Best OF Grunge

L7 had the sound, style, and tough-grrrl attitude to hit it big in the aftermath of grunge's mainstream breakthrough, but unfortunately, the band was too often hampered by uneven songwriting. The Best of L7: The Slash Years collects four songs apiece from Bricks Are Heavy, Hungry for Stink, and The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum (although, as the title suggests, there's nothing from the fine Sub Pop album Smell the Magic). It's a pretty good distillation of the cream of those records, even if there are still a few tunes on Bricks Are Heavy that could have made the cut on a less mathematically selected best-of. In fact, as L7's most pop-oriented record, Bricks Are Heavy is still a slightly more accessible introduction, since following that album, the band tended to rely more on sheer power than melody. Nevertheless, The Best of L7: The Slash Years does encapsulate what the group was all about, and it's a great way to dig deeper into their catalog without having to buy all the individual albums.

"Best of Soundgarden Redux" is the customary companion album, which is released alongside each full-album cover editions of the Redux Series. Accompanying "Superunknown Redux", another 15 all-time classics and deep cuts from across the rest of the grunge gods' extensive catalogue are delivered by as many exciting acts on "Best of Soundgarden Redux".

The Best of Nickelback Volume 1 is the first greatest hits album by Canadian rock band Nickelback. It was released on November 4, 2013 through Roadrunner Records (internationally) and Universal Music Canada (in Canada) to coincide with their October–November 2013 "The Hits Tour". Though frontman Chad Kroeger had previously stated in an interview that their upcoming greatest hits album would include new songs as well as previous hits, the final track listing contains only previously released material. The compilation features singles released from all but the band's first two albums; namely Silver Side Up (2001), The Long Road (2003), All the Right Reasons (2005), Dark Horse (2008), and Here and Now (2011).

Guitar virtuoso Nuno Bettencourt made his name with the eclectic pop-metal outfit Extreme during the height of the guitar-shredder era, and embarked on a solo career after the band's breakup. As a soloist, Bettencourt's most immediately recognizable influence was Eddie Van Halen, but as a songwriter, he might draw from Queen, the Beatles, Prince, and anything in between. The youngest of ten children in a musical family, Bettencourt was born Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt in the town of Praia da Vitoria, on the island of Terceira in the Azores (an archipelago governed by Portugal) on September 20, 1966.

Guitar virtuoso Nuno Bettencourt made his name with the eclectic pop-metal outfit Extreme during the height of the guitar-shredder era, and embarked on a solo career after the band's breakup. As a soloist, Bettencourt's most immediately recognizable influence was Eddie Van Halen, but as a songwriter, he might draw from Queen, the Beatles, Prince, and anything in between. The youngest of ten children in a musical family, Bettencourt was born Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt in the town of Praia da Vitoria, on the island of Terceira in the Azores (an archipelago governed by Portugal) on September 20, 1966.

The most traditional pop band of all the Welsh bands to emerge in the post-Brit-pop days of the mid-'90s, Catatonia reworked the sound of jangling late-'80s alternative rock with a punchy, amateurish indie rock attack. Comprised of vocalist Cerys Matthews, guitarist/vocalist Mark Roberts, guitarist Owen, bassist Paul Jones, and drummer Aled Richards, Catatonia formed in Cardiff, Wales in the early '90s. Matthews and Roberts used to busk together in Cardiff before officially forming the band.

Combining nu-metal with serious pop polish and structure, Alien Ant Farm always felt like a band that lived in two worlds: not quite heavy enough to be metal, but a little too fast-paced for the pop set. And while Alien Ant Farm's genre might be unclear, their entry in the 20th Century Masters series gives fans a bird's-eye view of their career and another opportunity to try nailing down what these guys were up to. Given the musicianship on tracks like "Movies" and their cover of the Michael Jackson classic "Smooth Criminal," while it might be hard to describe, it sure did work.