Coal Chamber broke out of the Los Angeles alternative metal scene in 1997 with a sound often compared to Korn, although both bands formed around the same time and are quality representations of the scene's overall sound -- the heavy, detuned guitars of the murkiest Black Sabbath; grungy, noisy textures reminiscent of White Zombie or Tool; the white-knuckle intensity of Pantera and hardcore punk; and perhaps a few hip-hop-influenced beats à la Biohazard.
Coal Chamber were formed in 1994 by vocalist/lyricist B. Dez Fafara and guitarist Miguel "Meegs" Rascon, who met through a classified ad; the two added drummer Mike "Mikee" Cox and bassist Rayna Foss, the latter of whom heard about auditions through her roommate, Fafara's future wife. A huge local buzz following gigs at the Roxy and the Whisky a Go Go, along with a demo tape championed by Fear Factory's Dino Cazares, got the band an opportunity to sign with Roadrunner Records late in 1994, but Fafara suddenly quit due to disagreements with his wife over the band. By the spring of 1995, Fafara changed his mind and returned, a decision that ultimately cost him his marriage, but a renewed sense of energy helped Coal Chamber regain their Roadrunner deal by the end of the year.
Their self-titled debut was released in 1997; Chamber Music followed two years later. The album was a minor success but its mixture of goth rock imagery and nu metal thuggery made for an uneven album. They toured heavily behind it but by the time it came time to record the next album, bassist Rayna Foss-Rose was gone to raise her daughter, leaving the band with Nadja Peulen. Nadja took Foss-Rose's place during her pregnancy between the first two albums, but she accepted the invitation to come back as a full-time member during the recording of the next record. The resulting album, Dark Days, was released in the spring of 2002.
By May of that same year, the band had begun to fall apart, sparked by an on-stage altercation between Fafara and Rascon. The following year, after issuing a remix and rarities compilation called Giving the Devil His Due, the bandmembers announced that they had officially broken up, with Fafara continuing on with his new band, Devildriver, with whom he would go on to release six studio albums. In 2011 Coal Chamber began hinting at a possible re-formation, and by 2013 they made it official, performing at Download 2013 and hitting the road with Sevendust, Lacuna Coil, and Stolen Babies. Rivals, the band's first studio recording in 13 years, arrived in early 2015 via Napalm Records.

Dagoba are an English-language metal band from France that established a fan base throughout Europe during the mid-2000s with a series of popular albums on the underground metal label Season of Mist. Formed in 1997 in Marseille, the band cites nü-metal bands of the era such as Korn, Deftones, and Incubus among its influences, along with more extreme styles such as death metal. Comprised of Shawter (vocals), Izakar (guitar), Werther (bass), and Franky (drums), Dagoba made their commercial recording debut in 2001 with a six-song EP, Release the Fury, released on the independent label Enternote Records. The band subsequently made its full-length album debut with Dagoba (2003) on the same label and proceeded to tour for much of the next two years, opening for major metal bands such as Machine Head, Fear Factory, and Korn. The more or less nonstop touring paid off when Dagoba were offered a recording contract with Season of Mist in 2005. The band's album debut on the label, What Hell Is About (2006), was produced by Tue Madsen and was a commercial breakthrough effort, reaching number 107 on the French albums chart. The band's second album on Season of Mist, Face the Colossus (2008), also produced by Madsen, was similarly popular. With a fan base now well established, Dagoba mounted their first-ever headlining tour, performing concerts throughout Europe during 2008-2009 in promotion of the album. Poseidon arrived in 2010 via French label XIII Bis Records, followed by Post Mortem Nihil Est in 2013 and Tales of the Black Dawn in 2015. The band secured a deal with Century Media ahead of the release of their seventh studio long-player, Black Nova, which arrived in 2018.

Bad Omens are a Los Angeles metalcore band who traffic in punishing breakdowns and anthemic choruses that evoke contemporaries like Bring Me the Horizon and Periphery. The group was born in 2013 from a handful of solo demos by lead singer Noah Sebastian, who eventually added longtime friends Nicholas Ryan (guitar) and Vincent Riquier (bass) to the fold. A friend of Riquier's, Joakim "Jolly" Karlsson, joined on guitar, and drummer Nick Folio was added after submitting samples over the Internet. Sumerian Records was impressed with the songwriting on their early demos and signed the band in 2015. Bad Omens quickly grew a fan base with singles including "Exit Wounds" and "The Worst in Me." Based on an unhealthy relationship of Sebastian's, but "universal to all bad habits," their eponymous debut landed on the Billboard rock, hard rock, independent, and Heatseekers album charts upon release in 2016. Early 2019 saw the arrival of the singles "Said & Done" and "Burning Out" ahead of the release of the band's sophomore full-length effort, Finding God Before God Finds Me, which appeared later that August.