Punk singers are a different breed. Not only do they have to sing with conviction, but they also need to possess tremendous energy, flinging themselves around onstage or barrelling into a crowd, while standing for something. Since the genre’s inception, there have been a ton of standouts, so we turned to our readers and asked them to vote on the best punk vocalists of all time. They nominated many names, reaching back to the old guard and shining a light on modern heroes, but, ultimately, we’re only looking at a handful.

Read more: 50 best albums of 2023

From Glenn Danzig to Billie Joe Armstrong, find the top fan picks ranked below.

5. Jello Biafra

Jello Biafra stands tall among the greatest vocalists in history. During his time with Dead Kennedys, and long after, he penned cutting lyrics that pushed back against the era’s political climate, which he delivered in a shaky vibrato. It made his singing sound cartoonish and strange even though he was addressing real issues and people, like on the diss track “California Über Alles.” Along with a sardonic wit and boundless, madball energy, Biafra made a unique mark on the genre that can’t be replicated.

4. Glenn Danzig

Misfits have cast a formidable shadow over punk, in large part due to their ghoulish frontman Glenn Danzig. Inspired by watching Elvis Presley dominate on Jailhouse Rock while he was cutting school, Danzig went on to become just as influential as his hero, as he earned the nickname Evil Elvis with his ghostly cries. His singing made the band’s furious tunes more theatrical, haunting, and larger than life, best heard on their 1982 grave stomp Walk Among Us. 

3. Joey Ramone

The Ramones wouldn’t be nearly as influential without their frontman’s distinctive style. Overtop the band’s three-chord blitz, Joey Ramone let out alluring croons (“I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”) and spun unforgettable choruses by keeping the songs simple (“Sheena is a Punk Rocker”). His ability to weave between varying styles made him one of the most remarkable voices in the genre — and there’s still nobody who sounds like him.

2. Greg Graffin

For many, Bad Religion belong on punk’s Mount Rushmore. Part of that is because of lead singer and founding member Greg Graffin. He cites Neil Young, Todd Rundgren, and Elvis Costello as influences on his vocal style, as he employs more melody than ferocity. Along with his distinct vocal chops, Graffin also wrote songs that were existential and explored social commentary. After reading his lyrics, it makes total sense that he’d go on to pursue academia and earn a Ph.D. from Cornell University.

1. Billie Joe Armstrong

Green Day would be unrecognizable without Billie Joe Armstrong’s nasally vocals. His singing possesses a dark tone and a powerful range — particularly on 21st Century Breakdown — which helped bring the band to soaring heights. His vocals are also representative of the Bay Area, as Armstrong’s home turf was a lot more suburban and lax than his contemporaries, which lent to their goofy lyrics early on. Even now, weeks away from releasing their 14th studio album, Saviors, his voice hasn’t aged much, sounding eerily similar to those OG Green Day tapes.

Read more: 10 terrifying sci-fi horror films where no one can hear you scream

From Ice Nine Kills’ “Stabbing in the Dark” to Misfits’ “Halloween,” find the top fan picks ranked below.

5. Motionless in White – “Werewolf”

With their striking makeup and ghoulish appearance, Motionless in White seem to ring in Halloween all year long. The band have a slew of darkly titled songs that would be appropriate to soundtrack the holiday, but perhaps none better than “Werewolf.” The Scoring The End of The World cut is creepy, ferocious, and theatrical — all the best parts of MIW’s sound. The music video’s werewolf dance (and the band’s slick red jackets) even pay tribute to “Thriller,” which leads us to…

4. Michael Jackson – “Thriller”

When Michael Jackson released Thriller back in 1982 — when he was only 24 years old — it was hard to anticipate its power. One of the biggest-selling records of all time boasted the supernatural title track, which was given greater life by its campy music video, directed by John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers). Practically a mini-movie, the visual brimmed with romance, graveyards, and an immortal zombie dance that’s still performed to this day. It’s no wonder it went on to take over MTV.

3. Ice Nine Kills – “Stabbing in the Dark”

Ice Nine Kills’ music embodies the ultimate slasher movie. The band’s love of horror, especially frontman Spencer Charnas, is what drives them to dream up tight, unique concepts with a fair amount of gore. “Stabbing in the Dark,” off 2018’s The Silver Scream, reflects this greatly. Besides a chill-inducing title, the cut comes with an eight-minute visual, which is a tribute to John Carpenter’s horror franchise Halloween and features Michael Myers doing what he does best. It even nods to A Nightmare On Elm Street, as Ricky Dean Logan plays the security guard.

2. Danny Elfman – “This is Halloween”

Everyone knows The Nightmare Before Christmas is really a Halloween flick, and Danny Elfman’s “This is Halloween” is easily the most enduring song from the soundtrack. The track appears early in the film, performed by the community of Halloween Town and introducing their devotion to the holiday. Elfman even pulled out the song at Coachella in 2022 and could again when he plays Sick New World next year.

1. Misfits – “Halloween”

With Misfits, every day is Halloween. The New Jersey ghouls made an unstoppable legacy out of their love for horror films, comic books, and Edgar Allan Poe. Naturally, the punk song is eternally associated with the season, rippling with distorted, pummeling energy and Glenn Danzig’s ghostly cries. It’s even been picked up by their successors Alkaline Trio and AFI, which are drastically different covers but endearing nonetheless.

As drummer Travis Barker continues to heal from his recent finger surgery, you may be feeling hopeful for his speedy recovery, and eager to see blink-182 out on the road again soon.

While they may have had to reschedule a handful of dates and cancel several festival appearances, their major U.S. tour with the original lineup is still scheduled to kick off later this spring. The setlist is pretty fair game at this point — but the group is known to break out covers every now and then, from the Descendants to the Cure.

Read more: Every blink-182 album ranked

Back in 2014, blink-182 even covered punk-rock icons Misfits. The band whipped out the group’s beloved “Hybrid Moments” at a handful of festivals that year, including Amnesia Rockfest and Reading Festival. That was when lead singer Tom DeLonge was still in the group, before he departed the following year from then until 2022, so you can hear him on the cover — and his pop-punk vocals lend very well to the fast-paced punk anthem.

Blink’s “Hybrid Moments” cover isn’t the only time they paid homage to Misfits. They also played “Skulls” at a couple gigs in 2019, but of course DeLonge wasn’t on those renditions. Regardless, it only makes sense the band’s punk love runs deep.

