 | | 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. |
 | | Biohazard was one of the first bands to regularly incorporate elements of both hip-hop and hardcore metal into their sound; since their lyrical fare dealt with the harshness of urban life and the resulting anger and frustration, which both genres of music have been known to address, the connection only made sense, especially in light of Anthrax's highly effective collaboration with Public Enemy on 1991's "Bring the Noise. |
 | | Until Nine Inch Nails crossed over to the mainstream, Ministry did more than any other band to popularize industrial dance music, injecting large doses of punky, over-the-top aggression and roaring heavy metal guitar riffs that helped their music find favor with metal and alternative audiences outside of industrial's cult fan base. |
 | | Jerry Cantrell first came to prominence as a member of Alice in Chains, one of the prototypical Seattle grunge bands. |
 | | 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. |
 | | GWAR (popularly thought to be an acronym for God What an Awful Racket, despite the band's protests to the contrary) are thrash metal's answer to the more mainstream satire of Spinal Tap. |
 | | Retro-rock visionaries Monster Magnet spent much of the 1990s struggling against the prejudices imposed upon image and sound by alternative rock fashion nazis. |
 | | With their fusion of heavy metal, funk, hip-hop, and progressive rock, Faith No More has earned a substantial cult following. |
 | | 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). |
 | | The most original rock bassist to come along in the '90s was unquestionably Primus' Les Claypool. With his oddball sense of humor and funky playing, Claypool took his varied musical influences and created an invigorating and completely inventive style. |
 | | Perry Farrell's post-Jane's Addiction band, Porno for Pyros, followed the same path as his previous band, combining art rock, punk, heavy metal, and funk into one shrieking whole. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Quite a few side projects containing members of renowned Seattle-based rock bands appeared through the '90s. |
 | | 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). |
 | | New York goth metal quartet Type O Negative were led by vocalist/bassist/songwriter Peter Steele and featured guitarist Ken Hickey, keyboardist Josh Silver, and drummer Johnny Kelly. |
 | | Similar in style and approach to such industrial metal outfits as Ministry and KMFDM, Gravity Kills followed in their predecessor's path but ultimately failed to cause as big a splash. |
 | | Where many of their Seattle-based contemporaries dealt in reconstructed Black Sabbath and Stooges riffs, Screaming Trees fused '60s psychedelia and garage rock with '70s hard rock and '80s punk. |
 | | Vocalist Christopher Hall and keyboardist Walter Flakus met in 1985 and formed the industrial rock band Stabbing Westward in Chicago. |
 | | Upon his exit from Sepultura in late 1996, singer/guitarist/songwriter Max Cavalera almost automatically set out to form his next musical endeavor, the ultra-heavy Soulfly. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Mr. Bungle's sound and approach is a unique mix of the experimental, the abstract, and the absurd (in other words, the finer things in life). |
 | | |
 | | Out of all of the bands that made SST Records a towering force in the American underground during the mid-'80s, Meat Puppets lasted the longest, surviving where other bands fell apart. |
 | | While one might imagine Maynard James Keenan would have enough going on to keep him busy as a frontman with the groups Tool and A Perfect Circle, in 2007 he decided to record an album under yet another name with Puscifer. |
 | | Nirvana may have been the band that put an entire generation in flannel, and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden both sold a lot more records, but Mudhoney were truly the band that made the '90s grunge rock movement possible. |
 | | Sponge was one of the more underrated groups in the post-grunge boom of the mid-'90s. When they were on top of their game -- as evidenced by the hits "Plowed" and "Molly (Sixteen Candles)" -- the band's songs had a knack for jangly riffs and catchy, anthemic hard rock hooks, despite being wrapped in the fuzzy guitars and brooding seriousness that typified grunge music. |
 | | From their humble beginnings in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Sepultura went on to become the most successful Brazilian heavy metal band in history. |
