s CD that I found and enjoyed the shite out of. It's not great music like the first two, but it was incredibly fun and funny. As a Misfits fan this fell right into my wheelhouse. They were a horror metal band that focused on horror songs often influenced by horror movies (sound familiar?). There's one song that perfectly samples The Exorcist that nailed the humor. I started reading up on them after seeing this thread, and Danny Carey says playing a show with them was one of the most fun nights he has ever had (he was drumming for Green Jello at the time).