As you wait patiently and get excited for blink-182 to play live again soon — and start thinking about your wish list of what songs they might cover this time around — check out the band’s “Hybrid Moments” cover from 2014 Reading Festival below.

The gigs will feature founding members Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only, as well as guitarist Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein and Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. Kicking off June 24 in Florida with Megadeth and Fear, the horror-punk icons will also play a home state show July 8 in Newark, New Jersey, opened by the Gaslight Anthem and Fear. The final performance takes place July 15 in Phoenix with AFI and Fear.

Read more: 10 bands that prove why Misfits endure, from Metallica to My Chemical Romance

“It’s time!” Danzig wrote on social media. “You have heard the rumblings beneath the graves. Will you walk among us?”

Tickets go on sale March 24 at 10 a.m. ET, and you can grab them here.

Check out the band’s announcement post and presale information below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqDcEzvrKIF/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

“Most of the songs I made that were on NEGATIVE, I could not really give a fuck about, to be honest. But now I’m stoked. Now, I’m proud of this stuff. If you had [talked to] me last year, I’d probably be telling you how my music sucks and how I’m gonna be quitting soon,” he says with a laugh. That’s coming from an artist who creates heart-on-sleeve, ’80s-flecked indie rock built for the SoundCloud era, whose single “i walk this earth all by myself” racked up over 2 million streams on the platform.

Read more: Why Wednesday Addams will always be a cult-favorite goth icon

Beyond any doubt, his latest album, misery, is a show of progression for the breakout rock star. Across its 10 tracks, EKKSTACY makes stylistic choices that portray a clear maturation, both in the influences that he pulls from (The Drums, Misfits, Christian Death) and the amount of confidence he displays on record. Even though EKKSTACY suggests that he “just got lucky,” you can tell it’s more than that. It’s his enthusiasm for his craft and all the music that he wasn’t alive to witness.

While NEGATIVE felt markedly raw and dark, misery leans even further into the realms of post-punk and goth rock. The tracks are draped in an ashen melancholy that speak on dread, death and love, channeling the graveyard stomp of Joy Division and Bauhaus. But while EKKSTACY embraces the darkness, his new music casts a contagious spell. There’s an unquestionable pop sense that enlivens the tracks, with EKKSTACY projecting his voice more than ever in hooks that’ll make you lose yourself in the music. Death looms, but there’s always time to dance.

“That’s what Misfits did for punk,” he points out. “They were making punk, but in the most pop way you could do it because of the melodies.”

EKKSTACY also reveled in familiarity by tapping producer MANGET$U, a longtime collaborator who he worked with on NEGATIVE. For two weeks, the pair toiled away in his Vancouver garage recording everything themselves on a makeshift setup, which mostly consisted of countless pedals, three guitars and a broken computer. “Everything sucked, but that’s because I like making [music] on trashy setups. I could go get a bunch of crazy shit, but I don’t want to. Takes away from it, I think,” he says.

Discovering the tone that colors “christian death,” a song titled after the ’80s goth-rock band of the same name, marked the turning point. Over a distorted guitar line that sounds like it’s careening toward a wall, EKKSTACY wails about how he wants to end it all. A day or two into the recording process, MANGET$U was messing around with the pedal knobs until he landed on a particular combination. As soon as EKKSTACY heard the tone, which is a blend of two different pedals, he “lost [his] shit.” It’s a cut that gave them structure and a template to follow. The duo then went to work making a “whole album based around that one feeling.” 

The process of making misery, he admits, made him fall in love with music again. Prior to creating the record, the recording artist didn’t like the songs he was creating and started to feel dejected, despite only beginning his career a few years ago. “I’m an extremist,” he says. “When something’s not good, it’s terrible, and when something’s good, it’s amazing. So I probably thought things were worse than they were, but I’m stoked [now].”

[Photo by Jordan Knight]

It’s that duality that makes his music so captivating. EKKSTACY balances blunt, revelatory lyrics overtop an uptempo edge. The subject matter ranges anywhere from cursed romance (“i wish you were pretty on the inside”) and contemplating his own fame (“i just want to hide my face”) to sadness and self-destruction (“​i want to sleep for 1000 years”). It all coalesces into a swirl of agony, propulsion and melodicism that flourishes live. He even admits that “christian death” is an extreme song “because the hook is so fucked up.”

“Everyone feels like that at some point, and it’s not [meant] to be taken so literally, either,” he muses. “Most people my age — when even the slightest thing goes wrong — they’re like, ‘Ah fuck, I wanna die.’ I’m not saying that’s what that song’s about, but a lot of people are desensitized to mostly everything at this point.”

He’s spot on. In a world inundated by doom-scrolling, insufferable politics and general ennui, it’s easy to give into apathy and tune out statements that would’ve turned heads a decade ago. EKKSTACY, though, refuses to release anything but songs that are completely unfiltered.

“I don’t get stoked off other people saying that the song’s good, and I really don’t care when people say my songs suck. [The music’s] the one thing I’m not insecure about anymore,” he says.

Going forward, EKKSTACY is by no means letting go of the chaos. “The next album is gonna be a shit show, which I’m excited for,” he says. The indie star is getting pulled into a sound check at the German festival, but before he logs off, he reveals dreams of collaborating with artists like Surf Curse and Joji (“I’m definitely a little bit in love with him,” he gushes, laughing). Plus, he plans on dipping even further into his goth influences for the next record, which could mean anything from getting heavier on synth to performing a séance onstage. It’s the mark of an artist who’s come out of his shell, stepping boldly toward his future.

EKKSTACY

Gallery Credit: Jordan Knight

Jordan Knight

EKKSTACY

Jordan Knight

EKKSTACY

Jordan Knight

EKKSTACY

Jordan Knight

EKKSTACY

Jordan Knight

EKKSTACY

Jordan Knight

EKKSTACY

Jordan Knight

EKKSTACY

Jordan Knight

EKKSTACY

Jordan Knight

EKKSTACY

Read more: Meet David Howard Thornton, the nightmarish killer clown from Terrifier 2

From Kim Petras to Type O Negative, these are the 13 artists to soundtrack your Halloween season. Chances are, you’ll discover some hidden gems along the way. 

Kim Petras 

Electropop star Kim Petras’ sophomore album Turn Off the Light beams with Halloween and horror references, set to the soundtrack of dark disco arrangements and chilling synths. The album finds Petras referencing classic Halloween movie scores as well as tales of zombies and vampires. She even enlists horror icon Elvira, Mistress of the Dark for the title track. If you’re throwing a Halloween party and want to get the entire room dancing, look no further than Kim Petras. 

