 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Hailing from Palm Desert, CA, Kyuss (pronounced "kai-uss") has become something like a heavy metal equivalent to the Velvet Underground. |
 | | Southern California's Fu Manchu began crafting heavy, psychedelic-tinged rock in 1990 with their debut single, "Kept Between Trees. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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 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. |
 | | Retro-rock visionaries Monster Magnet spent much of the 1990s struggling against the prejudices imposed upon image and sound by alternative rock fashion nazis. |
 | | 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 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | It seems that with each change of season, a member of Queens of the Stone Age is issuing a new album by one of their many side projects, as early 2004 saw the release of the debut full-length by the Eagles of Death Metal, Peace, Love & Death Metal. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Madison, WI's Bongzilla specialize in uncommonly heavy and doomy sludge-core dedicated to their one and only love: weed. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Black Sabbath have been so influential in the development of heavy metal rock music as to be a defining force in the style. |
 | | Slo Burn proved to be a quick pit stop in vocalist John Garcia's transition from desert metal gods Kyuss to stoned groovers Unida. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Led by singer/guitarist Chris Goss, Masters of Reality were something of an anomaly on the late-'80s/early-'90s rock scene, playing a strongly Cream- and Zeppelin-influenced brand of hard rock with modern touches. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | An alt/classic rock supergroup, Them Crooked Vultures feature Queens of the Stone Age's guitarist and vocalist Josh Homme, Nirvana/Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl on drums, and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on bass. |
 | | The Atomic Bitchwax originated as a side project of Monster Magnet lead guitarist Ed Mundell, ex-Godspeed bassist/vocalist Chris Kosnik, and drummer Keith Ackerman. |
 | | 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). |
 | | 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. |
 | | In many ways, Alice in Chains was the definitive heavy metal band of the early '90s. Drawing equally from the heavy riffing of post-Van Halen metal and the gloomy strains of post-punk, the band developed a bleak, nihilistic sound that balanced grinding hard rock with subtly textured acoustic numbers. |
 | | Earth's drone-heavy experimentation is largely the result of its one lasting member, guitarist Dylan Carlson. |
 | | Formed in Oakland, California in late 1985, Neurosis developed a style blending industrial, heavy metal, and alternative rock with often spiritually focused lyrics. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Whether you find it offensive or amusing, the name Alabama Thunderpussy has a way of getting a person's attention. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Following the dissolution of stoner rock icons Kyuss, singer John Garcia formed Unida with guitarist Arthur Seay, bassist Dave Dinsmore, and drummer Mike Cancino. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Originally tapped Green Machine, the Canadian prog metal band Sheavy formed in 1993 with the lineup of frontman Steve Hennessey, guitarists Dan Moore and Sterling Robertson, bassist Paul Grouchy, and drummer Ren Squires. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Soundgarden made a place for heavy metal in alternative rock. Their fellow Seattle rockers Green River may have spearheaded the grunge sound, but they relied on noise rock in the vein of the Stooges. |
 | | One of Sweden's first and most enduring stoner rock bands, Dozer were formed in 1995 by vocalist and guitarist Frederik Nordin, lead guitarist Tommi Holappa, drummer Erik Bäckwall, and bassist Magnus Larsson, who would soon quit to pursue a martial arts career and be replaced by Johan Rockner. |
