Philip Anselmo, the primary composer for The Manson Family, is best known as the frontman for the metal band Pantera.

The early 21st century saw Pantera singer Phil Anselmo launch several side projects, including Necrophagia, Disembodied, Christ Inversion, Southern Isolation, Body and Blood and Superjoint Ritual, all heard on The Manson Family soundtrack. The latter group is comprised of guitarists Jim Bower and Kevin Bond, drummer Joseph Fazzio, with none other than Hank Williams III on bass (Anselmo handled both vocal and bass duties for the group's recordings, but opted to concentrate solely on vocals for the group's live shows). According to Bower, the members of Superjoint Ritual approached the writing and recording of their debut with, "the perfect 15-year-old mentality of having everything loud, everything on 10, getting loaded, and letting whatever happens, happen." Recorded at a rehearsal space turned recording studio in Anselmo's backyard, the sessions were produced by former Ugly Kid Joe member Dave Fortman (who has turned into quite a producer of ultra-heavy bands - Eyehategod, Soilent Green, etc.). May of 2002 saw the release of the quintet's debut, Use Once and Destroy, an album that reflected such influences as Black Flag, Righteous Pigs, Celtic Frost, and Voivod, among others. Superjoint Ritual supported the album with a summer tour the same year.

DOWNLOAD As industrial and industrial-metal made great inroads on the mainstream charts during the late '90s, many early pioneers continued to record with little fanfare but a large amount of creativity, even if the astounding leaps in technology had largely altered their sound since the heyday of the 1980s. Download was originally begun by Skinny Puppy's cEvin Key and Rudolph Dwayne Goettel in 1995 as a side project from their rapidly disintegrating full-time interest. Also a part of Download were Skinny Puppy contributors Anthony Valcic and Ken Marshall, plus Philth and Mark Spybey (from Dead Voices on Air ). The debut album Furnace was issued on their own SubCONCIOUS Records (and distributed by Cleopatra) in late 1995; several months earlier, however, Goettel had died from a heroin overdose.

Skinny Puppy disbanded in 1996 after the release of its final album ( The Process ), and Download continued with two EPs early in the year. The first, ( Microscopic ) included remixed tracks from Furnace , while the second ( Sidewinder ) was the group's first release for Nettwerk Records (though not for Key , who had released many on Nettwerk through Skinny Puppy ). Second album The Eyes of Stanley Pain followed in mid-1996 and began to show the effect of the electronic dance music which Skinny Puppy had influenced a full decade before. The film soundtrack Charlie's Family (now known as The Manson Family) appeared on Metropolis Records in 1997.