 | | Coal Chamber broke out of the Los Angeles alternative metal scene in 1997 with a sound often compared to Korn, although both bands formed around the same time and are quality representations of the scene's overall sound -- the heavy, detuned guitars of the murkiest Black Sabbath, grungy, noisy textures reminiscent of White Zombie or Tool, the white-knuckle intensity of Pantera and hardcore punk, and perhaps a few hip-hop-influenced beats á la Biohazard. |
 | | Before Pearl Jam, there was Mother Love Bone. Future Pearl Jam members Stone Gossard (guitar) and Jeff Ament (bass) were founders of this Seattle-based glam/punk outfit, which was fronted by flamboyant singer Andrew Wood. |
 | | Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul started forming up Damageplan in early 2003, soon after the demise of their previous band, thrash metal heroes Pantera. |
 | | Richard Patrick (vocals, guitars, bass, programming, drums) and Brian Liesegang (programming, guitars, keyboards, drums) both experimented with electronics early in their careers. |
 | | Spawned by the fertile L.A. alt-metal scene, Orgy adds catchy melodic hooks to the familiar mix of crushingly loud riffs and electronic-tinged production. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Pleasantly inspired by the Beatles' psychedelic period as well as the more heavy riffers of the 1970s, alternative popsters Tripping Daisy came together in Dallas in 1991. |
 | | Nearly as much as Metallica or Megadeth, Anthrax were responsible for the emergence of speed and thrash metal. |
 | | Schoolgirls Mercedes Lander (drums) and Fallon Bowman (guitar) met in gym class and said, "Let's play together!" And thus, Kittie was born. |
 | | System of a Down founder Serj Tankian was born on August 21, 1967, in Beirut, Lebanon. He and his family immigrated to Los Angeles in 1975. |
 | | For metalheads who thought bands like W.A.S.P. and Mötley Crüe just weren't menacing or heavy enough, White Zombie was the perfect antidote for a period of time during the mid- to late '90s, as they fused B-horror movie visuals and subject matter with heavy music and growled vocals. |
 | | After falling out with mentor Ozzy Osbourne following the recording sessions for 1995's Ozzmosis, guitarist Zakk Wylde struck out on his own with his first solo album, Book of Shadows, in 1996. |
 | | Judging from their name, Suicidal Tendencies were never afraid of a little controversy. Formed in Venice, CA, during the early '80s, the group's leader from the beginning was outspoken vocalist Mike Muir. |
 | | Best known for their unorthodox two-man lineup, hard rock act Local H have made a career out of straddling the fine line between indie and classic rock, cleverly framing their sardonic lyrics with a generous helping of power chords and feedback. |
 | | Nine Inch Nails were the most popular industrial group ever and were largely responsible for bringing the music to a mass audience. |
 | | Best known as the creators of the 1995 grunge staple "Possum Kingdom," the Toadies formed in 1989 and spent their infancy playing shows in Fort Worth, TX. |
 | | Tool's greatest breakthrough was to meld dark underground metal with the ambition of art rock. Although Metallica wrote their multi-sectioned, layered songs as if they were composers, they kept their musical attack ferociously at street level. |
 | | Once the kings of the Bay Area metal scene -- the birthplace of thrash -- Exodus were unceremoniously demoted from their post with the arrival of Los Angeles' Metallica in 1982. |
 | | Fear Factory were one of the first bands to fuse the loud, crushing intensity of death metal with the cold harshness of industrial electronics and samples, producing a more varied sonic palette with which to express their bleak, pessimistic view of modern, technology-driven society. |
 | | Originally finding success as the frontman of Seattle's Soundgarden, rock vocalist Chris Cornell forged a successful career after the band's 1997 demise, both with the supergroup Audioslave and as a diverse solo artist. |
 | | Temple of the Dog was a one-album project conceived in 1990. The purpose of Temple of the Dog was to pay tribute to the late Andrew Wood, the lead singer of Mother Love Bone, who died of a heroin overdose in 1990. |
 | | Deftones were one of the first groups to alternate heavy riffs and screamed vocals with more ethereal music and hushed singing -- spawning a fair amount of imitators in their wake. |
 | | Formed by Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan and former Tool guitar tech Billy Howerdel, A Perfect Circle is an extension of the alt-metal-fused-with-art rock style popularized by Tool in the early to mid-'90s. |
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