Son of Sam 

While AFI frontman Davey Havok has been involved in several notable side projects, his work with the horror supergroup Son of Sam in the early 2000s was criminally underrated. Son of Sam released just one album with Havok on lead vocals titled Songs From The Earth (2001), which featured a stacked lineup of horror-punk icons — guitarist Todd Youth (Danzig) and bassist Steve Zing (Samhain) — to create a truly powerful blend of deathrock, psychobilly and the classic Misfits-inspired sound that was pivotal during the early days of AFI.

Carach Angren 

Black metal has always been associated with spooky imagery, the occult and Satan, but when you add orchestral and theatrical elements, it hits completely different. Carach Angren are a symphonic black-metal group from the Netherlands that offer the familiar onslaught of blast beats, fry screams and tremolo guitar sweeps you expect from most black-metal bands. But they add a nightmarish cinematic flair to their music that feels like a horror movie soundtrack from hell. If you’re a fan of bands like Cradle Of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, then you will be in for a treat with this eccentric black-metal group. 

Chelsea Wolfe 

Chelsea Wolfe has made a name for herself through her inimitable blending of genres ranging from folk, doom metal and ambient goth-rock — making her a truly versatile artist and enigmatic force you can’t help but be drawn to. Wolfe’s music is riddled with darkness and haunting, delicate energy that is perfect for a chilly autumn night while reading a classic horror novel with a cup of pumpkin spice coffee. 

Schoolyard Heroes 

During their short tenure as a band, Schoolyard Heroes released three exceptional horror-punk albums that toe the line between riot grrrl punk and hardcore to pop punk, with sugar-sweet choruses that tackle topics of the occult, macabre and the undead. The band’s breakthrough song “Dawn Of The Dead” showcases their intense and frenetic instrumentation, coupled with the sheer power and versatility of frontwoman Ryann Donnelly’s voice, which adds a sense of melody and catchiness through the darkness. Schoolyard Heroes’ music, while serious at its core, manages to be quite tongue in cheek with the lyricism, demonstrated brilliantly in songs such as “The Plastic Surgery Hall Of Fame,” “Blood-Spattered Sundress” and “Cemetery Girls.” 

Wednesday 13

Joseph Poole, better known as Wednesday 13, is a musician who lives and breathes horror. Initially coming to prominence as the frontman of the musical duo Murderdolls alongside former Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison, Wednesday 13 has carved out an impressive niche as a solo artist within the horror-punk and heavy-metal communities. From chilling synth lines to dark lyrics that contain classic horror references, Wednesday 13 is a logical choice for any Halloween playlist or a trip through a haunted house.

The Haxans 

The Haxans are a goth-pop duo consisting of New Years Day frontwoman Ash Costello (vocals) and Piggy D, the longtime bassist of horror-rock icon Rob Zombie. The band’s moniker is derived from the witchcraft-centered 1920s silent horror film Haxan, which couldn’t be a more fitting name considering the duo’s commitment to all things dark and the occult. With their unique blend of darkwave and industrial music, the Haxans’ are the perfect soundtrack for a black-clad night out on the town.

HorrorPops

Danish psychobilly group HorrorPops have been a staple in the horror-punk scene since the mid-1990s due to their energetic and captivating live shows and the undeniable star power of frontwoman and stand-up bass player Patricia Day. HorrorPops only released three studio albums before going on hiatus nearly a decade ago but have been playing more shows in honor of their anniversary, including When We Were Young. Queue up classic tunes such as “Walk Like A Zombie” and “Freaks In Uniforms” to get you amped for a wild and rowdy Halloween.

Twin Temple

Twin Temple are a Satanic doo-wop duo — yes, you read right that — who play a classic ‘50s-inspired blend of ritualistic rock ‘n’ roll. The band truly shine when it comes to writing love songs dedicated to Lucifer (case in point: the infectious track “Lucifer, My Love”) but also cover a great deal of social commentary with their music. Twin Temple’s powerhouse frontwoman Alexandra James’ voice is beautifully reminiscent of Amy Winehouse, and the humble duo have not only captivated audiences while touring alongside major rock acts such as Ghost but have also managed to piss off several far-right conservative groups along the way by being entirely themselves.

The Cramps 

With songs such as “I Was A Teenage Werewolf” and “The Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon,” the Cramps have been instrumental in forming the horror-punk genre we know and love today. Formed by the late Lux Interior and his wife Poison Ivy, the Cramps stood out due to their spooky imagery, lyrics and Interior’s howling vocal style. The Cramps have been cited as key influences on major artists such as AFI and Tiger Army, with an impact in the same vein as Misfits.

Alkaline Trio 

While punk mainstays Alkaline Trio have covered a significant amount of sonic avenues through their 25-year career, they’ve undoubtedly embodied the spirit of horror punk with the holy trinity of their three most beloved records — From Here to Infirmary, Good Mourning and Crimson. Notable tracks include “Mr. Chainsaw,” “We’ve Had Enough” and “Sadie,” the latter of which was written and named after one of the key members of Charles Manson’s murderous cult.

T.S.O.L. 

T.S.O.L. have always been known for their provocative and polarizing lyrics that border on disturbing and flat-out gross. However, they have carved out a unique niche within the horror-punk genre that has lasted since the late ‘70s. Upon first listening to the band’s classic song “Code Blue,” the lyrics, which detail a fictitious account of necrophilia, are certainly not for the faint of heart. Once you understand the metaphors in place, however, the band’s music is hard to ignore and makes for an unsettling but unforgettable listening experience.

Type O Negative 

Type O Negative frontman and chief songwriter Peter Steele was an unforgettable presence in the ’90s goth and metal scene through his dark, risque lyricism, evocative music and looking like a buffed-out version of Dracula. Steele sadly passed away in 2010, but Type O Negative left behind a legacy of spooktacular goth-metal classics that are the perfect soundtrack for any Halloween festivities. That includes “Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All),” a fan-favorite track that tells the tale of a love gone awry on All Hallows Eve.

One problem: After two years, HC became as stifling and rule-bound as punk. Certain bands such as Black Flag tossed the rule book out the window altogether around 1982 or ‘83. We can’t drop below 150 to 200 BPMs? Why don’t we drop to 30 BPMs? Then there was a natural inclination to go heavy metal.

