The death of shred began a lot earlier than the mid 90's. The late 80's is where "shred" really began to die out. It was never in the super-lime-light of mainstream. Atleast, not in the same way that rock was in the late 80's with the invention of MTV. The term "video killed the radio star" was as accurate as you could get.

I was only 7 when Nirvana's Nevermind was coming to fruitation... but I can remember my brothers being into it. The truth is bands like Mudhoney, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam where all doing the same thing at that time... they just didn't get lucky with a radio ready hit like "Smells Like Teen Spirit"...

The music of the late 80's and early 90's bred some of my most favorite music... GnR, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, Candlebox... literally hundreds of great bands came out of that era... As far as the music of the mid 90's.... I welcomed that as well. Change is neccessary in all forms of art. I don't like the recent changes... but atleast I still have the stuff of the old days to fall back on.