Metalheads love gatekeeping, and most common way to gatekeep is to keep a running list of UNTRVE bands. Sure, we haven’t actually LISTENED to the bands on our list, but we know if we hear the name Five Finger Death Punch or Sevendust, it’s coming out of the mouth of a poseur.
Today, I wanted to look at bands that make those lists confusing by sharing a name with a well known radio “metal” band–the kind of bands to which you have to append a “no, not that one” in any SERIOUS metal discussion. I’ve also tried to not just pick random bands that put out one demo under a shared name. So, sure, there’s a Creed (Ger) and a Slipknot (1989) out there, but they didn’t exactly make an impact in the true metal underground. So, below, are the top five most IMPORTANT metal bands that share a name with a non-KVLT metal [and/or metal adjacent] band.
Xibalba
Xibalba is a foundational Mexican black metal band that influenced a legion (or at least one or two guys putting out a legion of albums) of present day indigenous NSBM. Xibalba weren’t racist like the current Mexican scene, but they were a decade or two ahead of their time when it came incorporating traditional indigenous folk into black metal like the song “Itzam Cab Ain Katun”:
It’s all-timer stuff, so I’m always annoyed when people think I am talking about the completely worthless and total shit death/metalcore Xibalba (also from Mexico):
Which, having finally listened to them for the first time, I must admit…that song, “Cold,” goes kind of hard…if you are in to that kind of thing.
Six Feet Under
Six Feet Under almost breaks my “they needed to have made an impact” rule, though Sweden’s Six Feet Under did put out two mid-80s semi…if not classics…respected albums. It’s not the heaviest stuff, even for traditional heavy metal, and runs dangerously close to jock rock, but “I’m Gonna Win” from their first (organ-heavy and Deep Purplesque) album is a catchy good time:
On the other side of things, Cannibal Corpse was a constant touring presence back in the day, and I would need at LEAST two hands to count the number of their shows I walked out on out of boredom. So you can imagine how I felt about the debut of Six Feet Under, their vocalist’s new band that somehow managed to be the same as Cannibal Corpse, except with ONLY the boring parts:
Six Feet Under always had a few scattered decent moments (like the groove-metal Bolt Thrower vibe in this song “Lycanthropy”), but goddamn, at what cost?? I’ll tell you what cost…that bullshit syncopated opening riff.
Poison
There is a whole section of the underground devoted to worshiping bands like Poison. Completely filthy first wave black metal, temporally displaced to about 5 years ahead of their time, sitting there singing about “Yog Sothoths” like a festering corpse in the middle of a Six Feet Under (Swe) show that is just trying to have a good time singing about how they are gonna WIN:
The Poison we all know on the other hand, is about the lamest shit this side of a Six Feet Under (US) riff:
There is actually a bit of metal promise hiding under all the cheese in a song like “Talk Dirty to Me,” but considering the main vibe here is “1950s Oldie,” there’s no way this song even gets to the waiting room of THE HALL.
Attila
Attila only put out one album in 1986 (Rolling Thunder) and then disappeared right back into the pit of obscurity from which they came. However, the songs have lasted through the years to rise above their peers and tracks like “Turn up the Power” actually earn their title:
The modern Attila was a band I’d never even heard of until this post, but this song “About that Life” somehow has 18 MILLION views on youtube:
I know I’ve got no room to talk, but Jesus Goddamned Christ is that a pile of shit. Look how they massacred my metal…
Incubus
There are actually a lot of bands named Incubus on Metal Archives (which is to say, they passed the minimum “yes, this is metal” test). Many of them are quite good (even great like the first wave black metal Incubus from Georgia (US)), but the easy stand out is the Christian (!) death metal Incubus from Louisiana:
There are a LOT of evil satanic death metal bands out there that should hang their heads in shame that they got bodied by a bunch of bible beaters when it comes to “Serpent Temptation’s” speed and aggression.
As for the mainstream Incubus, after skipping around a lot of their famous songs, there’s really nothing metal about them. But, you have to understand that in High School when I said I liked metal, songs like “New Skin” is what people assumed I meant:
And I’ve never forgotten.
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