Read more: 20 greatest punk-rock drummers of all time

The unimaginative stuck to the rulebook. The rest merged with metal, which wasn’t so far off in intent. But like metal or punk, hardcore never died. It hung around, had its periodic resurgences. And a curious thing happened — visionaries kept coming along. What if we didn’t always play loud and fast? Or pushed the ideas of loud and fast to ridiculous degrees? What if we folded in hip-hop/trip-hop/industrial production elements? What if we got less melodic? Or more melodic? Thank you, Refused, for obliterating that rulebook. Now hardcore is even more progressive and revolutionary than punk itself. There is no conservatism to be found within its sphere.

Please listen to our custom Spotify playlist as we chart the evolution of hardcore.

The Exploited – “Dead Cities”

With their 150 MPH polka-beat thrash rock, mohawks and studded leather jackets, Scottish imports the Exploited typified the U.K.’s version of hardcore, subsequently dubbed UK82 after one of their songs. “Dead Cities,” a blast of metallic guitar grind and dystopian lyrics, peaked at No. 31 on the U.K. singles chart in October 1981, landing them a memorable appearance on the BBC’s venerable weekly televised pop music survey Top Of The Pops. Slotted after venerable English pop act Godley And Creme, the sight of longstanding frontman Wattie Buchan and his towering orange mohawk ranting about urban decay amid exploding smoke bombs surely sparked several family arguments that night.

Bad Brains – “Banned In D.C.”

Washington, D.C.’s Bad Brains’ 1980 debut single “Pay To Cum” was one of the initial harbingers of hardcore’s arrival. Tight and fast, it proved superior musical chops were necessary to navigate such blazing tempos without slop. But it was “Banned In D.C.,” from their 1982 debut cassette, that established another hardcore tradition: the breakdown, in which the instrumentalists downshift to midtempo and carry out a stomping hard-rock section. In the hands of masters like Bad Brains, it’s a highly effective musical device.

GBH – “City Baby Attacked By Rats”

From Birmingham, England, the same industrial city that spawned Judas Priest, GBH were a key bridge from hardcore to speed metal. Fronted by singer Colin Abrahall’s exaggerated spikes, their velocity and guitarist Jock Blyth’s enormous roar influenced the virtual entirety of ‘80s underground metal, especially thrash metal’s Big Four: Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth. It’s tempting to say GBH hits such as “City Baby Attacked By Rats” invented the sound.

Dead Kennedys – “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”

The great political conscience of American punk rock, San Francisco’s Dead Kennedys played at the fairly typical Ramones-esque pace as any of their ‘70s peers on early singles such as “California Über Alles” and their debut album, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. As they traversed the U.S. in 1980 to promote their LP, they witnessed how local scenes were getting harder, faster and more aggressive, especially in LA and D.C. Hence 1981’s In God We Trust, Inc. EP saw the DKs achieving peak velocity, singer Jello Biafra breathless in his rush to cram his verbosity into one-minute blitzkriegs such as the anti-skinhead screed “Nazi Punks Fuck Off.”

Misfits – “We Bite”

New Jersey horror punks Misfits already left an enormous red stain upon American punk rock with their tuneful ‘50s-meets-Ramones music and singer Glenn Danzig’s midnight creature feature-inspired songwriting. Tracks from their debut album Walk Among Us such as “All Hell Breaks Loose” indicate punk’s ‘80s attempts at breaking land-speed records had penetrated Misfits’ basement practice pad. Come 1983’s Earth A.D., they were thrashing with impunity. Tracks such as “Green Hell” and “We Bite” in particular had a strong impact on Metallica, who covered “Green Hell” themselves.

Minor Threat – “Minor Threat”

D.C.’s Minor Threat not only learned how to rock from Bad Brains, but they also gained a sense of moral authority from them. They, after all, originated the ascetic straight-edge lifestyle, codifying its abstinence from drinking, drugs and promiscuity in leader Ian MacKaye’s lyrics. “Minor Threat,” the band’s theme song, flip-flopped the idea of the breakdown, short-circuiting its descent into a hardcore cliche with midtempo verses and blazing choruses. But it grapples with society’s idea of adulthood vs. retaining a youthful point of view in a surprisingly mature fashion: “It’s not how old I am, it’s how old I feel.”

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Black Flag – “Police Story”

Black Flag became America’s most identifiable hardcore band by not playing at tire-ripping, piston-stripping velocity. Instead, they redefined the idea of hardcore by concentrating on power, intensity and rage. At a time when LAPD Chief Daryl Gates routinely disrupted Black Flag shows with SWAT teams swinging batons unprovoked, guitarist Greg Ginn aimed his poison pen at the uniformed oppressors with remarkable clarity: “Understand that we’re fighting a war we can’t win/They hate us, we hate them/We can’t win!” With Henry Rollins perfectly articulating Ginn’s helpless anger, Black Flag forevermore became the perfect soundtrack for civil disobedience.

Cro-Mags – “Street Justice”

Black Flag had long moved on to being a molasses-slow sludge-metal act by the time Cro-Mags recorded their classic debut LP The Age Of Quarrel. Cro-Mags absorbed the heaviness but retained the speed, paying close attention to what the nascent speed-metal scene was up to. This marks bassist Harley Flanagan and singer John Joseph’s crew as one of the original crossover bands. “Street Justice” was a loud and fast document of the scene’s proclivity for policing themselves, fighting back against violence from rednecks or thugs against punks.

Agnostic Front – “Victim In Pain”

NYC’s Agnostic Front are the original American skinhead, minus the violent racism marking punk-era factions of the British subculture. Instead, they channeled that aggression into the hardest, most rabid thrashcore heard to date, stripping the music down until it became some of the harshest and highest BPMs on the planet. Typical is the title track to their 1984 debut album, 48 seconds so aggressive and speedy, Roger Miret can barely spit out its message of contrarianism and autonomy.

Napalm Death – “The Wolf I Feed”

The emergence of Napalm Death from England’s West Midlands area in the mid-’80s effectively marks the minting of grindcore, in which the most extreme elements of metal and hardcore merged. Marry guitars tuned to subhuman keys with tonsil-shredding growls and speed-of-light tempos, and if you can keep your songs to 30 seconds, all the better. Napalm Death, who developed out of anarcho-punk, recognized what a stylistic straitjacket such severe rules could become. So they slowed down slightly, got even heavier and noisier while becoming curiously more musical, bringing them closer to death metal. “The Wolf I Feed” comes from their 14th studio album, 2012’s Utilitarian. It seemingly equates their innate anarchism and antiauthoritarianism with being part of a wolf pack: “The wolf I feed/Outweighed, policed and rationed/The wolves I feed/Our liberties seized and blackened.”

