There’s a misconception at the heart of the supergroup. The idea of an all-star collaboration implies that fame is a sign of excellent music-making, when so much more frequently it’s chemistry between musicians that makes a great band a great band. This is why so many metal celebrity team-ups, from Damnocracy to Device, have turned out crap.
However, sometimes, an excellent team-up of well-known faces sneaks through the cracks. Hammer’s listed below 10 times where familiar metal stars came together and actually lived up to the sum of their parts – or even bettered it. From Murderdolls to Bloodbath, these are the best supergroups in metal history:
Murderdolls
When Slipknot went on hiatus after the Iowa cycle, drummer Joey Jordison formed this horror punk tandem with Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 frontman Wednesday 13. Their debut album, Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls, became so beloved among millennials that the duo even carved a legacy outside The Nine.
Audioslave
Following Rage Against The Machine’s end in 2000, the rap metal iconoclasts’ instrumentalists united with ex-Soundgarden man Chris Cornell. The parties’ styles had next to nothing in common – yet, they were able to find common ground in swelling, evocative alt-metal. Audioslave’s three albums were all commercially successful and critically lauded.
Roadrunner United
To celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2005, Roadrunner Records amassed a who’s who from its star-studded roster (including Trivium, Machine Head, Slipknot and Fear Factory) to create Roadrunner United. Debut album The All-Star Sessions and the project’s sole gig together were one-offs, but have since entered heavy metal legend.
Killer Be Killed
Soulfly, Mastodon, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge all boast spotless back-catalogues, so a supergroup with one member of each band needed to be spectacular. Fortunately – in their collision of sludge and prog metal with infectious hard rock – Killer Be Killed answered the hype. Both their albums proved to be magnificent.
Nailbomb
During Sepultura’s downtime post-Chaos A.D., leader Max Cavalera united with Alex Newport of UK sludge crew Fudge Tunnel. That lineage – not to mention the incensed industrial metal attack of the pair’s sole album together, Point Blank – was only strengthened by Fear Factory’s Dino Cazares and Sepultura’s Andreas Kisser and Iggor Cavalera.
Bloodbath
Members of Katatonia co-founded Bloodbath as a jovial throwback to Swedish death metal’s heyday. Since then, though, the band have become no-nonsense icons of their genre, with their list of singers being three of the greatest the scene’s ever had: Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt, Hypocrisy’s Peter Tägtren and Paradise Lost’s Nick Holmes.
Stormtroopers Of Death (S.O.D.)
Anthrax had three days left in the studio after recording Spreading The Disease. So, for a laugh, Scott Ian and Charlie Benante reunited with ex-bassist Dan Lilker for a tongue-in-cheek project. The result, S.O.D.’s Speak English Or Die, is today considered a masterpiece in mixing thrash and hardcore punk.
Fantômas
Fantômas are your favourite band’s favourite band. Although Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, Dave Lombardo and Buzz Osbourne’s extreme sonic experiments were never going to land them mainstream success, they’ve been named as an inspiration by forces as seismic as Tool, Slipknot and Mastodon. Their Delìrivm Còrdia album is particularly distressing yet ingenious.
Tomahawk
Another Mike Patton project, Tomahawk united the Faith No More polymath with The Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison, Melvins bassist Kevin Rutmanis and Helmet drummer John Stanier. The four-piece’s output has ranged from Native American folk music to the dizzying yet infectious rock songs of their latest album, 2021’s Tonic Immobility.
The Damned Things
When he’s not filling stadiums with Fall Out Boy, guitarist Joe Trohman leads The Damned Things: a rock/punk/metal collective that’s also contained Anthrax’s Scott Ian and ex-Every Time I Die singer Keith Buckley. The project’s only made two albums since 2010, but both have received rave reviews for their slick, tasteful melodies.
