Short Bus by Filter

Short Bus, Filter's debut album, came out on Reprise in 1995, and it's the sound of a sideman getting his own shot. Richard Patrick had been playing guitar on the road for Nine Inch Nails, and by his own telling it was Trent Reznor who told him to go make his own record while Reznor holed up to work on The Downward Spiral. So Patrick formed Filter in Cleveland with guitarist and programmer Brian Liesegang, who is also credited as the album's producer.

This is alternative metal with its wires exposed: grinding, mechanical grooves, guitars that buzz like a faulty transformer and Patrick switching from a mumbled deadpan to a throat-shredding scream at the flick of a switch. "Hey Man Nice Shot" is the one that broke through, creeping along on a queasy, lurching bassline before the chorus blows the roof off, while "Dose" shows off the album's colder, more clanking side.

It went platinum on May 13, 1997. Liesegang left that year, and Patrick made the follow-up, Title of Record, with the musicians who had toured Short Bus.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.