Godsmack among many groups named after songs

They take their name from a song about the debilitating, cold-sweat saturated misery of heroin dependency.

Insomnia, vomiting, abscesses -- who's ready to rock!

The dudes in Godsmack apparently, a band whose moniker was borrowed from a haunting and sadly prescient Alice in Chains song.

"So be yearning all your life / Twisting, turning like a knife / Now you know the reasons why / Can't get high, or you will die," frontman Layne Staley sang a few years before his own battle with addiction would cost him his life.

It's a depressing tune to label your group after, considering how bleak and dire it is, while a Godsmack song tends to be about punching people in the face and is the type of stuff you listen to while doing squat thrusts and shoving nerds into lockers.

But hey, if it doesn't make much sense, neither does Godsmack's inexplicable popularity.

Still, this bunch isn't alone in using other bands' songs as a source of inspiration when it comes to branding their group.

With Godsmack coming to town this weekend, we thought we'd take a look at the not-uncommon phenomenon of bands that name themselves after songs and evaluate their worthiness.

Song: Leonard Cohen, "Sisters of Mercy." A beautiful song that melts hearts like the sun does Hershey bars, which Cohen wrote from start to finish one night after an encounter with two women in a Canadian hotel room. He then sang it to them the next morning.

Band: Sisters of Mercy. These black-clad Brit goths made gloom a kind of aesthetic beginning in the '80s. It's fitting they took their name from a song by a guy like Cohen whose tunes, at their bleakest, waterboard happiness in a pool of tears.

Song: Veruca Salt, "Seether." A girl-power firecracker that was the defining hit for these femme-fronted Chicago rockers who strove to be AC/DC with ovaries.

Band: Seether. These crappy post-grunge sad sacks whine out generic angst-on-a-stick while emptying their bladders on Kurt Cobain's grave. Definitely not worthy.

Song: Muddy Waters, "Rollin' Stone." A slow simmering ode to lovin' 'em and leavin' 'em where Waters' libido proves to be so hyperactive, his pelvis qualifies for overtime pay.

Band: Rolling Stones. White guys have long ripped off and commercialized the works of African-American blues greats, but hey, at least the Stones were up front about it.

Song: Melvins, "Boris." Eight minutes of slow, crushing, puppy-smashing riff mongering heavier than Godzilla juggling the cast of "The Biggest Loser."

Band: Boris. Totally fitting handle for this changeling Japanese power trio whose guitars numb the senses like a shot of Novocaine to the spine.

Song: Talking Heads, "Radio Head." Alka Seltzer-levels of effervescence buoy this wide-eyed waltz about extrasensory perception.

Band: Radiohead. They don't sound anything like the band they took their name from, but similar to the Talking Heads, Radiohead managed to take a measure of artfulness to the mainstream and sell out concert halls without selling out themselves.

Song: Exodus, "Bonded by Blood." A classic, poser-punching rager that was like a cruise missile in the Bay Area thrash arms race of three decades ago.

Band: Bonded By Blood. Almost too obvious. These thrash throwbacks come with tight jeans, white high-tops and speed-of-sound rippers that double as a wormhole back to the '80s and/or the ideal soundtrack for crushing spent beer cans on your forehead.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.