WAnimotion is an American synthpop band from Los Angeles, California, best known for the songs "Obsession", "Let Him Go", "I Engineer", and "Room to Move".
WBlitzkrieg are an English heavy metal band formed in Leicester in 1980. The current line-up consists of Brian Ross (vocals), Alan Ross (guitar), Liam Ferguson (bass), Matt Graham (drums), and Nick Jennison (guitar). Ross is the only remaining member from the band's founding, and the band are now based in Newcastle upon Tyne.
WCeltic Frost were a Swiss extreme metal band from Zürich. They are known for their strong influence on the development of extreme metal and avant-garde metal. Formed in 1981 as Hellhammer, the band became Celtic Frost in 1984 and released their debut, Morbid Tales, that year. This was followed by To Mega Therion (1985) and the highly experimental Into the Pandemonium (1987), all of which were widely praised. Their next album Cold Lake (1988) saw a new lineup and a radical change of style, which was widely derided. After the release of Vanity/Nemesis (1990), the group disbanded. It re-formed in 2001 and released the critically acclaimed Monotheist (2006), before disbanding following frontman Tom Gabriel Fischer's departure in 2008.
WDead Artist Syndrome was a Christian gothic rock band formed in 1989 in Orange County, California. The group consisted of singer-songwriter Brian Healy and a rotating cast of side men. Healy was dubbed the "father of Christian goth" by Rozz Williams, and was an ordained minister. The name of D.A.S. according to Healy is "Dead Artist Syndrome means greater in death than in life, be it James Dean, Van Gogh or Jesus Christ". His debut album Prints of Darkness was a notable, groundbreaking release. The band had been sporadically active due to health issues, releasing two albums in the 2000s, and another in 2015. In 2006, Dead Artist Syndrome was named "Outstanding Orange County Band" by the editors and readers of Rock City News, a Los Angeles local music paper. For several years Healy was privately in poor health his gallbladder exploded while recording vocals resulting in emergency surgery, and a neurological disorder his wife Marie Tullai Healy described as "a combination of Michael J. Fox and the late Foster Brooks everybody thought he was drunk, Brian was falling down he broke his arm, slurring his speech trying to complete his record, next thing we know he's in a wheelchair, finally in 2012 they discovered the cause and he had brain surgery and is 100% back to his old self and had no idea any of this was going on, inside his head everything was fine". Healy said on his Facebook page 'He's back" and is actively recording, producing others and hosting Frontline Records Rewind Broadcast and podcast Healy died January 12, 2020 of a brain hemorrhage.
WDead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run.
WDeath Angel is an American thrash metal band from Daly City, California, initially active from 1982 to 1991 and again since 2001. Death Angel has released nine studio albums, two demo tapes, one box set and two live albums. The band has gone through several line-up changes, leaving guitarist Rob Cavestany as the only constant member; he and vocalist Mark Osegueda are the only members of Death Angel to appear on all of their studio albums.
WDischarge are an English hardcore punk band formed in 1977 in Stoke-on-Trent by Terence "Tezz" Roberts and Royston "Rainy" Wainwright. While the band has undergone several line-up changes throughout its history, the classic line-up from the early 1980s featured bassist Wainwright, drummer Gary Maloney, guitarist Anthony "Bones" Roberts, and vocalist Kelvin "Cal" Morris.
WExodus is an American thrash metal band formed in 1979 in Richmond, California. They have gone through numerous lineup changes, two extended hiatuses, and the deaths of two former band members. Their current lineup consists of guitarists Gary Holt and Lee Altus, bassist Jack Gibson, drummer Tom Hunting, and lead vocalist Steve "Zetro" Souza. Hunting is one of the original members, and departed from Exodus twice, in 1989 and 2004, but rejoined in 2007. Holt joined the band about two years after its formation, and is the only member of Exodus to appear on all their releases.
WFaster Pussycat is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985 by vocalist Taime Downe, guitarists Brent Muscat and Greg Steele, bassist Kelly Nickels and drummer Mark Michals. The group has since gone through numerous lineup changes leaving Downe as the only constant member. They broke up in 1993, but reformed in 2001. Faster Pussycat has released four studio albums to date: Faster Pussycat (1987), Wake Me When It's Over (1989), Whipped! (1992) and The Power and the Glory Hole (2006). They were one of the most successful hard rock bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s, having sold over two million records worldwide.
