 | | Not to be confused with the Canadian heavy metal band from the late '80s, named simply Sword, the Sword are a retro-metal four-piece hailing from -- of all places -- the singer/songwriter oasis of Austin, Texas. |
 | | Perhaps the ultimate stoner rock band, Northern California trio Sleep had a career that wafted in and out of focus from within their self-mandated cloud of marijuana smoke. |
 | | Heavy metal rockers that compose Orange Goblin are Martyn Millard (bass), Ben Ward (vocals), Joe Hoari (guitar), Pete O'Mally (guitar), and Chris Turner (drums), and together these fine bandmates compose the harsh doom rock sounds similar to the likes of Mammoth Volume, Clawfinger, and Kyuss. |
 | | Often referred to as the "heaviest band in the universe," England's Electric Wizard have consistently redefined the preconceived thresholds of a detuned guitar chord with their peerless doom metal achievements -- this despite an often interpersonally troubled, if musically triumphant, career. |
 | | Hailing from Palm Desert, CA, Kyuss (pronounced "kai-uss") has become something like a heavy metal equivalent to the Velvet Underground. |
 | | Atlanta-based sludge/stoner/alternative metal outfit Mastodon formed in 1999 around the talents of guitarist Bill Kelliher, drummer Bränn Dailor, bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, and guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds. |
 | | The Melvins were the first post-punk band to revel in the slow, sludgy sounds of Black Sabbath. Their music is oppressively slow and heavy, only without any of the silly mystical lyrics or the indulgent guitar solos; it's just one massive, oozing pile of dark slime. |
 | | Baroness play an eclectic brand of heavy metal, embracing the ferocity and sharp technique of new-millennium metal but with melodic accents and intelligent guitar work that suggest the influence of indie rock and post-punk bands. |
 | | Southern California's Fu Manchu began crafting heavy, psychedelic-tinged rock in 1990 with their debut single, "Kept Between Trees. |
 | | New Orleans metal band Crowbar was originally comprised of vocalist/guitarist Kirk Windstein, guitarist Matt Thomas, bassist Todd Strange, and drummer Craig Numenmacher. |
 | | Although rooted heavy metal and the punk/hardcore aesthetic, Isis' music relies just as heavily on ambience, atmosphere, and tone as it does complexity and aggression. |
 | | Down is an all-star heavy metal side project whose original lineup consisted of members from Pantera (singer Phil Anselmo), Corrosion of Conformity (guitarist Pepper Keenan), and Crowbar (guitarist Kirk Windstein, bassist Todd Strange, and drummer Jimmy Bower). |
 | | The secretive instrumental art metal outfit Pelican was formed in Chicago by guitarists Trevor de Brauw and Laurent Lebec, as well as bassist Larry Herweg and his sibling drummer, Bryan. |
 | | Madison, WI's Bongzilla specialize in uncommonly heavy and doomy sludge-core dedicated to their one and only love: weed. |
 | | The Swedish retro-doom-psych-folk band known as Witchcraft was started in 2000 by vocalist/guitarist Magnus Pelander, whose original intent was to record a single in tribute to Pentagram's Bobby Liebling and Roky Erickson -- how often does that happen? Calling on his friend John Hoyles (guitar) and brothers Ola (bass) and Jens Henriksson (drums) to lend a hand, Pelander did indeed record that single (entitled "No Angel or Demon") and released it through small independent Primitive Arts Records in 2002. |
 | | Formed in Oakland, California in late 1985, Neurosis developed a style blending industrial, heavy metal, and alternative rock with often spiritually focused lyrics. |
 | | Guitarist Eddie Glass and drummer Ruben Romano formed Nebula in 1997 after breaking away from desert rock pioneers Fu Manchu, eventually recruiting bassist Mark Abshire. |
 | | One of the first punk-metal fusion bands, Corrosion of Conformity (C.O.C. for short) were formed in North Carolina by guitarist Woody Weatherman during the early '80s. |
 | | The misanthropic sludge metal outfit Eyehategod was formed in New Orleans in 1988, and became an important part of a Southern sludgecore scene that included bands like Crowbar and Down, all of whom were heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Black Flag, and the Melvins. |
 | | Weedeater was born the mid-'90s, in Wilmington, NC, originally taking shape as a side project of vocalist/bassist "Dixie" Dave Collins, who was otherwise engaged with sludge metal cult favorites Buzzov*en at the time. |
 | | Clutch combined elements of funk, Led Zeppelin, and metal with vocals inspired by Faith No More. Formed in 1991 in Germantown, MD, the group included Neil Fallon (vocals), Tim Sult (guitar), Dan Maines (bass), and Jean-Paul Gaster (drums). |
 | | One of the leading American doom metal acts of the '80s (along with Trouble and the Obsessed), Saint Vitus was cursed with public indifference throughout their decade-plus career, which both started and ended in frustrating obscurity. |
 | | San Francisco's stoner rock band Acid King formed in 1993. Singer/guitarist Lori Crover, bassist Peter Lucas and drummer Joey Osbourne started playing local shows that year with likeminded bands such as the Melvins, Hawkwind and the Obsessed. |
 | | The members of hard rock trio Fireball Ministry -- Emily J. Burton, James A. Rota, and Helen Storer -- christened themselves with religious titles (bishop, reverend, and sister, respectively) in keeping with their band name, and issued their debut album, Ou Est La Rock?, in 1999 on Bong Load Records. |
 | | One of the most enduring and influential underground bands in heavy metal history, Pentagram's career was almost 15 years old by the time they finally managed to record their first album. |
