After metal’s Dark Ages in the 1990s, the genre became reinvigorated with a new generation of acts, injecting life into the scene. In this list, we’ll go through 10 bands that crushed in the 2000s, but didn’t quite get their due.

It seems insane in 2019, but there was a time when Avenged Sevenfold and Poison the Well were equally big acts in the “core” underground. As A7X hit a commercial stride, Poison the Well decided to shift their sound into an avant-garde direction, remaining 10 creative steps ahead of their contemporaries at all times. Unfortunately, experimental brilliance almost never comes with mass appeal.

As bands like Mastodon and Baroness became leaders of the southern sludge wave, Kylesa were right there with them, releasing tripped out gems throughout the decade. The band’s masterpiece is generally considered to be 2009’s Static Tensions, and the album blew minds, despite never bringing the group to the heights of Mastodon.

The 2000s was also a killer decade for punk rock. As pop-punk became rock’s biggest phenomenon, true underground punk flourished with acts like Strike Anywhere and The Bronx. They may have never filled an arena like Blink-182, but the two bands created 21st century masterworks which remain modern classics in the minds of punk and hardcore fanatics.

Check out our picks for the 10 Most Underrated Bands of the 2000s in the Loud List above.

50 Most Important Metal Bands in the 21st Century

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