hard rock

Staind

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Aaron Lewis-fronted Massachusetts band whose heavy, confessional post-grunge dominated late-'90s and 2000s rock radio — reunited and playing loud again.

Staind formed in Springfield, Massachusetts, with Aaron Lewis on vocals, Mike Mushok on guitar, Johnny April on bass and Jon Wysocki on drums. Lewis and Mushok met at a Christmas party, and Mushok brought in Wysocki while Lewis recruited April; the band played its first show in February 1995.

The band self-released its debut album, Tormented, in 1996, citing Tool, Faith No More and Pantera as influences. A support slot with Limp Bizkit, arranged through one of Lewis's relatives, caught the attention of Fred Durst, who signed the band to Flip Records in 1998, and Staind played dates on that year's Vans Warped Tour.

Their major-label debut, Dysfunction, followed in 1999, co-produced by Durst and Terry Date and drawing comparisons to Tool and Korn, with Lewis's vocals likened to Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder. The band came up alongside the nu metal wave of the late 1990s, pairing downtuned, heavy guitar with Lewis's plainspoken, often bleak lyrics about addiction, family and self-doubt.

The 2001 album Break the Cycle brought the band to a much wider audience, going five times platinum and topping the Billboard 200 behind the ballad "It's Been Awhile," a top-five hit. The following two albums also reached number one, and further singles including "Fade," "So Far Away," "Right Here" and "Believe" became rock and crossover hits.

Wysocki left in 2011 and was replaced by Sal Giancarelli. Staind went quiet in the mid-2010s while Lewis pursued a solo career in country music, then reconvened at the end of the decade and returned to touring and recording. Live, the band's set moves between the heavier material and the acoustic-leaning songs that became radio staples.

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