Jasen Moreno says one of his greatest influences was Freddie Mercury from Queen, but he didn't envision himself as a singer when he first walked into the store and bought a Queen album. Listening to Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson and Pantera's Phil Anselmo helped to shape his vocals as the frontman first for The Suicide Hook and later Drowning Pool. He joined the band in 2012 after Ryan McCombs left to reunite with his original band, SOiL. Moreno's joining took some fans outside of Dallas by surprise. Drowning Pool, however, has always been one of those bands that could be considered heavy metal or hard rock, and Moreno is the kind of vocalist who can feel and relay the emotion in songs of both genres, much like his predecessor and friend Dave Williams, who helped to lead Drowning Pool to the national spotlight with hits like "Bodies" and "Tear Away" until his death from cardiomyopathy in 2002.

Bruce Corbitt, frontman for Warbeast, has spent the last 35 years perfecting his dark vocal art. Influenced by Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson and many others, Corbitt evokes a similar power, the kind that causes heads to bang. He first unleashed it as the frontman for speed metal band Rigor Mortis in the '80s with the late legendary speed metal guitarist Mike Scaccia by his side. A year after he joined the band, it signed with Capitol Records and released its self-titled debut album. Some called the group "the next Metallica," but Corbitt doesn't sound like James Hetfield. Instead, he assaults the microphone with his unique sound — one part demonic, two parts monstrous — as he unleashes lyrics such as "the fragrance of the corpse is the stench of his kin" on fans who seem to devour his music in the mosh pit.

Five years had passed since Iron Maiden slayed a Dallas stage, but the six-piece British metal band proved why it's considered a legend of heavy metal when it took the stage at American Airlines Center in late June. Jamming in front of a Mayan ruins backdrop, the band played a 15-song set filled with classics such as "Wrathchild," Children of the Damned" and "Fear of the Dark," along with new songs from its 16th studio album, The Book of Souls. Frontman Bruce Dickinson performed to a sold-out crowd with "his characteristic intensity, vigor and showmanship," as our reviewer said in the June review, proving that even a cancer couldn't keep this legendary frontman down.

Tigger's Body Art set the standard for modern-day tattoo shops in Dallas when the late Mark "Tigger" Liddell began slinging ink at the shop in the '80s. It was the first tattoo shop in Deep Ellum and the kind of shop where art was explored and challenged. Tigger started tattooing in Oklahoma but moved to Dallas, where it was legal to tattoo. He was the first to take tattooing out of the backroom and put everything on display. Today, Tigger's Tattoo Shop no longer resembles its former self after a remodel in 2014 updated it with a more modern feel, but its artists — Joey, Jake, Randy and Chef Joey — are still slinging ink as if Tigger is guiding their tattoo guns.

In a traditionally male-dominated Texas country music industry, Madison King is a guitar-picking lyricist who, as we pointed out in April 2014, "brings a unique timbre and color to the state that sets her apart from the rest, especially in soulful tunes." King picked up the guitar when she was 8, started singing as a teenager, and honed her guitar and vocal skills in church. Influenced by artists such as Ryan Adams, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, she later shared the stage with artists like the Old 97's, Polyphonic Spree and Foreigner. She released her first album, Darlin, Here's to You, to critical acclaim in 2011, appeared on NBC's The Voice in 2012 and gained radio airplay. She followed it with Onward & Upward.

Formed in a bedroom in a trailer park in 2014, Teenage Sexx began as a garage-punk solo project, as we pointed out in our May 31 profile, before lead guitarist Caleb Lewis and bassist Kevin Adkins hooked up and later joined drummer Charlie Debolt. They claim they're a pop-punk band, "like a '90s band that's still trying to make it," but they released a self-titled debut album in 2015, followed with Flavour Country and performed on a split EP with their "big-brother band," the Loafers, in 2016. They recently released another EP, Jesus Christ. "Our songs may sound angry and sad, but I think we're basically writing pop songs," Lewis told the Observer in May.

In Tombstone, Arizona, in the 19th century, "The Black Moriah" was a hearse that took the dead to Boot Hill. Flash forward to the 21st century, and The Black Moriah is a local metal band that's been shaping thrash metal into a unique dark sound since 2011. And with the recent addition of drummer Joey "Blue" Gonzalez from Warbeast and Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegals, its black metal sound has kicked into overdrive. The band, which includes guitarist Zawicizuz Sawicky, bassist Syzygy Derive and vocalist "The Mad Arab," recently released the single "Summer of the Diabolical Holocaust" on iTunes and the fifth edition of its album Casket Prospects to some rave reviews by local metal sites.

Formed in Denton in 2014, Buffalo Ruckus came together to make Southern rock 'n' roll, Texas style, but created psychedelic Americana injected with '70s Southern soul. It's better described as experimental country-fried rock, but it's really just Texas music at its finest. The band members, admirers of Ray Wylie Hubbard, released their self-titled debut shortly after they formed and spawned two radio singles, "High Again" and "Angilee." Then they wowed critics with the release of their album Peace & Cornbread in 2016. "Soulful, wild and crazy, strong lyrics that make you listen," Brett Dylan from KHYI-FM (95.3 The Range) claimed. "Jason Lovell has the voice and spirit. Great name, great band." Lovell is joined by guitarist and mandolin slayer Brad Haefner, bassist Michael Burgess and percussionist Jerrod Ford. They've "spread the Ruckus" at places like Billy Bob's and House of Blues and opened for bands such as Foghat, Cheap Trick, The Dirty River Boys and Merle Haggard before he died in April 2016.

This year Jack White appeared in Deep Ellum with a surprise announcement. The lead singer and guitarist of The White Stripes is co-partner and lead investor in Warstic, a local outfit that designs and produces fancy baseball bats. He's been seen around town quite a bit this year, shopping and drinking at Deep Ellum haunts like High & Tight and Drugstore Cowboy and appearing at a pop-up shop for the brand. Those who've run into him report he's an affable and charitable fellow, and the more he visits, the more that reputation seems to be true. In August, he showed up at a baseball game with former Texas Ranger Ian Kinsler — another partner in Warstic — to raise money for Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. Warstic founder Ben Jenkins, a Dallas native who played minor league ball, said White approached him and has been very hands-on with the company. We're looking forward to seeing more of you, Jack.