London's Sleep Token meets Des Moines's Slipknot in this week's alternative metal matchup. Both bands are alternative metal acts known for featuring masks. Make sure to cast your vote before voting closes! Cast your vote on the contest page, then make your case here — why does your pick take it?

Coldplay released Mylo Xyloto fifteen years ago in 2011 on Parlophone. It stands as the band's fifth studio album, arriving on October 19, 2011, after Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends from 2008 and before Ghost Stories in 2014. The lineup of Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman, and Will Champion followed this record with later releases including A Head Full of Dreams, Everyday Life, Music of the Spheres, and Moon Music. Where does Mylo Xyloto sit in the discography for you?

System of a Down is set to take the stage at Sick New World 2026 - Texas at Texas Motor Speedway on October 24, 2026. Live appearances from Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian, and John Dolmayan remain rare, making each festival slot a major event for the fanbase. The Texas show comes right after the band's weeklong Toxicity 25th Anniversary Exhibition wraps up in Los Angeles on October 18, 2026. Who from here is going to be out at Texas Motor Speedway for this set?

Nickelback from Hanna, Alberta faces fellow Canadian alternative rock band Three Days Grace from Norwood, Ontario in this week's matchup. Both groups emerged in the 1990s with their own distinct rock sounds. Which of these bands gets your support? Cast your vote now before voting closes! Cast your vote on the contest page, then make your case here — why does your pick take it?

OneRepublic released their fourth studio album, Oh My My, ten years ago today on October 7, 2016 on Interscope Records. Following their 2013 record Native, the release pushed the group into fresh territory before they followed it years later with Human in 2021 and Artificial Paradise in 2024. Across a discography that started with Dreaming Out Loud and Waking Up, it holds a distinct place. Where does Oh My My sit in the OneRepublic discography for you today?

British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac emerged from the London blues scene in 1967, while Australian band AC/DC arrived in 1973 with brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Both bands share a blues rock foundation. Cast your vote for your favorite before voting closes! Cast your vote on the contest page, then make your case here — why does your pick take it?

Deftones are back on stage over the next couple of months with two appearances lined up. First, they hit Fort Worth for Sick New World Texas on October 24, 2026. Two weeks later, on November 7, 2026, the band heads to San Diego to headline Dia De Los Deftones. While we wait for those dates, Chino Moreno popped up on tracks with Beabadoobee in September 2026, and Stephen Carpenter's Sol Invicto project dropped a new track titled "Galactic Glitch" on September 20, 2026. Still, nothing beats hearing the band pull from a catalog running from Adrenaline all the way through private music in a live setting. Are you catching them in Fort Worth or San Diego this fall?

Liverpool's 1960 pop-rock quartet The Beatles face off against Colorado Springs' pop-rock group OneRepublic. Both groups bring their distinct sounds and lineups to this week's matchup. Make your voice heard and cast your vote before voting closes! Cast your vote on the contest page, then make your case here — why does your pick take it?

It's Ohio vs Los Angeles in this week's alternative rock battle! Will you choose the duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, or the quartet of Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith, and John Frusciante? Cast your vote before voting closes to decide the winner! Cast your vote on the contest page, then make your case here — why does your pick take it?

It is time to pick your favorite in this alternative rock matchup between Green Day and System of a Down. Both California bands bring distinct sounds, from late 80s Bay Area punk to 90s Glendale heavy metal. Cast your vote now before voting closes! Cast your vote on the contest page, then make your case here — why does your pick take it?

There is an unmatched, chaotic energy in band photography from the late 70s, right before massive stadium tours smoothed out the rough edges. Looking at AC/DC between 1976 and 1979 is the perfect example—they don’t look like global rock gods yet, just a gang of guys who plugged into a wall and turned it all the way up. We need to get better at archiving this specific era of photography on the wiki. The unpolished, cramped-stage, cigarette-smoke-in-the-lens shots are pure history. The stadium years are documented to death, but the club days are where the actual story is. Who has the best pre-1980 band photos? Drop your favorite unpolished shots of legendary bands before they blew up.

A recently resurfaced photo from a legendary Metallica gig in California 23 years ago is a brutal reminder of the band's unmatched live energy during that era. Looking back at the raw crowd shots and setlists from the early 2000s, it's wild to see how global titans playing massive venues still carried the ferocious hunger of a gritty garage act. They just had this rare ability to make a sprawling arena feel like a sweaty, claustrophobic club show. Archiving these specific eras—the deep-cut setlists, the tour lore, and the nights where everything just clicked perfectly on stage—is exactly why we're building out their wiki over on The Band Index. It’s too easy to lose the history of these defining shows, and digging into their gig archive is the absolute best kind of rabbit hole.

Everyone talks about the massive 90s comeback or the Armageddon soundtrack, but early 70s Aerosmith out of Boston was entirely different. They were gritty, unpolished, and arguably the most dangerous rock band in America at the time. Look at any live shot from the 'Toys in the Attic' or 'Rocks' era—it's pure chaos. Are we in agreement that 1975-1976 was their absolute creative peak, or does someone want to make a serious argument for the late 80s 'Pump' era?

Think about the best local band you saw in high school. Did you think they were going to be the next Beatles? Lookout Records founder Larry Livermore did. In 1988, he watched Billie Joe and Mike play to exactly five kids in an off-the-grid cabin in Mendocino County. They were 16. It was their third show ever. Livermore decided right then to make a record with them. He eventually walked away from Lookout because the music business got too corporate—treating artists "like soap powder"—but not before launching the biggest punk band on the planet. Decades later, they looked him in the eye from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stage and thanked him. What’s the smallest crowd you’ve ever seen a massive band play to before they blew up? Let's hear your best "I saw them when" stories.

In 1968, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham crammed into a tiny basement room on Gerrard Street in London. Page was just trying to salvage the remains of the Yardbirds. They ripped through "Train Kept A-Rollin'" and, according to Page, immediately realized it was a life-changing musical communion. Within weeks, they were touring Scandinavia. Within months, they were recording the debut album that changed rock forever. The official "Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin" photo book has actual shots of these earliest gigs, showing them sweating it out in small clubs before they became stadium gods. What other band had a first rehearsal or early gig where they instantly knew they had lightning in a bottle? Drop the stories below.