Various Artists

When they started off in Maryland in 1996, Good Charlotte could barely play three chords. Twin brothers Joel (vocals) and Benji (guitar) embraced music as an outlet for familial issues-induced stress, leaving their prior endeavors (namely, baseball) behind. After adding high school friends Paul (bass) and Aaron (drums) to the lineup, the group relocated to Annapolis Maryland and played every venue in every town that would have them. After adding Billy (guitar) to the group, they began opening for bands like Bad Religion and Blink 182 and Lit, and eventually played at WHFS’s HFStival before being signed to Epic and releasing their eponymous debut in 2000. Young and the Hopeless was released in 2002.

–Maurice S. Teilmann (September, 2002)

Forged in Peoria, Illinois circa 1996, the nü-metal quartet Mudvayne became a staple of the paint-your face, jump-up-and-down, gargle-growl-sing lot when their Epic debut, L.D. 50 was sprung upon the masses in August of 2000. The members — Kud (C. Gray; vocals), Gurrg (G. Tribbett; guitar), sPaG (M. McDonough; drums) and Ryknow (Ryan Martinie; bass) — all take pride in their purported lack of formal musical training and abilities to stand out in the diet metal crowd. Their colorful comic book arch-villan approach to presentation has made their live performance and videos quite unique, and by design, most information pertaining to the members remains a mystery. The psychotheraputic influence of Stanley Kubrick’s movies weighs heavy on their dark, shattering sound. Their follow-up, The End of All Things To Come was released in 2002.

– Maurice S. Teilmann (November 2002)

Rumors began brewing early in 2002 that the instrument-wielding members of Rage Against The Machine — the Los Angeles quartet responsible for bringing the hybrid of rap and metal to the masses — and singer Chris Cornell — late of Soundgarden, the powerhouse Seattle-based grunge band whose 1994 album Superunknown yielded seemingly countless radio hits — were joining forces and creating a new band. That band came to fruition as Audioslave. The sound of the group is basically what you’d expect from the combination of players; guitarist Tom Morello’s signature funk and punk riffs, Brad Wilk’s pounding tom-tom beats, bassist Tim Commerford’s grinding envelope filtered lines and Cornell’s signature brink-of-explosion vocals. Their self-titled debut was produced by Rick Rubin and released on November 19th, 2002 through Epic Records.

– Maurice S. Teilmann (November 2002)