Filter

American hard rock group Filter fuses abrasive, skull-pounding force with tuneful, synth-tinged industrial textures, linking alternative and metal audiences. Rising as a standout act in the mid-'90s post-industrial alternative wave, the project grew from a Nine Inch Nails side endeavor into an independent unit shaped by founding visionary Richard Patrick, an early NIN participant. The band reached mainstream listeners via its 1995 first album Short Bus, contributing to the period through the lasting track "Hey Man, Nice Shot" prior to broadening its approach and adding new ingredients on its strongest-performing release so far, Title of Record. That set also yielded the act's top-charting song via the unexpectedly fragile ballad "Take a Picture," which climbed to just outside the Hot 100's upper tier. The Amalgamut from 2002 sustained strong rock-radio presence, yet shifting industry conditions in the 2010s brought uneven sales and positions that led to a quieter stretch until The Sun Comes Out Tonight in 2013 briefly delivered Filter's strongest Billboard 200 placement in more than ten years. Toward the end of the decade Patrick marked the group's '90s high point by issuing expanded reissues of its initial pair of albums. Tracks drawn from recording sessions planned as a successor to Short Bus ultimately surfaced on the eighth album, 2023's The Algorithm.

Filter originated in the early '90s when vocalist and core member Richard Patrick, who had played guitar with Nine Inch Nails throughout the Pretty Hate Machine and Broken periods, chose to exit the group in 1993 and start his own project. Through a shared contact he connected with Brian Liesegang, and the two began tracking material together. Patrick supplied vocals, guitars, bass, programming, and drums while Liesegang handled programming, guitars, keyboards, and drums. Their prior electronic experiments produced an initial sound that echoed a heavier strain of industrial than NIN. After signing with Reprise they issued their first full-length, Short Bus, cut inside a modest house outside Cleveland, in 1995. The record became an unexpected success and earned gold certification by summer, propelled by the MTV and alternative-radio favorite "Hey Man, Nice Shot"; it later reached platinum status. To support the release the pair added guitarist Geno Lenardo, bassist Frank Cavanaugh, and drummer Matt Walker for touring.

Filter maintained momentum by placing numerous songs on notable soundtracks, including "Jurassitol" for The Crow: City of Angels, the Crystal Method collaboration "(Can't You) Trip Like I Do" for Spawn, and "Thanks Bro" plus "One" for two X-Files collections. Although the band's profile continued to rise, Liesegang exited in 1997 due to creative disagreements. Patrick kept the Filter moniker for the 1999 follow-up Title of Record, which also attained platinum certification and produced an even larger crossover success via the Top 20 single "Take a Picture."

Three years afterward came the third album, The Amalgamut, after which the group entered a brief hiatus while Patrick sought treatment for addiction. Around 2005 he revealed a new outfit, Army of Anyone, formed with former Stone Temple Pilots members and participants from David Lee Roth's touring band. Patrick nevertheless maintained Filter, which resurfaced in 2008 with the reflective Anthems for the Damned, written in memory of a friend killed in Iraq. The act's first greatest-hits collection, The Very Best Things (1995-2008), appeared in 2009.

The fifth album, 2010's The Trouble with Angels, represented a direct return to the Short Bus sonic approach. It charted sufficiently—debuting at number 64 on the Billboard 200 and number seven on the Top Hard Rock Albums tally—to draw interest from hard-rock imprint Wind-Up, which put out the Bob Marlette-produced The Sun Comes Out Tonight in June 2013. The release introduced updated textures with added harmonies and electronic touches reminiscent of stylistic descendants Linkin Park, while also marking Filter's highest-charting album since 2002. During work on the next project Patrick's backing musicians shifted once more, now including Oumi Kapila on guitar and programming, Ashley Dzerigian on bass, Chris Reeve on drums, and Bobby Miller on keyboards. Filter reemerged in January 2016 with the single "Take Me to Heaven," featured on the seventh LP, Crazy Eyes, which posted modest Billboard 200 numbers yet performed strongly on the U.S. Alternative and Hard Rock charts.

In 2018, more than twenty years after the breakthrough, Patrick reunited with Liesegang to develop a Short Bus sequel they called "ReBus." Multiple delays prompted a change in direction, yet an expanded Short Bus edition containing several remixes was issued to mark the debut. The following year an expanded Title of Record arrived for its twentieth anniversary, incorporating the era's popular soundtrack contributions. Select tracks from the 2018 Short Bus follow-up sessions were later repurposed for the eighth album, The Algorithm, which surfaced in August 2023 and included the singles "For the Beaten" and "Obliteration."