Poison Idea – “Plastic Bomb”

Poison Idea began in 1980, formed by singer Jerry A. in a post-punk vein. Then hardcore happened, and with it, exposure to the Germs, Black Flag and Discharge, the noisiest and most ferociously metallic of English HC acts. As the years went by and guitarist Tom “Pig Champion” Roberts and drummer Steve “Thee Slayer Hippie” Hanford came aboard, PI’s musicality and aggression both increased exponentially. By the time “Plastic Bomb” and its attendant LP Feel The Darkness arrived in 1990, Poison Idea were the greatest hardcore act on American soil, virtually our version of Motörhead. Hanford’s drums swung even as they propelled the guitar crush, and A. growled sheer dark poetry atop. Sublime.

Atari Teenage Riot – “Speed”

While Switzerland’s the Young Gods were cutting and pasting hardcore tracks into their samplers in the late ‘80s, Berlin’s Atari Teenage Riot gave the subgenre a name when they called their indie label Digital Hardcore. Over drum machines galloping across speakers like run amok stallions, Alec Empire sliced guitar sections from various punk, HC and speed-metal classics. Atop this riot of samples and heart-attack-inducing beats, Empire, MC Carl Crack, Hanin Elias and later Nic Endo screamed their anti-fascist and anarchistic manifesto. “Speed” emerged from ATR’s debut album, Delete Yourself, and appeared on The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift’s soundtrack.

Rancid – “Don Giovanni”

After nine years of Clash/ska/reggae-inflected records, Rancid decided to cut a hardcore album. Was this a reaction to the reggae-heavy Life Won’t Wait? Perhaps. But their self-titled fifth release was crammed with 22 songs, most of which barely broke above the one-minute mark. It was all about speed, noise and fury, with hardly a melody to be found, and only “Let Me Go” hinting at their rasta side. Opener “Don Giovanni,” referencing Mozart’s opera about a Spanish libertine, lasts 35 seconds. And when was the last time you heard a hardcore band reference opera?

Refused – “New Noise”

Sweden’s Refused released the first punk album to change everything since Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols. Then broke up. The entirety of 1998’s The Shape Of Punk To Come questioned how revolutionary punk rock could be if it was a cliche, relying on the same musical ideas repeatedly. Refused’s answer was enfolding jazz, drum and bass, techno and post-punk ideas into their stew. “New Noise” served as their most concise distillation of this manifesto. Every post-hardcore band to follow, from At The Drive-In to AFI, owe something to this record.

The Locust – “Anything Jesus Does, I Can Do Better”

“I want to change the way people perceive music, or maybe just destroy it in general,” the Locust’s mainspring Justin Pearson famously said. The San Diego outfit managed this through a bizarre collision of power violence, math rock, dada and abused electronics, like the path to satori was playing ultra-fast and noisy in odd time signatures while wearing insect costumes. They weren’t half-wrong, as witnessed by the masterpiece “Anything Jesus Does, I Can Do Better” from their genius second LP, 2003’s Plague Soundscapes.

Soul Glo – “Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)”

In its intensity and wide stylistic reach, Soul Glo‘s Diaspora Problems is every bit as shockingly new and explosive as The Shape Of Punk To Come. Sure, partly it’s from ignoring hardcore’s hidebound rules and not always playing at breakneck speed for 30 seconds — its 12 songs clock in at nearly 40 minutes. Horn sections and hip-hop elements help too. But it’s mostly the rawness and brutal anger they express, being marginalized and tokenized by both the scene and society at large as Black punks that fuels this sustained, excoriating blast. Singer Pierce Jordan and his bandmates have seen every issue they’ve screamed about across their history erupt through the 2022 protests, yet not meaningfully addressed. This record is one long middle finger salute to the inaction. “Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)” frontloads the context of being caught in the crossfire of subcultural and racial politics. Jordan casts a wary eye upon a certain reclaimed racial epithet, scoffing, “Then I wake up on the next day unable to relate to the meaning of the word.” Likely the most righteous record of the year.

Turnstile – “DON’T PLAY”

Turnstile have been loudly turning every melodic hardcore cliche on its ear across 12 years, five EPs and three studio albums. The most recent, 2021’s GLOW ON, is a masterclass in breaking stylistic straitjackets. Third track “DON’T PLAY” might be the most straightforward rocker, but even that begins with a chugging four-bar hardcore intro before dissolving into Afro-Cuban rhythms, piano-flecked choruses and a metal middle-eight. It’s those who dare to obliterate formats and rulebooks who will create the next revolution.

Ho99o9 – “Bite My Face” (feat. Corey Taylor)

Since 2012, the duo of TheOGM and Eaddy have been mixing punk, hardcore, hip-hop, industrial and metal shards together under the name Ho99o9. Blame it on teenage years spent in thrall to gangsta rap, then attending punk gigs in sweaty basements in Brooklyn. It’s resulted in an idiosyncratic punk/hip-hop hybrid and records as brutally beautiful as “Bite My Face,” produced by Travis Barker, which hurls an album’s worth of ideas at you in three minutes. It’s so dense in such a brief timespan that it’s hard to discern what exactly Slipknot’s Corey Taylor contributed, unless you watch the video.

CANDY – “Human Condition Above Human Opinion”

CANDY’s name wins them no truth-in-advertising awards. There’s nothing sticky or sweet about them. Their new album Heaven Is Here is a sustained, unrelenting half-hour scream from the bowels of hell. There’s no relief from the assault, though it’s textured through judicious sampling and production elements. Witness opening track “Human Condition Above Human Opinion,” with its low-end electronic rumble and radio static before the pummeled floor tom kicks in. Hardcore rulebook page-ripping at its best and loudest.

Show Me The Body – “Camp Orchestra”

How many hardcore bands do you know substituting banjo for guitar? Yet vocalist Julian Cashwan-Pratt of Show Me The Body wields the string instrument through an enormous pedal array. Bassist Harlan Steed similarly operates through as large a pedalboard, making them sonic scientists as much as musicians. These veterans of DIY space ABC No Rio, Manhattan’s equivalent to 924 Gilman St., make records that are as much musique concrete as mosh pit soundtracks. Note the myriad elements bobbing and weaving alone through “Camp Orchestra,” the Auschwitz visit-inspired opener to Show Me the Body’s most recent album, 2019’s Dog Whistle. Much like the Ho99o9 track, it resembles a brutally edited sound collage more than a cohesive song. Which is the point — you can’t change anything by adhering to traditional ideas.

