 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | At the time of their first effort, 2004's Time & Withering, Dayton, OH's Mouth of the Architect featured Jason Watkins (vocals, keyboards, samples), Gregory Lahm (guitar, vocals), Dave Mann (drums), Alex Vernon (guitar, vocals), and Derik Sommer (bass), and followed in the footsteps of Neurosis, Isis, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor in exploring heavy metal's more progressive, trance-inducing reaches. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Formed in Oakland, California in late 1985, Neurosis developed a style blending industrial, heavy metal, and alternative rock with often spiritually focused lyrics. |
 | | Formed from the remnants of a hardcore band named Eclipse, in the far-northern Swedish town of Umeå (also home to avant-hardcore masters Refused, and metal extremists Meshuggah and Naglfar), Cult of Luna have perfected an elaborate, extremely dark, progressive style of metalcore largely derived from the pioneering work of America's Neurosis. |
 | | The Dillinger Escape Plan create maniacally intense, crushingly metallic, and decidedly hardcore punk-infused jazz-time-signature-invoking compositions displaying an unparalleled musical bravery, precision musicianship, meticulously thought-out, and complex structuring, and rigorous physical endurance. |
 | | 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 post-rock/experimental trio Russian Circles feature Mike Sullivan (guitar), Colin DeKuiper (bass), and Dave Turncrantz (drums). |
 | | 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. |
 | | Guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike, bass player George Rice, and drummer Des Kensel formed High on Fire in 1999, following the collapse of Pike's previous band, doom metal titans Sleep. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Red Sparowes play a form of intensified, experimental post-rock with a notable use of pedal steel guitar. |
 | | Though Sweden's Burst originally formed as early as 1993 and released a few underground releases in the next few years (1996's Shadowcaster EP, 1998's Two Faced LP), it wasn't until 1999 that vocalist Linus Jägerskog, guitarists Jonas Rydberg and Robert Reinholdz, bassist Jesper Liveröd (ex-Nasum), and drummer Patrik Hultin perfected the explorative, metallic musical direction they were to become known for. |
 | | Brought together in Stockholm by guitarists Peter Lindgren and Mikael Åkerfeldt in 1990, Opeth added progressive influences and acoustic instrumentation to their brand of Swedish death metal. |
 | | Sacramento, CA's Giant Squid debuted in 2005 with a self-released CD entitled Metridium Field, which was produced by Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Melvins, High on Fire, etc. |
 | | Hailing from Palm Desert, CA, Kyuss (pronounced "kai-uss") has become something like a heavy metal equivalent to the Velvet Underground. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Taking their name from the original Japanese pronunciation of Godzilla, French heavy metal quartet Gojira have risen from utmost obscurity during the first half of their career to widespread global recognition in the second, including regular mention amongst the genre's leading new millennium upstarts. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | The punk metal act Converge were formed in the winter of 1990-1991, and after several singles, compilation appearances, and the requisite growing pains, they released their first full-length effort, Halo in a Haystack, in 1994. |
 | | Blending elements of grindcore, death metal, black metal, hardcore, and bluesy, groove-oriented Southern rock, Lousiana quintet Soilent Green has grown into one of the most distinctive bands in the U. |
 | | Seattle, WA's Botch is at the forefront of a near revolution in sound in heavy music. A virulent strain of progressive, underground, and sometimes violent heavy metal-infused guitar histrionics steeped deeply in hardcore punk scene aesthetics and the much touted D. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Japanese cult favorite sludge/doom rock trio Boris take their name from a song on grunge godfathers the Melvins' Bullhead album. |
 | | Jesu is another musical project spearheaded by Birmingham-based musician and producer Justin Broadrick -- a fixture of England's extreme music scene since his membership in the earliest recording lineup of Napalm Death in the mid-'80s. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Not to be confused with the same-named alt-rock outfit from Michigan, Philadelphia's Rosetta carve at the same epic trance metal trough dug by bands such as Neurosis, Isis, and Cult of Luna before them. |
 | | Zozobra is a peculiarly New Mexican ritual that has been the climax of the Fiestas de Santa Fe every autumn since the mid-1920s: a deliberately creepy looking wooden effigy some three stories tall, embedded with fireworks, sparklers, and noisemakers is surrounded by pieces of paper on which locals have written their most bothersome inner secrets and pains to be destroyed by the purifying fire. |
 | | Madison, WI's Bongzilla specialize in uncommonly heavy and doomy sludge-core dedicated to their one and only love: weed. |
 | | Earth's drone-heavy experimentation is largely the result of its one lasting member, guitarist Dylan Carlson. |
 | | Between the Buried and Me is a thinking man's hardcore unit hailing from Raleigh, North Carolina. The band began in 2000 after the dissolution of vocalist Tommy Rogers and guitarist Paul Waggoner's previous group, Prayer for Cleansing. |
 | | Another product of the prolific Florida death metal scene, Cynic distinguished themselves for their unique experiments in combining technically proficient death metal with progressive rock touches, bordering at times on jazz fusion. |
 | | Originally known as the Ocean Collective, before shortening their name to simply the Ocean, this forward-thinking ensemble from Berlin, Germany, was founded in early 2000 by guitarist Robin Staps, who soon surrounded himself with fellow guitarist Andreas Hillebrand, bassist Jonathan Heine, drummer Torge Liessmann, percussionist Gerd Kornmann, and a variety of individually specialized vocalists, including Nico Webers, Sean Ingram, Nate Newton, Thomas Hallbom, and Carsten Albrecht. |
 | | 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. |
 | | New Orleans metal band Crowbar was originally comprised of vocalist/guitarist Kirk Windstein, guitarist Matt Thomas, bassist Todd Strange, and drummer Craig Numenmacher. |
 | | A rhythm section that says "Guitarists? We don't need no steenkin' guitarists!," Big Business is a two-piece band that does the sludgy, low-end stoner metal thing as well as any more fully populated act. |
 | | Canadian doom metal outfit Bison B.C. (the "B.C." was added as a precautionary measure to avoid any potential legal problems with bands that were inspired to name themselves after the same beast) grew out of the fertile ground of popular Vancouver "skate-thrash" band S. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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). |
 | | Washington, D.C.'s Pig Destroyer combine hardcore with the heaviest of heavy metal, creating one of the most powerful and explosive metallic hybrids to be heard in quite some time. |
 | | New Jersey's Burnt by the Sun was formed in November 1999 by ex-Human Remains drummer David Witte and guitarist John Adubato. |
 | | Although they borrow their moniker from the capital city of the country of Belarus, Minsk actually hail from Peoria, IL, of all places, where the bandmembers began working on demos circa 2002, inspired by a cross section of ancient doom and futuristic post-metal that was growing quite popular at the time thanks to the emergence of groups like Isis, Cult of Luna, and Rwake. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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). |
 | | Coalesce's music has consistently pushed the boundaries of the hardcore and metal genres, forging a mind-boggling obsession with strange, shifting tempos with power, noise, groove, and a creativity paralleled only by the band's peers in Dillinger Escape Plan and Botch. |
![Null [EP] Album Cover](http://images.slacker.com/isv1/album/v1/786009/aol/1/center/5,0/70.jpg "Null [EP] Album Cover")
