1998

Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty (American alternative hip hop)

They Might Be Giants - Severe Tire Damage (American alternative rock, live album also featuring three new studio recordings)

Primus - Rhinoplasty (American funk metal / experimental rock, features six cover songs, one remake of an original song, and two “bonus live tracks”)* 

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (American indie rock/psychedelic folk, their second and final full length studio album)  

Beck - Mutations (American folk rock/psychedelic rock) 

Various - Deconstructing Beck (various artists create plunderphonics/noise sound collage pieces using unlicensed Beck samples, co-release by Illegal Art and Negativland’s Seeland Records) 

Phish - Story of the Ghost (American jazz-funk/progressive rock) 

Garbage - Version 2.0 (American alternative rock / synth rock) 

Korn - Follow the Leader (American nu metal)

System of a Down - System of a Down (Armenian American alternative metal / nu metal, debut album) 

Orgy - Candyass (American industrial rock/ nu metal, debut album) 

Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe (American industrial metal, first album under his own name after the breakup of his band White Zombie) 

Fugazi - End Hits (American post punk / experimental rock) 

Air - Moon Safari (French electronica/space pop, debut album) 

Liz Phair - whitechoclatespaceegg (American alternative rock) 

The Cardigans - Gran Turismo (Swedish pop rock) 

Hum - Downward Is Heavenward (American alternative rock/space rock) 

Dropkick Murphys - Do Or Die (American hardcore punk/ celtic punk, debut album and only full album to feature original vocalist Mike McColgan) 

Barenaked Ladies - Stunt (Canadian pop/rock) 

At The Drive-In - In/Casino/Out (American post-hardcore/emo) 

Superdrag - Head Trip In Every Key (American alternative rock/ power pop) 

Metallica - Garage Inc (American heavy metal, two disc collection featuring a newly recorded cover album and a compilation of previously released cover songs)

Billy Bragg and Wilco - Mermaid Ave (folk rock collaboration between British singer and American band, setting unused lyrics by folk singer Woody Guthrie to new music) 

Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children (Scottish electronic music, debut studio album) 

Eels - Electroshock Blues (American indie rock) 

Scott Weiland - 12 Bar Blues (American alternative rock / neo-psychedelia, debut solo album for Stone Temple Pilots frontman) 

Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves (American indie rock) 

Sonic Youth - Silver Session for Jason Knuth (American noise/experimental music, eight collages of guitar amp feedback released to benefit the San Francisco Suicide Prevention Hotline)

Sonic Youth / Jim O’Rourke - SYR 3: Invito Al Cielo (American noise/free improvisation, Sonic Youth’s first collaboration with Jim O’Rourke, who would soon become an official member of the band) 

Offspring - Americana (American punk rock/alternative rock) 

Lagwagon - Let’s Talk About Feelings (American skate punk)

Dillinger Escape Plan - Under The Running Board (American metalcore/mathcore, debut EP) 

Monster Magnet - Powertrip (American hard rock/stoner rock)  

 AC - Picnic of Love (American grindcore band performs parodic acoustic soft rock music) 

Death Cab for Cutie - Something about Airplanes (American indie rock, debut album) 

Pearl Jam - Yield (American alternative rock) 

Pearl Jam - Live on Two Legs (American alternative rock, live compilation recorded over two “legs” of one 1998 tour) 

Jerry Cantrell - Boggy Depot (American alternative rock, debut solo album by Alice In Chains guitarist/vocalist) 

Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse (Swedish progressive metal) 

Soulfly - Soulfly (American nu-metal, debut album for group featuring ex-Sepultura frontman Max Cavelera, featuring guest appearances by members of Fear Factory, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, and Skindred) 

Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (American hip hop / neo-soul, debut solo album for Fugees member, featuring guest appearances by Santana, Mary J Blige, and tv D’Angelo) 

Massive Attack - Mezzanine (English downtempo/trip hop) 

VAST - Visual Audio Sensory Theater (American alternative rock/experimental rock, debut album) 

Smashing Pumpkins - Adore (American alternative rock/electronic rock, their first album recorded as a trio without an official drummer) 

Refused - The Shape of Punk To Come (Swedish hardcore punk / post-hardcore) 

Black Star - Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star (American hip hop)

Public Enemy - He Got Game (American hip hop, soundtrack to the Spike Lee film) Two - Voyeurs (English/American industrial rock, first and only album by group featuring Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford and Rob Zombie/Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5)