But the music and attitude? Well, the Dolls were rock stars, whether the world knew it or not, even playing their first gigs in the Oscar Wilde Room at the Mercer Arts Center. And if the world didn’t want to recognize this? It could go fuck itself. And if the Dolls weren’t professional enough to earn any record company or radio programmer’s respect? Yeah, they could go to hell, too. Add to this the alchemy between Nolan, guitarist Syl Sylvain, bassist Arthur Kane, singer David Johansen and lead guitarist Johnny Thunders.

Read more: 11 bands that shaped Detroit punk, from MC5 to the White Stripes

They were the last proper ‘60s garage outfit. They borrowed and combined the shrieking, hysterical melodicism of their older sisters’ girl group 45s, the raunch and sleaze of the Rolling Stones (with Johansen and Thunders exuding chemistry like Jagger and Richards) and the raw power of Detroit’s Stooges and MC5. Thunders in particular became a benchmark for every punk guitarist who followed. Everyone from Johnny Ramone to the Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones and beyond felt liberated by Thunders’ idiosyncratic mix of power chords and pilfered Chuck Berry licks, played through enough tube amp overdrive to sound as if he strung his Gibson with barbed wire.

Basically any band who played with more heart and emotion than finesse, but with a surfeit of power and swagger, owe their existence to New York Dolls. They possessed an intelligence, a sense of humor and a devil-may-care spirit that was rare, then or now. You can still hear it ringing through the best rock ‘n’ roll or punk rock to this day. These weren’t sheltered, pampered stadium gods. These were gutter poets filled with soul, who could make you fall in love with one well-struck chord. For all of their toughness, there was a vulnerability to the Dolls.

Here are 11 of New York Dolls’ most notable disciples. Please enjoy our custom playlist as you read on.

Sex Pistols

England’s first prominent punk-rock export had so much Dolls DNA in ‘em, they could’ve played Holiday Inn lounges on weekdays as a tribute act (if any such market for that existed). Basically, the Sex Pistols mixed the Dolls with the Stooges and a smattering of early heavy metal — a sloppy, nihilistic hard–rock band. Famously, manager Malcolm McLaren was a huge Dolls fan who attempted CPR on their waning career in their final days. He brought Sylvain’s white Gibson Les Paul Custom to England with him for Jones.

This was the instrument on which he learned, playing it throughout the Pistols’ history. Much of what he learned were Thunders licks, with which he decorated many a Pistols tune. Thunders and Nolan’s post-Dolls Heartbreakers initially came to England as a support act on the infamous Anarchy tour, and Jones and drummer Paul Cook were part of the backing cast on Thunders’ 1978 solo album, So Alone. 

Ramones

All four original Ramones — Johnny, bassist Dee Dee, singer Joey and drummer Tommy — witnessed the Dolls at the Mercer on many occasions. Tommy ultimately encapsulated the Dolls’ liberational effect upon the Ramones in the February 2001 issue of Mojo magazine. Noting their lack of traditional chops, he wondered why they were “much more exciting and entertaining than those virtuosos”: “It struck me, if there’s going to be a new direction in music, it’s not going to be through virtuosity, but through ideas.”

So the idea was to set pop tunes to the two barre chords Johnny knew and the simple beats Tommy instantly mastered, played as hard and fast as they could. Dee Dee co-wrote “Chinese Rocks” with original Heartbreakers bassist Richard Hell, who took it to his band when Dee Dee’s rejected it as too negative. The Ramones eventually recorded it themselves, plus a later, suitably raw and sloppy take on the Heartbreakers’ “I Love You.”

The Cramps

The Cramps — helmed by the greatest couple in all of rock ‘n’ roll, singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy — were what would’ve happened had the Dolls replaced Johansen and Thunders with Gomez and Morticia Addams. Then they substituted all those Stones and girl group 45s in their record stacks with cracklin’ old rockabilly singles. It’s fully audible on such vintage Cramps stompers as “New Kind Of Kick” or “Domino.” Factor in all the fetish elements, and their Hammer-Films-meets-’50s-juvenile-delinquency take on glam, it becomes patently obvious they could’ve been the opening act at the Mercer had they formed much earlier.

Misfits

Of course, there’s no Misfits without New York Dolls. Sure, it’s filtered through a heavy dose of the Ramones. But think about the occasional whizbang lead that pre-Doyle guitarist Bobby Steele wove into early Misfits goodies such as “Horror Business.” Do you think perhaps he may have listened to Thunders a little bit? Ultimately, you hear the connection in Glenn Danzig’s melodies and song structures. It’s obvious he loved the same late ‘50s and early ‘60s East Coast rock ‘n’ roll coming in over the young Dolls’ transistor radios.

We’re not just talking about that female-sung pop coming out of the Brill Building, always referred to as the girl group sound. Think also about noisy jivers such as Gary U.S. Bonds’ “Quarter To Three,” or the Italianate R&B of Dion’s “The Wanderer,” or Ernie Maresca’s “Shout Shout (Knock Yourself Out).” These things echo through the Dolls and Misfits both, perhaps as much out of geography as anything else.

Social Distortion

The impact of the Dolls on Social Distortion’s 1983 debut album, Mommy’s Little Monster, is loud and clear, leader Mike Ness’ then-penchant for dunking his face in a vat of mascara before walking onstage aside. Think of the big, banging notes issuing from his Gibson throughout the record, or the sneery, Johansen-esque baritone, which is his natural vocal register. Early SD ravers such as “Telling Them” and “1945” sound a lot like the Dolls live at a Teamsters meeting. Ness later acknowledged his Thunders debt by standing in for him in the band Heartbreakers guitarist Walter Lure assembled to play their L.A.M.F. album front-to-back live.

Hanoi Rocks

Finnish glam-punks Hanoi Rocks were the revenge of the early ‘80s upon the world for the Dolls’ mainstream commercial failure 10 years earlier. They came strutting out of the Laplands draped in scarves, leather and crushed velvet, seemingly bearing controlling stock in Max Factor. Singer Michael Monroe had more than a little Johansen DNA in his throat, and guitarist/songwriter Andy McCoy stomped across stages like Thunders. Such Hanoi hits as “Back To Mystery City” effectively updated the Dolls’ ethos. Thunders took a particular shine to them, touring with them often and joining them onstage for encores. Johansen and Sylvain drafted bassist Sami Yaffa into the reactivated Dolls in the ‘00s.