WFloor is an American doom/sludge metal band from Miami, Florida, U.S. that was formed in 1992 by Steve Brooks, Anthony Vialon and Betty Monteavaro with Brooks and Vialon being the only constant members. The band has released three full length studio albums to date: Floor, Dove and Oblation and one EP: Madonna.
WGOGO13 is an American ska band formed in 1993 by singer and artist Parker Jacobs and currently based out of Huntington Beach, California.
WGreat White is an American hard rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1977. They gained their name from the Great White Shark. They got their popularity during the 1980s and early 1990s. The band released several albums in the late 1980s and gained airplay on MTV with music videos for songs like "Once Bitten, Twice Shy". The band reached their peak popularity with the album ...Twice Shy in 1989. The band continued to release new material into the 1990s, although none of their material charted in the United States. The band broke up in 2001. Soon thereafter, lead singer Jack Russell started to tour with Tony Montana, Robby Lochner (Halford), Dan McNay (Montrose), Dicki Fliszar as "Jack Russell's Great White", a group which doesn't include the band's co-founding guitarist Mark Kendall. Great White made headlines when in 2003 a Rhode Island nightclub at which they were playing caught fire due to their negligence, leading to the deaths of 100 people, including band member Ty Longley. Great White reformed in 2006. In 2011, Russell left the band, starting to tour again as "Jack Russell's Great White".
WHanoi Rocks were a Finnish rock band formed in 1979. They were the first Finnish band to chart in the UK and they were also popular in Japan. The band broke up in June 1985 after drummer Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley died in a car accident during their first US tour in December 1984. Original vocalist Michael Monroe and guitarist Andy McCoy reunited in 2001 with a new lineup that lasted until 2009. Although musically closer to traditional rock n' roll and punk, the band have been cited as a major influence in the glam metal genre for bands such as Guns N' Roses, Skid Row and Poison.
WHeathen is an American thrash metal band originating from the San Francisco Bay Area, active from 1984 to 1993 and again from 2001 onwards. Despite never achieving commercial success, the band is often credited – alongside Exodus, Testament, Forbidden, Death Angel and Vio-lence – as one of the leaders of the Bay Area thrash metal scene of the mid-to-late 1980s, and they have gone through several line-up changes, leaving guitarist Lee Altus as the only constant member. To date, Heathen has released four studio albums: Breaking the Silence (1987), Victims of Deception (1991), The Evolution of Chaos (2009) and Empire of the Blind (2020).
WJo Jo Zep and the Falcons are an Australian blues and rock music band which features the singer, songwriter and saxophonist Joe Camilleri. The band was active in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and had several Australian chart hits including "Hit and Run", "Shape I'm In" and "All I Wanna Do". The Falcons dissolved in 1981 and the group's biggest Australian hit, 1982's "Taxi Mary", as well as the New Zealand top ten hit "Walk on By", were both credited simply to "Jo Jo Zep". In 1983, Camilleri and other members of the Falcons formed the Black Sorrows.
WLevel 42 are an English jazz-funk band formed on the Isle of Wight in 1979. They had a number of UK and worldwide hits during the 1980s and 1990s.
WLoaded is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1999. Since 2001, the band's line-up has included vocalist and rhythm guitarist Duff McKagan, lead guitarist Mike Squires and bassist Jeff Rouse. Since 2009, Isaac Carpenter has been the band's drummer, replacing Geoff Reading.
WMaroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It currently consists of lead vocalist Adam Levine, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine, drummer Matt Flynn, keyboardist PJ Morton and multi-instrumentalist Sam Farrar. Original members Levine, Carmichael, bassist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick first came together as Kara's Flowers in 1994, while they were still in high school.
WThe Pogues were an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in Kings Cross, London in 1982, as "Pogue Mahone" – the anglicisation of the Irish Gaelic póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse". The band reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s, recording several hit albums and singles. MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems, but the band continued – first with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals – before breaking up in 1996. The Pogues re-formed in late 2001, and played regularly across the UK and Ireland and on the US East Coast, until dissolving again in 2014. The group did not record any new material during this second incarnation.
