American Head Charge

American Head Charge crawled out of Minneapolis playing nu metal with grease under its fingernails, alternative and industrial metal ground together until the whole thing clanked. Finding a name took some doing. Flux was already taken by another band, and a couple of cruder handles were thrown out within six months so they wouldn't scare off the record labels circling. Bassist Chad Hanks, there from the beginning, later swore the name they settled on meant nothing at all, and that the echo of the dub act African Head Charge was pure coincidence.

The guitar slot was a revolving door: Wayne Kile held it from 1999 to 2002, Bryan Ottoson from 2002 to 2005, and Karma Singh Cheema arrived in 2004, came back in 2007 and returned yet again in 2011. The Feeding, in 2005, catches them at full, ugly strength, and "Loyalty" is the track that carried it to rock radio, all churning riffs and throat-shredding menace.

Hanks left in 2009, came back in 2011 and stayed until 2017. Singer Cameron Heacock and guitarist Sin Quirin are also counted among the members, the band has recorded for Napalm Records, and along the way it picked up 2 nominations at the Kerrang! Awards.

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