by Andrew Bohardt

Created on: September 28, 2010

The term "underrated musician" is an fairly arbitrary. An artist could have multiple platinum albums, for instance, but still may not receive justifiable credit for his/her contributions to the music world. At the same time, several underground artists never sell 50,000 albums in their career, yet are far superior to the likes of Lady Gaga, whose "talent" is very questionable, but she still sells millions of records.

With that loose definition in mind, here are four bands/artists that I feel never got the respect they deserved over the years.

Kyuss - The band in which guitarist Josh Homme got his start, Kyuss essentially created its own genre of music known as stoner rock. With thundering guitars plugged into bass amps, psychedelic effects and the idiosyncratic growl of frontman John Garcia, Kyuss produced a pair of underground classics in "Blues for the Red Sun" and "Welcome to Sky Valley," and became cult heroes in the early 1990s. Since the band broke up in 1995, members have gone on to play in several more influential acts, most notably (in the mainstream) Homme's Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures.

Helmet - The kings of minimalism, Helmet is plain and simple one of the biggest influences on today's modern rock scene. While that may be somewhat of a dubious distinction considering the lack of talented/original bands left in the mainstream, it still shows the impact that frontman Page Hamilton and co. have had. Helmet's best days - both commercially and in reality - came in the early 90s, when albums like "Meantime" and "Betty" crept into the mainstream even though the band's sound was anything but.

Primus - With happy-go-lucky - and at some points comical - lyrics/vocals and just an overall unusual vibe, Primus certainly isn't for everyone, but there is no denying the unparalleled talents of Les Claypool on bass. Perhaps best known as the guy who wrote the theme song  to "South Park," Claypool tried out for Metallica after Cliff Burton died and was told he was too good to play in the band. That, in and of itself, is reason enough to give Primus a listen.

Jerry Cantrell - Sure, everyone knows Jerry Cantrell from his work with Alice In Chains, but when Layne Staley became too sick to continue with the band in the mid-1990s, Cantrell released two phenomenal solo albums. Coupling that work with the fact he has written roughly 80-90 percent of AIC's material,  and it makes it extremely difficult to find any artists in the past 20 years that are better pure songwriters than Cantrell.

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