Guns N’ Roses

Hanoi Rocks’ biggest effect, aside from what got called “trash” bands in England, was on L.A.’s Sunset Strip glam-metal scene. Hanoi and the Dolls were essentially the twin North stars for that entire generation of Aqua Net abusers. Odd, considering the influence seemed purely cosmetic. The one band who seemingly got it right was Guns N’ Roses, right down to their penchant for unrestrained hedonism. But GN’R’s core commitment to street-wise glamour and swaggering big-beat rock ‘n’ roll was pure Dolls, acknowledged in their shrieking cover of “Human Being,” on their punk covers album The Spaghetti Incident? They also opened for Thunders once in Long Beach in 1986, although Axl Rose reportedly required restraining at the guitarist’s sneering assessment of his idolaters. 

The Smiths

Considering the Smiths’ penchant for precious, overly literate pop, the Dolls may seem an odd influence. But Morrissey was obsessed with them. He was the teenage president of their British fan club, eventually penning an independently published fan biography full of fawning prose and seemingly every press clipping the band generated in their lifetime. It fetches high prices on the secondary market these days. It was also his request for the group’s remaining members reunite for a one-off performance for the 2004 Meltdown festival he curated that directly reignited them into a new lineup. Guitarist Johnny Marr’s also frequently spoken of Thunders’ influence, though he’s seemingly spent his entire career avoiding any of the man’s hallmarks in his own playing. The Smiths most evoked the Dolls’ crash-and-burn spirit on “The Queen Is Dead,” especially live.

Manic Street Preachers

This one’s dead easy to see, especially on Manic Street Preachers’ early glam-punk phase. The Welsh upstarts burst from the valleys a seeming genetic cross between the Dolls and the Clash, as filtered through Hanoi Rocks. Spray paint-stenciled thrift store blouses, homemade Johnny Thunders haircuts, gobs of eyeliner, bombastic rockers with titles like “Motown Junk” — yep, the middle fingers the Manics flicked at the world initially belonged to the Dolls. As time marched on and they lost charismatic spokesman/lyricist/rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards, they lost their brashness and swagger and became more and more a weird amalgamation of indie and dad rock. But vintage Manics were four of the Dolls’ most glorious children.

Green Day

Manic irreverence, Les Paul Juniors through Marshalls, lots of smeary eyeliner — you think maybe the members of Green Day own a New York Dolls album or two? It stands to reason, since every punk rocker worth his or her salt with a strong knowledge of history does. At the least, Billie Joe Armstrong does, who adopted Thunders’ trademark Gibson Les Paul Junior as his own. And a sincere, heartfelt take on Thunders’ signature ballad “You Can’t Put Your Arms Round A Memory” was among the many covers Armstrong released through the band’s YouTube channel during COVID-19’s early stages, collected on the album No Fun Mondays.

The Libertines

The Libertines, led by co-singers/guitarists/songwriters Pete Doherty and Carl Barât, endeared themselves to early ‘00s British millennials performing tumbledown rock ‘n’ roll with an inebriated strut and a grin. It also possessed a charming vulnerability and a literacy not seen since either the Smiths or Manics. They were a rockin’ mess, but they were that generation’s particular rockin’ mess. They sold a lot of records and electric guitars in the process. Does any of this sound familiar? Yep, it’s New York Dolls’ story all over again (or at least the Replacements’, who belong on this list, as well). Doherty referenced the Dolls in his Books Of Albion, while Barât sported a Thunders T-shirt when promoting their “Can’t Stand Me Now” single on American television. Drummer Gary Powell directly repaid their spiritual debt as a one-performance Doll at the reunion at Meltdown 2004.

SEE ALSO: Dead Boys, the Clash, Generation X, Teenage Head, Redd Kross, the Replacements, D Generation, Backyard Babies

The fundamentalists would scream and moan about how these changes weren’t punk at all, that we needed to go back to basics, how everything was better in “the old days.” Which was downright silly. Nothing stays the same, nothing remains pure. Time alters everything. New influences seep in, new ingredients are introduced. The initial tincture gets adulterated, and new versions of the original formula result. It’s not worse. It’s the way of the world.

Read more: The 15 best punk albums of 2003, from Anti-Flag to Against Me! Punk

So, yes. There were plenty of great “old-school” punk bands out there. Garage reentered the room in a big way, and pop punk remained the underground sound leaking into the mainstream, to the point where blink-182’s incredible skin-pounder Travis Barker would go on to collaborate with hip–hop artists. Then there were the crossovers with metal, prog and other DNA strands never deemed possible in days of old. Punk was morphing into all kinds of fascinating new forms.

One thing remained true: Whatever punk subgenre you were playing, the beat had better be hard but true. Your drummer had to be a trained killer. And to stand out from the pack, your drummer needed to be unique. Sadly, there was an unfortunate amount of faceless, undistinguished beatkeepers out there during the ‘00s. They were perfectly functional, but truly creative groove masters were rare.

Read more: 20 music documentaries you need to watch this weekend, from ‘Summer of Soul’ to ‘Get Back’

Possibly, their CD collections only went as far back as Mötley Crüe’s Shout At The Devil, missing out on the marvelous jazz grounding of ‘60s rock drumming. Some of the best drummers of the era listened to anything other than punk — hip-hop, reggae, whatever. It made a difference.

With this in mind, welcome to Alternative Press’ survey of the 10 best punk drummers of the ‘00s. Please enjoy our custom playlist sampling some of the finest tracks from our nominees as a soundtrack for your reading.

Meg White

CLAIM TO FAME: The White Stripes

SIGNATURE MOVE: Oh, there’s gonna be some complaints out there over Meg White’s inclusion. “Whaaat?! She just beats the shit outta two and four!” The odds are high that those complaining think crucial rock drumming is the province of macho lizards with million-piece drum kits, playing every one of those drums in every measure of every song. Jack White is a very good drummer himself — it was his first instrument. And once they began writing those deceptively simple garage-punk tunes full of killer subtleties, the beat needed to be simple but true. Meg’s primitive stomp was perfect for their needs, and the perfect drummer for the White Stripes.

BEST HEARD ON: Elephant

Gary Powell

CLAIM TO FAME: The Libertines

SIGNATURE MOVE: The Libertines took the Strokes’ lead, refit it with a England 1977 vibe and changed the central songwriting influence from Lou Reed to Ray Davies. They ended up the most beloved British punk band of the era, inspiring thousands of ramshackle, guitar-based garage-punk outfits with highly developed songwriting. Co-leaders Pete Doherty and Carl Barât were fortunate to have a rhythm section as solid as Gary Powell and John Hassall, as chaotic as Libertines gigs could get.

