Important Short Lived Metal Bands

This week we are going to be discussing a few metal bands that didn’t exist for very long, but have since had an extraordinary impact on heavy metal music. All of these groups released at most two albums, and are not together today. Many of them are very unlikely to reform again.

Listed below are five of the most important short lived heavy metal bands. Take a look!

1. Hellhammer 

Hellhammer only put out an EP, but the influence of that EP was monumental within black metal. At the time of the EP’s release, it was the most extreme record to ever be put out by a metal band. Some critics hated it, but others loved it. Many bands took influence from it, and with that, the first wave of black metal had begun. The members of Hellhammer regrouped after the band's demise as Celtic Frost, where they achieved greater success. Hellhammer wasn’t around for long, but it completely changed extreme metal forever.

2. Acid Bath

This group is one of my personal favorite metal bands. Acid Bath existed from 1991 to 1997 and put out two albums. These albums are stoner metal classics and have been hugely influential within the scene. Acid Bath played a style of music that combined many different subgenres of heavy metal, but the band’s roots were primarily in stoner metal and sludge metal. The experimental nature that sludge metal has taken on can be partially attributed to Acid Bath’s two records. The band dissolved with the death of bassist Audie Pitre, who contributed a lot to the band’s sound. Since the band’s break-up, vocalist Dax Riggs has taken a bluesy, stoner rock route with Agents of Oblivion, Deadboy and the Elephantmen and his solo work. Guitarist Sammy Duet has had some success with his blackened death metal act, Goatwhore. The musicians who were involved with Acid Bath have a strong cult following, particularly in Louisiana, where the group originated. 

3. Weakling

Weakling put out one album. That’s all it took for the group to leave a permanent mark on black metal. Weakling was around from 1998 to 1999, with its only album coming out in 2000. The group put out a legendary black metal album that practiced a unique style of depressive, progressive black metal. Not many bands have really tried to mimic Weakling, but countless groups have been influenced by them. Wolves in the Throne Room is the closest metalheads will probably ever get to hearing more of Weakling’s style of music. John Gossard, one of the group’s essential members, has since gone on to perform with Asunder and Dispirit, which are two other bands that are certainly worth checking out.

4. SikTh

It might be cheating to include this band. SikTh was around for nine years, but the band only put out two albums. SikTh’s influence has been extraordinary since its dissolution. The band played a unique style of progressive metal. It sounded like no one else at the time, and fans were astounded by the unique music. Since SikTh broke up, many bands have taken influence from the group. Periphery is the most notable of these acts, and as I have mentioned in other posts, Periphery’s influence on the progressive metal and djent communities has been astounding. Periphery would not exist without SikTh, though. Musically speaking, I think SikTh is the superior band and was way ahead of its time. The band’s influence will certainly be strongly felt for a long time to come. SikTh keeps hinting at a reunion, but no plans have been confirmed. Keep your fingers crossed, metalheads.

5. Amesoeurs

So many metal bands that are being formed today are influenced by Amesoeurs. This group only existed from 2004 to 2009, but its impact has already proven to be immense. The group was one of the first to combine black metal and shoegaze, and its only record (which is self-titled) is better than 99% of the bands that came after it. This style of music had already started to be pioneered by Neige from the French metal band, Alcest. He brought his expertise to Amesoeurs, as musicians Sylvian (Peste Noire), Fursy Teyessier (Les Discrets) and Winterhalter (Alcest, Peste Noire) had not been as experienced at the time of the recording of Amesoeurs’ only album. At the time of the record’s release, it got a moderate amount of critical praise, but black metal fans were more than touched by the album’s style. There are now many metal groups modeling themselves after Amesoeurs, though none are nearly as good.

Mathcore

Hello, metalheads! This week we are going to talk about one of metalcore’s distant cousins known as mathcore. Similar to metalcore, mathcore combines heavy metal with hardcore punk. The difference between the two subgenres is that mathcore relies more on the harshness of hardcore punk as well as peculiar time signatures in order to create complex rhythms and musical sequences. For those who have listened to math rock bands such as Slint, Shellac, Don Caballero and Chavez, it may be easier to think of mathcore as the combination of math rock, hardcore punk, and heavy metal.

Mathcore was initially pioneered in the 1990s with bands such as Converge, Cave In and Botch helping to shape the basis of the subgenre. The term “mathcore” wasn’t really coined until The Dillinger Escape Plan released their debut album, Calculating Infinity, in 1997. This record was considered to be a very focused avant-garde metal album that was more distinguished than some of mathcore’s earlier releases, therefore requiring the invention of a new subgenre name. The Dillinger Escape Plan continues to experience great success today and is still one of the most popular bands in the subgenre.

The popularity of mathcore has increased greatly since the 1990s, and in the 2000s a new wave of mathcore groups appeared. One of the most popular mathcore groups of this new wave was Norma Jean, who made mathcore sound a bit more commercial by containing sequences of metalcore within their music. Other notable mathcore bands of the 2000s include The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Car Bomb and Daughters.

One more obscure mathcore band that needs to be talked about is the group SikTh. SikTh combined progressive metal with mathcore in order to create a very unique style of heavy metal. There has been a very recent wave of bands that have taken major influence from SikTh’s two records, subsequently bringing them into the spotlight of mainstream heavy metal after SikTh’s break-up in 2008. SikTh is regarded as a very important mathcore band because they are influencing many new bands today, the majority of which are pioneering a new subgenre called djent, which we will talk about in a few weeks. 

Generally speaking, mathcore is a highly acclaimed subgenre of heavy metal. Critics are particularly appreciative of the pioneers of the subgenre, with Converge specifically receiving extraordinary reviews. Similarly, fans of heavy metal also appreciate the creativity and complexity of mathcore, allowing mathcore to thrive in the underground of heavy metal today.