Metal Monday: A Look at Metal Supergroups

posted in: Features • Rock

Imagine for a second that you’re Scott “Wino” Weinrich of Saint Vitus and The Obsessed fame, and you have had a shortage of musical projects to work on. Maybe you have a few friends and colleagues who are in a similar situation. Wouldn’t the obvious choice here be to form a band or project with those fellow musicians? Of course it is the obvious choice, and so that is exactly what Wino did.  A few years ago, he teamed up with Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Al Cisneros (Sleep) and Dale Crover (Melvins) to form the supergroup Shrinebuilder (although the exact point when the group went from speculated project to fruition is still a bit unclear). The group’s self-title debut came out in October of ’09 to much excitement and critical acclaim.

As one might assume, Shrinebuilder are not the first heavy metal supergroup. Far from it, in fact. However, Shrinebuilder is one of the few bands in recent years to get it right. On the other side of the spectrum, you have the colossal flop that is Damnocracy. Listen up because this is how not to form a supergroup? Stick five previously established and legendary musicians into a house that is too small to fit their collective ego, film them every second of every day then air the mess on VH1. To make sure epic fail is secure, pick musicians who play vastly different styles of music and have opposing ideologies and view. That’s pretty much what happend with the band made up of Jason Bonham (John Bonham’s son), Ted Nugent, Scott Ian (Anthrax ), Sebastian Bach (Skid Row fame) and Evan Seinfeld (Biohazard)? Bottom line: Bands don’t need reality TV drama, they have their own.

There are also the bands that simply adopt a new member from a another famous band ( cue up Audioslave). Audioslave took a lot of undeserved heat from Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine fans while they were together. At the very least, Audioslave kept Chris Cornell from releasing his most recent embarrassing solo collaboration with famed hip hop producer Timbaland, and also kept the guys from Rage Against the Machine (namely Tom Morello) in the spotlight.

Another type of super group is the “superproject” which is not much different than a supergroup except that it’s only planned to be a one-time deal. The most prominent of these examples are Probot, Roadrunner United and Nuclear Blast All-Stars. Probot is the project that Dave Grohl organized to fulfill all of his metal dreams (we all know Nirvana was’t the heaviest band around. After all, they were the front-runners of the genre that “killed” metal in the nineties). Grohl co-wrote and recorded an album with some of the metal legends he idolized, such as Lemmy, King Diamond, Cronos and Max Cavalera. The Roadrunner United and Nuclear Blast All-Stars were albums in celebration of the label’s 25th and 20th anniversaries, respectively. Both projects drew from the most notable and great musicians from the labels, past and present. In all three cases, the final outcomes were better than the sum of their parts (as every band/project should be).

Whether the supergroup succeeds or fails is based strongly on the nature in which the band is formed. It is not the type of things that can be done ham-handedly, nor can it work as a coerced coexistence. Supergroups can be special, so long as their super powers are used for good, not evil.

If you’re curious about some other hard rock and metal supergroups, here are some more you should check out: Down, Hellyeah, Velvet Revolver, SOD, A Perfect Circle, Bloodbath, Temple of the Dog, Fantí´mas, Demons & Wizards and Liquid Tension Expiriement.