Yeah, "Dark Art", as it is known in the community, was really popular back in the late 90s. Just google that term and you'll get all kinds of crazy things. Disturbing, some of it may be, sure, but creations nonetheless. Perversions of the human figure, particularly entanglements with static/natural objects or materials usually symbolized our (failed) quests to ostracize ourselves from our environment, our reliance on "man-made" tools to better our lives... a huge anti-technophile movement of some sort.
This form of expression eventually gave birth to grunge art, or garbage art, which led to missed strokes, graffiti art, pop art, to minimalist, to plain shapes, and eventually to contemporary art.