Not just one of Mexico's greatest rock bands ever but one of the great rock bands of the '90s period, Caifanes kicked open the door for home-grown rock when their muscled-up 1988 remake of a traditional cumbia tune rewrote Mexican radio's rulebook. From there they fashioned a brutal but beautiful style of art-rock immersed in King Crimson, gothic, and New Wave. Saúl Hernández's singing bridged Robert Plant and Robert Smith, but with Latin and Middle Eastern frills, while Alejandro Marcovich's guitar reimagined Argentine folk music as lush prog rock. No rock en español since has matched it.