18 cool rock bands you may not have heard of

1. Foo Fighters

Perhaps the most famous band on the list, led by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. However, since 1996 he has written so many good and not "nirvan" songs at all that the mention of this eternal title of the ex-drummer of the great band could have been omitted.

Foo Fighters is a recognizable, fairly formatted guitar music with an optimal balance of lyricism and assertiveness. The presence of three guitarists, a charismatic vocalist who turns even a broken leg into a performance feature, and a constantly growing set of hits make the Foo Fighters a group worth watching and whose old albums can be listened to with pleasure. For all its conventional formatting and popularity, Foo Fighters are not Nickelbacks and almost never irritate anyone. Maybe that's why they put together a full Wembley in a two-day show in 2008, and in 2015, a thousand musicians performed Learn to Fly.

2. At the Drive-In

At the Drive-In is a post-hardcore band from America, but its roots are more likely to be found somewhere in Mexico and Puerto Rico. The band existed from 1993 to 2001, after which frontmen Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez changed their direction towards progressive rock and founded the project The Mars Volta. Since then, At the Drive-In has had two reunion attempts, and the second, in 2016, appears to have been successful. For more than twenty years, the group has matured: Omar is no longer so briskly dancing with the guitar, and Cedric's microphone stands no longer fly so high above the stage. But together with the participants, the music became more mature, and live performances only slowed down the degree of madness, remaining lively and interesting.

3.’68

The first duo on our list is a project by Josh Skogin (ex-Norma Jean and The Chariot vocalist) and drummer Michael McClellan, who was replaced by Niko Yamada last fall. '68's music, like all of Josh's projects, is expressive, and the performances are particularly entertaining, acrobatic, and guitars flying over the stage. Musically, everything is pretty monotonous here, albeit unusual, '68 is noisy punk rock with fuzzy guitars and aggressive vocals. Recommended '68 to fans of Jack White, Nirvana and previous projects by Josh Skogin.

4. DZ Deathrays

DZ Deathrays is a down-to-earth dance-punk from Australia, not satiated with complex melodies and additional parts - there is almost always only one guitar, one vocals and drums. As the example of DZ Deathrays and '68 shows, that's enough. We also advise you to pay attention to the clips of DZ Deathrays - they are quite funny, especially the ones in which Shane and Simon drink.

5. Queens of the Stone Age

The roots of Queens of the Stone Age lie somewhere in stoner rock, but in reality everything, as always, is much more complicated. The albums of the group are different from each other and include completely different influences, although the music remains recognizable. Quite simply, Queens of the Stone Age is some very stylish and aristocratic, greasy alternative rock built on riffs.

Last year the band released a great album and even made a spot in our August one. Among the early albums of Queens of the Stone Age, you can also find a lot of interesting things, so we advise you to download the entire discography at once or at least some Greatest-Hits playlist.

6. Mogwai

The canonical line with template tracks, sound and arrangements at some point became so much that the genre lost its relevance: many of the popular projects of the 2000s disintegrated, the audience of others has noticeably decreased. But there are several active bands that are interesting to listen to now, and one of them is the Scottish fathers of the Mogwai line.

Mogwai is atmospheric music with a guitar shoegaze sound, experimenting with size and sometimes borrowing chips from other genres. Scots manage to remain as diverse as possible within a genre as narrow as post-strokes. If this is your first time hearing about something like this, then Mogwai is the best way to get acquainted with the style.

7. Enter Shikari

Enter Shikari combines zero-point guitar post-hardcore with electronic sound, and powerful breakdowns with beautiful pop melody. This can be said about at least 80% of the band's creativity. In the last album of the British, there are almost no loaded guitars and extreme vocals - apparently, the desire to make music of the stadium format did not escape Enter Shikari. Fortunately, recognizable voices, pleasant melodies, some electronic chips and social lyrics remain in place, so we recommend listening to the entire discography, from Take to the Skies in 2007 to what Enter Shikari is doing now.

8. The Raveonettes

I don't want to call The Raveonettes a rock band at all: in their music, of course, there are loaded guitars and a sound close to a garage, but in terms of expression and evoked emotions, the Danes are closer to some kind of shoegaze or dream-pop. At the same time, The Raveonettes do not abuse ambient influences, their songs always have a beautiful clear melody and an uncomplicated beat. We recommend to all lovers of the aforementioned styles, as well as post-punk and combinations of male and female voices.

9. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Probably the most prolific of modern bands, which manages to combine performance with good music quality. In 2017 alone, the Australians' King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard released five full-length releases. And you can listen to everything.