WLos Prisioneros were a Chilean rock/pop band formed in San Miguel, Santiago, Chile in 1979. They are considered one of the most important Chilean bands, and arguably the strongest musical influences that Chile has made to Latin American music. In addition, they are considered by Latin American media and musicians pioneers of Rock en español and the band with strongest socio-political impact in Chile. Their roots date back to March 1979, when their core members entered high school. From their beginnings in 1983 at the Festival de la Canción del Colegio Miguel León Prado to their first limited release album in Chile under the record label "Fusión Producciones", they struggled to make themselves known until they were able to sign with EMI Records in 1985, re-releasing their first album on LP record and cassette. From that point on, they reached mainstream success in Chile, then in Peru. Los Prisioneros created a simple Punk sound with a mix of Nueva ola, Techno, Synthpop, and Reggae.
WThe Psychedelic Furs are a British new wave band founded in London in February 1977. Led by singer Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar, the Psychedelic Furs are one of the many acts spawned from the British post-punk scene. Their music went through several phases, from an initially austere art rock sound, to later touching on new wave and hard rock.
WRide are an English rock band formed in Oxford in 1988. The band consists of Andy Bell, Mark Gardener, Laurence "Loz" Colbert, and Steve Queralt. The band were initially part of the "shoegazing" scene that emerged in England during the early 1990s. Following the break-up of the band in 1996, members moved on to various other projects, most notably Bell who became the bassist for Oasis. In 2001, the band briefly reunited for a one-off performance for a television show. Ride announced their second reunion in November 2014. Their debut album Nowhere has been named one of the important albums of the shoegazing genre. They achieved their biggest commercial success with their 1992 single "Leave Them All Behind", which reached No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart.
WRoxy Music were an English rock band that was formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who became the band's lead singer and main songwriter—and bass guitarist Graham Simpson. Alongside Ferry, the other longtime members were Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay, and Paul Thompson. Other members included Brian Eno, Eddie Jobson, and John Gustafson (bass). Although the band took a break from group activities in 1976 and again in 1983, they reunited for a concert tour in 2001, and toured together intermittently over the next few years. Ferry frequently enlisted band members as session musicians for his solo releases.
WThe Soft Boys were a rock band led by Robyn Hitchcock primarily during the 1970s, whose initially old-fashioned music style of psychedelic/folk-rock became part of the neo-psychedelia scene with the release of Underwater Moonlight.
WStone Sour is an American rock band formed in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1992. The band performed for five years before disbanding in 1997. They reunited in 2000 and since 2015, the group has consisted of Corey Taylor, Josh Rand (guitar), Christian Martucci (guitar), Johny Chow (bass) and Roy Mayorga (drums). Longtime members Joel Ekman and Shawn Economaki left the band in 2006 and 2011, respectively. Former lead guitarist Jim Root left in 2014.
WTelevision is an American rock band from New York City, most notably active in the 1970s. The group was founded by Tom Verlaine, Richard Lloyd, Billy Ficca, and Richard Hell. An early fixture of CBGB and the 1970s New York rock scene, the band is considered influential in the development of punk and alternative music.
WTwisted Sister was an American heavy metal band originally from Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, and later based in Long Island, New York. Twisted Sister's best-known songs include "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock", which had music videos noted for their sense of slapstick humor.
WWinger is an American rock band that has combined elements of glam metal and progressive metal. Formed in New York City, Winger gained popularity during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band's two platinum albums, Winger and In the Heart of the Young, along with charting singles "Seventeen", "Headed for a Heartbreak" and "Miles Away", put them on the top of the charts by the early 1990s. In 1990, the band was nominated for an American Music Award for "Best New Heavy Metal Band". As the music scene changed in the early to mid-1990s due to the popularity of grunge, their success faded after their third release Pull.
WX!NK was a Belgian pop punk band. The band consited of two pairs of brothers: Jonas and Niels Meukens, and Thomas and Philip Valkiers. Jonas was the lead singer and occasionally the second guitarist, his brother Niels was the drummer. Philip played the bass guitar and Thomas played the guitar and also occasionally the keyboard. X!NK gained mainstream succes after becoming Belgium's submission for the 2003 Junior Eurovision Song Contest where they took sixth place. The band was also the subject of a series of comic books by Mario Boon.
WY&T is an American hard rock/heavy metal band formed in 1974 in Oakland, California. The band released two studio albums on London Records as Yesterday & Today in the 1970s, before shortening their name to Y&T and releasing several albums on A&M Records beginning in 1981, plus albums on Geffen Records, Avex Records, and others. The band was originally co-managed by Herbie Herbert and Louis "Lou" Bramy. The band has sold over 4 million albums worldwide to date.