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Curated playlist

American alternative metal musical groups

  • SoundgardenSoundgarden took its name from a sculpture of wind-channeling pipes called A Sound Garden. The artwork stands on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration property at 7600 Sand Point Way, beside Magnuson Park in Seattle. The band…
  • KornKorn's backward R comes from the Toys R Us logo, a store where several members once worked.
  • Slipknot (band)Slipknot, an American heavy metal band from Des Moines, Iowa, once played the Download Festival to roughly 90,000 people and had to stop its set twice. The date was the 14th of June 2013. The front barricade had split open under pressure…
  • Linkin ParkLinkin Park formed in 1996 in Agoura Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, and went on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide. Its founders were high school friends with a bedroom studio and no record deal. Years of…
  • Stone Temple PilotsIn January 1994, a Rolling Stone poll handed Stone Temple Pilots two opposite verdicts at the same moment. The magazine's readers voted them Best New Band. The magazine's own critics voted them Worst New Band. Stone Temple Pilots, an…
  • EvanescenceEvanescence, an American rock band from Little Rock, Arkansas, once had its music judged by rock radio in the form of a single incredulous question: "A chick and a piano? Are you kidding? On rock radio?" That is how Ed Vetri, the president…
  • System of a DownSystem of a Down, an Armenian-American metal band from Glendale, California, planned a thank-you gift for its fans on the 3rd of September 2001. The gift was a free concert in Hollywood to launch the band's second album. The site was a…
  • Rage Against the MachineRage Against the Machine, a rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1991, had sold more than 16 million records worldwide by 2010. On the 3rd of November 2023, Ice-T inducted the group into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Barclays Center in…
  • Alice in ChainsAlice in Chains formed in Seattle in 1987 around four musicians: guitarist Jerry Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney, singer Layne Staley and bassist Mike Starr. They rose alongside Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, and the world filed them…
  • Tool (band)Tool, the American rock band from Los Angeles, once announced an album that did not exist. In January 2001, the group revealed a record called Systema Encéphale and published a twelve-song track list. The titles included "Riverchrist",…
  • Limp BizkitLimp Bizkit chose its name to chase certain listeners away. Singer Fred Durst said as much: "The name is there to turn people's heads away." He pictured shoppers picking up the disc and muttering, "Limp Bizkit. Oh, they must suck." Those,…
  • Queens of the Stone AgeQueens of the Stone Age is an American rock band, and four men connected to it share a tattoo that reads Freitag 4:15. The words mark the starting time of a set at the Rock am Ring festival in Germany in 2001. Josh Homme, the band's singer…
  • DeftonesDeftones, an alternative metal band from Sacramento, California, begins with a skateboarding accident. At 15, Stephen Carpenter was hit by a car while riding. He spent several months in a wheelchair. During that time, he taught himself…

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