Ten Commandos

Alain Johannes had a demo track called 'Staring Down the Dust' and needed a vocal that could punch through the desert rock haze. He called Mark Lanegan, because when you’ve played in Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures, you have that number on speed dial. This wasn't a band formed in a garage; it was a heavy-hitter summit meeting at 11AD studios in West Hollywood. You’ve got the Soundgarden rhythm section in Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd providing the floor, while Dimitri Coats from OFF! adds the jagged edge. They dropped one self-titled record in 2015 and then mostly vanished back into their main gigs. It’s a studio project that actually sounds like people breathing the same air, avoiding that sterile, file-sharing fatigue that kills most supergroups. It’s thick, bottom-heavy, and smells like stale smoke and tube amps pushed to the breaking point. They didn't reinvent the wheel, but they sure as hell reminded everyone who actually built the wheel in the first place.

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