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Music history is filled with side projects from musicians in rock and metal bands who decided to branch out into a more melodic sound. When a band has a narrowly defined, heavy sound it’s hard to incorporate a member’s newfound interest in a gentler genre without fundamentally affecting the band. Occasionally, though, the opposite arises: someone just needs to rock out in a way their main band can’t accommodate. Since generally these projects have less commercial potential — sometimes much less, even going to far as to alienate existing fans– these more aggressive and often quite unexpected side projects are often born out of a need to exorcise pent-up emotion and a pure love of the music.
Below, five fantastic side projects that rock harder than their stars’ main bands: [/tps_header]
Xtrmst
Davey Havok and Jade Puget might be best known as the singer and guitarist for AFI, but they’ve both dabbled in a variety of other endeavours. In 2014, they formed XTRMST, a straight edge hardcore band, and released a full-length self-titled album. “Never shall we again make room for the weak,” Havok screams in ‘Sharper’ and the band’s sound is as uncompromising as its name suggests. Having originally gotten into straight edge as teenagers, XTRMST was a passion project a long time coming.