Powell proved to have a remarkable sense of dynamics, as witnessed by his whisper-to-scream, tom-tom-heavy performance on their 2003 single “Don’t Look Back Into The Sun.” He was good enough to deputize for the late Jerry Nolan the following year, when the remaining New York Dolls reactivated for what was initially a one-off reunion show.

BEST HEARD ON: Time For Heroes – The Best Of The Libertines

Travis Barker 

CLAIM TO FAME: blink-182, Transplants

SIGNATURE MOVE: There’s a reason Travis Barker is guesting on what feels like a hundred albums every month. He was a member of the Aquabats when he joined, after subbing for original blink drummer Scott Raynor twice on tour, learning their set in under an hour. The album recorded immediately after, Enema Of The State, was their breakthrough. Barker was essentially to blink-182 what Dave Grohl was to Nirvana: The X factor that makes the whole band.

He certainly benefited from high school jazz and marching band training, and his enthusiasm for hip-hop has made him a major crossover figure in that world. It’s also made him key to Transplants, Tim Armstrong’s vital punk/hip-hop/reggae hybrid. Barker’s dynamic performance is the glue holding together the disparate elements flying at your head from their classic “Diamonds And Guns.”

BEST HEARD ON: Transplants

Christian “Chris Dangerous” Grahn 

CLAIM TO FAME: The Hives

SIGNATURE MOVE: The engine driver for Swedish garage superstars the Hives, Chris Dangerous has an impressive flair for machine-like grooves played with maximum speed and precision. He can also break up his beats and insert new ones with computer-like precision. And he does it all from a minimalist, four-piece kit. Think of the way he dices and slices “Two-Timing Touch And Broken Bones,” from 2004’s Tyrannosaurus Hives. Or even the accuracy with which seemingly randomly cuts-and-pastes fills into the insanely motorik groove of the single that introduced the Hives to the world, “Hate To Say I Told You So.” Dangerous lives up to his name.

BEST HEARD ON: Your New Favourite Band

Tony Hajjar 

CLAIM TO FAME: At The Drive-In, Sparta

SIGNATURE MOVE: It seems appropriate that the band who most took on Refused’s epoch-altering recorded manifesto The Shape Of Punk To Come as gospel would have a drummer who avoided 4/4 time signatures like they were a roomful of rabid rats. This isn’t to say At The Drive-In’s Tony Hajjar didn’t play 4/4 — he did all the time. But, as with their breakthrough album Relationship Of Command’s single “One Armed Scissor,” he screwed with the beat every way he could. Most effective was the waltz rhythm tapped out on his snare rim during the first verse. They build the song’s tension almost unbearably until it explodes on the chorus.

BEST HEARD ON: Relationship Of Command

Peder Carlsson 

CLAIM TO FAME: Backyard Babies

SIGNATURE MOVE: The majority of early 21st century Swedish garage-punk invaders treated the sound of Detroit 1969 as if it were another form of heavy metal. Think of the Hellacopters rewriting old KISS riffs as if they were MC5 outtakes, which isn’t an insult. Backyard Babies distinguished themselves from the horde by coating Motörhead’s roaring thunder with the sleazy swagger of the New York Dolls. Drummer Peder Carlsson doesn’t get enough credit for his role in achieving that goal. Take the title track from 2006’s People Like People Like People Like Us. His booming stadium-rock tom fills cut up an otherwise standard Ramones groove as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. That takes talent.

BEST HEARD ON: Stockholm Syndrome

Stephanie Tower 

CLAIM TO FAME: The Applicators

SIGNATURE MOVE: As the English rock press became enamored of American garage-punk when the Strokes and the White Stripes invaded their shores and their charts, Austin’s the Applicators briefly surfed in behind them. Their melodic old-school punk values — think Ramones-meets-Misfits-meets-Motorhead, with a dash of the Undertones — distinguished them, however. Their drummer for the bulk of the ‘00s, Stephanie Tower, was just basic enough, with plenty of skill and thunder to keep them precise and powerful. She especially shone on 2006’s My Weapon, as the band injected modern pop hooks and production into their classic punk format. “Tragedy” was a great example of how she drove the stop-start dynamics.

BEST HEARD ON: My Weapon

Jesse “Jessie 3X” Hamilton 

CLAIM TO FAME: The Riverboat Gamblers

SIGNATURE MOVE: As Sweden claimed Detroit 1969 as its musical heart in the early ‘00s, Austin by way of Denton hellhounds the Riverboat Gamblers reassembled pieces of the Grande Ballroom in Texas’ state capitol. Except they didn’t have the blueprints on hand during reconstruction, so they reinjected that spirit into messy 1977 punk. They’ve had a few drummers in their 25-year history. Ian Walling currently grips the sticks. But it was with Jesse Hamilton, billed as Jessie 3X, that the Gamblers cut the early ‘00s sides that established their good name. He ably propelled their high-energy antics with his cymbal-heavy attack. 

BEST HEARD ON: Something To Crow About

Torry Castellano 

CLAIM TO FAME: The Donnas

SIGNATURE MOVE: It was Torry Castellano, known as “Donna C.” in the days when the entire band assumed Ramones-like pseudonyms, drove Palo Alto punk-metal specialists the Donnas with her hard, basic tub-thumping. If there’s any drummer she most resembled, it was AC/DC’s steady, solid Phil Rudd. Castellano slammed her kit so aggressively, she developed tendonitis, requiring surgery and physical therapy in 2003. She had to relearn the drums, discovering her condition resulted from “improper technique”: “They called it ‘the grip of death,’” she told Modern Drummer magazine. A shoulder injury led to her retirement from drums in 2010. She’ll always be remembered for the potency of her percussive pounding.

BEST HEARD ON: Spend The Night

Andy Granelli

CLAIM TO FAME: The Distillers

SIGNATURE MOVE: Andy Granelli first gained notice on the drummer’s throne for Hellcat Records hardcore act the Nerve Agents. He later joined another ex-Nerve Agent, Tim Presley, in the psychedelic Darker My Love. But it’s the Distillers with whom Granelli is most identified. Granelli joined in time for second album Sing Sing Death House, and it was his energetic bashing that anchored their breakthrough full-length Coral Fang. He rejoined along with the rest of the Coral Fang lineup when leader Brody Dalle reconvened the Distillers in 2018. He can be heard on last year’s Live In Lockdown album, where he’s mixed prominently.

BEST HEARD ON: Live In Lockdown