Whether it’s a one-time record or a career-altering project, a supergroup indicates a certain level of prestige and cool. Plenty have cropped up since the days of Cream and the Traveling Wilburys, and even if it rarely works out, there’s always something magical about hearing your favorite musicians come together and share a new vision. People still argue if Foo Fighters can be designated as such, whereas boygenius broke big this year — the trio recently bagged seven Grammy nominations on top of concluding a massive, unmissable tour — and proved they could be a different kind of supergroup.
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So, we decided to ask our readers to pick the best supergroups of all time. From Velvet Revolver to L.S. Dunes, find the top fan picks ranked below.
5. Velvet Revolver
Velvet Revolver are essentially the hard-rock supergroup of your dreams. Boasting three members of Guns N’ Roses — Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum — alongside Dave Kushner and Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots, the band’s name reflected their sound. Glamorous and edgy, Velvet Revolver nabbed a Grammy for “Slither” and toured with Alice in Chains during their tenure. The band even outlasted the one-off trope by putting out two studio albums and an EP but ultimately weren’t meant to be.
4. Temple of the Dog
Temple of the Dog, originally devised as a tribute to the late Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood, was put together by Chris Cornell. The album, however, became a grunge classic, and its members soon went on to form Pearl Jam, releasing the landmark debut LP, Ten, only four months after TOTD’s self-titled. In the years since, the band embarked on an anniversary tour, and their songs still resonate hard, especially in the wake of Cornell’s tragic passing in 2017.
3. Audioslave
Imagine if Rage Against the Machine had a different frontman — one with grunge-y, gargantuan pipes. By tapping the formidable Soundgarden vocalist, Tom Morello, Brad Wilk, and Tim Commerford imagined an alternative future for a time. Though their self-titled debut album sounded a bit too much like a blend of their respective bands, they went on to forge a unique identity on 2005’s Out of Exile and 2006’s Revelations by weaving in funk, soul, and R&B into their combustible hard rock. On a Japanese bonus track of Out of Exile, the band even covered Funkadelic’s “Super Stupid,” which sounds incredible.
2. Isles & Glaciers
Though Isles & Glaciers comprised members of Chiodos, Pierce the Veil, and Sleeping With Sirens, their time as a band was short-lived. Their one and only EP, 2010’s The Hearts of Lonely People, is a beloved release that features original songs, rather than B-sides from their respective projects. “We got together as friends and just did what was natural to us — we wrote and played music,” Martin said in a press statement in 2010. “Eventually, it turned into songs that we were all really excited about and just wanted to share.” Ultimately, though, the band were more of an experiment than a full-fledged project.
1. L.S. Dunes
L.S. Dunes are more like a superhero squad than a supergroup. The band — including esteemed musicians Anthony Green (Circa Survive, Saosin), Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance), Travis Stever (Coheed and Cambria), and Thursday’s rhythm section of Tucker Rule and Tim Payne — merged their strengths to make their spectacular debut album, Past Lives. The record is a product of friends jamming together rather than ego-fueled madness, created during a collective dark period where creativity felt stalled. From the riotous “Permanent Rebellion” to the moody “Grey Veins,” L.S. Dunes delivered a scorching collection of post-hardcore bangers and proved they’re here to stay.