 | | Montreal's Priestess build upon the fury of AC/DC and Black Sabbath for their own new-millennium headbanger blend of '70s Camaro rock. |
 | | Formed from the ashes of stoner rock icons Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age reunited the group's singer/guitarist Josh Homme, drummer Alfredo Hernandez, and bassist Nick Oliveri along with new guitarist/keyboardist Dave Catching. |
 | | Slayer were one of the most distinctive, influential, and extreme thrash metal bands of the 1980s. Their graphic lyrics dealt with everything from death and dismemberment to war and the horrors of hell. |
 | | Kylesa is, fundamentally, a metal group, but the Savannah, Georgia-based outfit is otherwise difficult to categorize: elements of hardcore punk, psychedelic stoner rock, technical speed metal, and good old-fashioned Black Sabbath sludge appear in their music. |
 | | Earth's drone-heavy experimentation is largely the result of its one lasting member, guitarist Dylan Carlson. |
 | | Whether you find it offensive or amusing, the name Alabama Thunderpussy has a way of getting a person's attention. |
 | | Rising from the ashes of stoner/doom legends Obsessed during the small genre's most fertile post-Kyuss period, Goatsnake helped define Southern California's low-and-slow metal scene during the late '90s. |
 | | Japanese cult favorite sludge/doom rock trio Boris take their name from a song on grunge godfathers the Melvins' Bullhead album. |
 | | Black Sabbath have been so influential in the development of heavy metal rock music as to be a defining force in the style. |
 | | After the breakup of Floor in 2004, Torche vocalist/guitarist Steve Brooks decided to carry on the thundering tradition of his former band, recruiting guitarist Juan Montoya (also formerly of Floor), drummer Rick Smith, and bassist Jonathan Nuñez. |
 | | The seeds for the revolving door lineup that Queens of the Stone Age has become famous for were originally sown in another related project, the Desert Sessions. |
 | | The sparingly named Om reunites the oft-heralded Sleep rhythm section of Al Cisneros (bass, vocals) and Chris Haikus (drums); but this time, rather than producing monolithic stoner/doom metal, the duo is focused on a softer, if no less hypnotic brand of drone rock, partly infused with monastic and Tibetan chanting. |
 | | During his time in the seminal hardcore band the Misfits, vocalist Glenn Danzig displayed a fascination with outlandish, graphic, often gory imagery; in forming the more heavy metal-oriented band Samhain, Danzig's lyrics delved into typical metal subject matter, but took the concept of darkness to an extreme. |
 | | Retro-rock visionaries Monster Magnet spent much of the 1990s struggling against the prejudices imposed upon image and sound by alternative rock fashion nazis. |
 | | Like many influential bands, Helmet were born out of an unusual set of influences. Oregon-born guitarist and founder Page Hamilton had actually moved to New York City to study jazz, but found inspiration in the late '80s through post-punk acts Sonic Youth, Killing Joke, and Big Black, and envisioned a group that combined then-unusual tunings (particularly dropped D) with uneven and jazz-like time signatures and harmonies. |
 | | Slo Burn proved to be a quick pit stop in vocalist John Garcia's transition from desert metal gods Kyuss to stoned groovers Unida. |
 | | The self-described "power ambient" duo Sunn 0))) (pronounced "Sun") were formed in the mid-'90s by guitarists Stephen O'Malley (Khanate, Burning Witch) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, Thorr's Hammer). |
 | | Upon leaving Saint Vitus -- whose unabashed worship of Black Sabbath helped lay the groundwork for the sludge, stoner, and doom metal mini-movements of the '90s -- vocalist/guitarist Scott "Wino" Weinrich re-formed the Obsessed, a band he'd founded in Washington, D. |
 | | Motörhead's overwhelmingly loud and fast style of heavy metal was one of the most groundbreaking styles the genre had to offer in the late '70s. |
 | | Witch utilize classic rock structures and murky -- but heavy -- atmospherics to achieve the kind of doom metal fanfare that plays to both fans of Black Sabbath and Mastodon. |
 | | Sweden's Candlemass helped reintroduce the lumbering power chords of Black Sabbath to an entire generation of post-New Wave of British Heavy Metal and post-thrash metalheads, almost single-handedly writing the handbook for the modern doom metal movement in the process. |
 | | Offering a complex form of metal that combined the sweeping adventurism of math rock, the oddball tempos of experimental jazz, and the stunning brutality of thrash metal, Meshuggah raised the bar for metal bands everywhere upon their debut. |
 | | Truly a band out of time, the Australian power trio Wolfmother were conceived in 2000 -- about 30 years too late, considering that the musicians' psychedelic brand of proto-heavy metal sounded similar to the late-'60s/early-'70s craft of Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath. |
 | | Rising out of the expansive early '90s thrash metal landscape, New York's Prong carved a niche all their own with their minimalist urban take on the genre. |
 | | It's universally agreed that the originators of the doom metal genre are Black Sabbath, but there were several bands of the '80s/early '90s that kept the style alive (during Sabbath's "lean years"), such as Saint Vitus, Trouble, Candlemass, and, especially, the U. |
![The Art of Self Defense [Bonus Tracks] Album Cover](http://images.slacker.com/isv1/album/v1/541749/aol/1/center/5,0/70.jpg "The Art of Self Defense [Bonus Tracks] Album Cover")
