Artist
Ten Commandos
Seattle
Ten Commandos is a music group from Seattle. Their discography on Gatefold includes 1 record.
1
Albums tracked
1
In collections
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Since
Biography
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.
The Arc of Ten Commandos
The pivots — what forced Ten Commandos to reinvent.
The 11AD Sessions
The project crystallized when Alain Johannes started tracking with Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd, grounding the songs in that specific Seattle-meets-Palm-Desert mud. Adding Dimitri Coats brought a punk volatility that kept the songs from becoming too polished or self-indulgent. Mark Lanegan’s guest vocal on the lead single set the bar for the rest of the tracking, forcing the instrumentalists to play with a darker, more cinematic weight. The result was a brief, high-intensity burst of heavy psych that feels like a lost session from the late nineties grunge hangover.
Influences
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience — Matt Cameron has cited Mitch Mitchell as a primary reason he picked up sticks, specifically for the jazz-inflected fluidity in heavy rock. You hear that swinging, octopus-arm style all over the Ten Commandos percussion tracks. It keeps the heavy riffs from feeling like a march.
- Black Flag — Dimitri Coats cut his teeth in the hardcore scene and often references Greg Ginn’s dissonant, angular guitar approach as a blueprint. On this record, he provides the friction that rubs against the more melodic sensibilities of Johannes. It’s the difference between a rock record and a dangerous one.
- The 13th Floor Elevators — Alain Johannes has deep roots in the psychedelic pioneers, often using weird scales and EBow textures that mirror Roky Erickson’s lysergic energy. The track 'Coming Home' leans hard into that echoing, disorienting psych-rock tradition. It’s the sonic connective tissue between the 60s garage scene and modern stoner rock.
- Deeds of Flesh — Ben Shepherd has spent years championing technical death metal and extreme subgenres in interviews, which informs his aggressive, non-linear bass lines. He doesn't just follow the guitar; he fights it. That tension is the engine room for the entire Ten Commandos LP.
- Masters of Reality — Chris Goss and his work with Masters of Reality basically invented the sonic vocabulary Johannes uses in the studio. The two have collaborated extensively, and you can hear that 'Blue Garden' swampiness in the vocal layering and dry drum production. It’s a masterclass in how to make a record sound like it’s covered in dust.
Discography
Their records — most-collected first.
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