If you are looking for modern psychedelic music with a nod to the 60s and 70s, you have nothing against the fact that the bass can play one note for eight minutes, and you are ready to listen to a lot of music - you know what to do.

10. The Fever 333

A group formed last year by vocalist Jason Butler from Letlive, guitarist Stephen Harrison from The Chariot and Arik Improta from Night Verses. Musically, The Fever 333 is much closer to the frontman's project - it is a rapcore that reminds one of Rage Against the Machine, then the early Linkin Park. We recommend to all fans of expressive vocals and conventionally formatted alternative rock.

11. Cloud Nothings

There is something old-fashioned about this group, reminiscent of midwestern emo of the 90s, and at the same time, something fresh and unbroken. One gets the impression that such direct, a little loose indie rock with poorly loaded guitars and moderately expressive and dynamic vocals is almost never found now. One way or another, the group has its own style, which at one time was noted by the famous sound engineer and musician Steve Albini, who worked with Pixies and Nirvana. It was he who produced the album Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory, released in 2012. In total, the group has five rather different large releases and a collaboration album with Wavves - you can listen to everything.

12. Iceage

A group from Denmark, which is most often referred to as "punk". This genre became attached to them from the first albums, but since then a lot has changed: in 2014 they released the romantic Plowing Into the Field of Love that evokes associations with the work of Nick Cave (or at least his vocal presentation), and more recently, in 2018, a relatively well-groomed Beyondless with the hit Catch It and a collaborative track with Sky Ferreira. It is impossible to define the Iceage genre unequivocally, but in terms of mood it is something close to the classic post-punk. Love Cave and Joy Division? Meet Iceage boldly, starting with the latest albums.

13. The Kills

The Kills is a duo of vocalist Alison Mosshart and guitarist Jamie Hins. For all 18 years of the band's existence, their music has not changed much: The Kills are simple drums, restrained and abrupt parts of Jamie, who rarely plays backhand, Alison's recognizable voice and minimalism in arrangements. However, these are not at all obligatory rules - session musicians are involved in the performances of The Kills, and many additional instruments are used in the recordings. In addition to the main group, Alison is also known for her participation in the supergroup The Dead Weather, where she sings with Jack White.

14. Wavves

Wavves is an American rock band founded in 2008. Ten years ago, the musicians started with uncompromising low-fi sound, but by 2010 they had come to indie rock with clinging vocal melodies. Now, only the specific sound of guitars reminds of the noisy past, but otherwise Wavves is a pleasant indie with echoes of punk rock, garage rock and surf.

15. Amenra

We continue our excursion to musical directions. The next ones are post-metal and sludge, characterized by heavy sounding, slow tempo of songs, often aggressive vocals and guitars playing in low registers. The Belgian band Amenra is one of the brightest living representatives of this music. Gloomy, sad and heavy. The most extreme item in our selection.

16. Royal Blood

Royal Blood does not have an impressive background and long history of success - they are loved by fans, music media, charts and colleagues, and this love appeared almost instantly, in the year the band was founded. And the secret is simple: you just need to write the most direct and swinging riff rock, being inspired by all the successful bands at once and taking a little from each one. You can't blame Royal Blood for that: the music is good.

17. Death From Above

A duo that showed back in 2004 how powerful a two-piece band can sound. It was that simplicity and drive that became a feature of Death From Above, but after a while the musicians within this framework, apparently, became cramped. The second album, released 10 years later, was noticeably more difficult, and the third, released last year, showed a completely different group altogether. References appeared in the music, influences from modern and classical rock musicians became noticeable. But whether this is good in the case of an initially distinctive group is another question. If you feel uncomfortable far beyond the bounds of format rock music, but still want to get heavier, Death From Above is what you need.

18. Mastodon

Mastodon is a progressive rock and progressive metal band from Atlanta. Each of her albums becomes significant among fans of these genres and guitar rock in general. The technical skill of the musicians deserves special praise from colleagues in the workshop, for example, the drummer Brann Daylor's playing was noted by Bill Ward of Black Sabbath and already mentioned in the selection by Dave Grohl. In recent years, Mastodon's music has become noticeably easier, but most of the fans were not embarrassed by this. Heavy music has a higher threshold of entry, so those who are not familiar with Mastodon's work are advised to listen to discography, starting with the latest albums.

Naturally, we cannot know all the interesting rock bands in the world. Therefore, we invite you in the comments to write about your favorite bands and make our selection even more useful.