Hatebreed

Striking a balance between Slayer thrash and take-your-pick N.Y.C. hardcore, Connecticut's kings of the metalcore hill Hatebreed have consistently delivered a steamroller rumble of heaviness with fightin'-mad vocals since 1994. Thanks to early tours with Entombed, Slayer and Deftones, the band has not only been exposed to huge audiences from the get-go, they've presumably taken some pointers -- few metalcore bands spray their machine-gun riffs over such a fury of low-end guitar churn. Their first album, Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire, appeared on Victory in 1997, but it's their pair of major-label records, Perseverance and The Rise of Brutality, on which Hatebreed's Pantera-of-metalcore persona was born. Still hugely popular, but no longer on Universal, the band continues to tour, deafen skate kids at Ozzfest and release albums on E1 (formerly known as Koch Records).