rock

Mushroomhead

2 festivals played ↓

Cleveland masked-metal institution predating most of the nu-metal wave — painted faces, dual vocalists and a rotating cast held together for decades.

Mushroomhead started in Cleveland's Warehouse District in 1993 as a side project for musicians already playing in other local bands. Days after their first show, the group was booked to open for GWAR at the Cleveland Agora in front of roughly 2,000 people, their second gig ever, and masks and stage names set the project apart from the members' other bands.

The group settled on a large lineup built around drums and percussion, keyboards and sampling, and more than one vocalist, with members performing under stage names rather than their own.

The music combines metal riffing with industrial textures, sampled noise and melodic clean singing traded against harsher vocals, and the live show has long leaned on visual staging, including percussion played on water-filled drums.

The band self-released three albums in the 1990s, Mushroomhead in 1995, Superbuick in 1996 and M3 in 1999, through its own label before signing to Eclipse Records in 2000. The compilation XX sold nearly 40,000 copies within a few months, leading to a deal with Universal Records and a slot on Ozzfest 2002.

2003's XIII debuted at No. 40 on the Billboard 200 and sold 400,000 copies worldwide, producing the single "Sun Doesn't Rise," which appeared on the Freddy vs Jason soundtrack. Longtime vocalist J Mann left the band in 2004 and was replaced by Waylon Reavis; drummer and co-founder Steve Felton has remained the one constant across three decades of lineup turnover.

Read more

rock