10 Artists Who Share Their Names With Existing Bands

March 23rd, 2022 at 9:38am
Emperor Rhombus

Recently, guitarist Mikey Doling of nu-metal legends Snot got grouchy at Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst for bringing out a rapper named $not. On the one hand, we could understand Doling’s frustration, given that nu-metal fans might confuse the young rapper with his band. On the other hand, Doling’s band weren’t the original Snot — a Texas hardcore band were. Chances are that $not the rapper had never even heard of Snot, just like Snot had probably never heard of S.N.O.T.

There’s an old saying that everything good’s been done before. While that’s not true about everything, it’s certainly the case with band names. Any truly awesome band name has already been chosen, and most bands usually need to either come up with a variation — See, we’re THE Obituary — or just pick a cool name that’s only being used by obscure bands and hope no one notices. And sometimes, as is the case with a recent crop of modern acts, this actually works out.

Here are 10 contemporary bands with names that were in use when they adopted them…

Creeping Death

We love the shit out of Texas’ Creeping Death, and consider them the only Creeping Death around. But their name is a Metallica song – and as such, there’s no way they were the first band to use it as a name. Lo and behold, the first Creeping Death is from Geramny, having formed in 2001. It just goes to show, you don’t have to be the original to cement a name as your own, you just gotta get noticed the most.

Conan

See also: Conan (Peru), Conan (Argentina)

The good news for British doomsters Conan is that there are only two other Conans in existence. The bad news is that Conan from Peru formed pretty recently, and are still active. While the former has a firm hold in the stoner-doom community, we wonder what would happen if the latter put out a truly killer album. We’d love to see some bloody Conan-on-Conan action.

Ho99o9

Okay, yes, Ho99o9 use 9s in their name, which I’m sure many people find very novel, but you still pronounce that shit ‘horror’ (their videos even have them listed as ‘Ho99o9 (Horror)’). And if you search ‘horror’ on Metal Archives, you get six other bands. We will also note that misspellings age differently; we don’t mind Kreator that much, but Enuff Z’Nuff and (hed) P.E. are exhausting to even look at. Let’s hope these dudes age gracefully.

Ghost

Oh yeah, this was a given. While Ghost’s simplicity is a big part of their charm – they’d have never blown up the way they did with a name like Dearly Beloved or Through The Catacombs or Anal Stab – it also meant their name was bound to be taken. In fact, it’s been taken four other times, with two of them being from France. Guess the word has more weight abroad; in America, you mostly imagine a sheet with eyes.

Gruesome

See also: Gruesome (Norway)

As far as bands on this list go, Gruesome might get a pass more than anyone for having an unoriginal name. Part of it is that the only other Gruesome play a very different style of metal than their American counterparts, and have split up. More than that, though, Gruesome exist to pay homage to the band Death, so they’re automatically unoriginal as part of their MO. Anyway, they also rule, so they get our approval.

Wargasm

It’s funny that Limp Bizkit are being taken to task for touring with $not – because he’s not the only act on their tour with someone else’s name. The issue for Wargasm, of course, is that Wargasm, the thrash band of the same name, are relatively known within scene circles. Hence the Wargasm UK tag, which will follow the band until the old one dies off entirely. Honestly, the types of metal both bands make are so different, you can usually tell which one is being referenced by who’s saying their name.

Vampire

See also: Vampire (Germany), Vämpïre (Norway)

Like Ghost, Vampire were doomed to be copycats from the start. But also like their aforementioned countrymen, this band has survived in part by, well, just being killer! At this point, the other two Vampires would have to work hard to be more exciting than this bitching black-thrash act. Their logo is also the coolest, without question.

Vitriol

Portland’s Vitriol made a solid splash in 2019’s To Bathe From the Throat of Cowardice. But while the band’s contempt-heavy death metal rules, their name was without question going to be taken. Thankfully, the five other Vitriols seem to play varying kinds of metal, and none of them appear to be as hateful and toxic as the band we’re thinking of. Definitely the kind of word that you think nobody else has used (which usually means it’s been used forever).

Periphery

See also: Periphery, Periphery, Periphery

How do djent masters Periphery stand out from this crowd? Maybe it’s that none of the other bands named Periphery are on Metal Archives, leading one to believe that they’re not metal bands. That Periphery were the only Periphery to think ‘Periphery’ was a cool metal name speaks to their general artsiness. And now we’ve said the word too much, and it just sounds like gibberish.

END

Hardcore supergroup END have made waves in the recent past with their absolutely crushing sound. But let’s face it, their band name is as a common a word as one can find, so of course they’re going to have company. That said, they seem to be the heaviest of the six Ends out there, evidenced by their use of ALL CAPS in their band name. Definitely to be expected, but then again, END don’t seem like the band who would care.

Tags: Conan, creeping death, ghost, Gruesome, ho99o9, periphery, Vampire, vitriol, wargasm

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