The shelf life for the average band is limited. That’s why it’s a major feat costumed industrial rockers Mushroomhead are celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2013, even if there were some lineup changes along the way.

“We’ve been through quite a few roster changes over the years, but that’s part of it,” founding member Steve “Skinny” Felton said in a recent telephone interview. “People either grow closer together or further apart. Creating with the same people and ending up with same stuff is not the ultimate goal. I like the albums to be challenging and sound fresh, but sometimes you’ve got to change the lineup to get those sorts of things.”

Mushroomhead, which formed as a studio project in 1993, performs at McGuffy’s House of Rock in Dayton on Friday.

“It literally was a separate creative outlet,” Felton said. “Everyone at that time was in other somewhat established underground bands in Cleveland. The style, and even the reputation for the sound, was kind of on the line and that’s ultimately what led to the masks and the costumes. We weren’t going to run on stage and say we’re this super group.

“We didn’t want a bunch of preconceived notions about how this thing was going to sound because we honestly didn’t know how it was going to sound,” he said. “We were literally creating for ourselves. We didn’t really care if anyone liked it.”

To the band’s surprise, people loved its distinctive brand of dark industrial metal. After three self-released albums, the band signed to Universal Records. Mushroomhead released three successful records before being dropped by the major label. After another self-released album, the band signed with Megaforce Records.

Although music consumers are increasingly opting for digital singles and scattered songs rather than full albums, Mushroomhead still finds value in full-length releases.

“Ultimately for us, it’s not about creating a single but about creating an album,” Felton said. “We like something cohesive you can put on from start to finish.”

Mushroomhead is working on its third Megaforce album, which will be released in 2013.

“We’ve got 16 songs written,” Felton said. “We demoed them all and there are quite a few of them that are contenders for singles and stuff like that. We actually started recording drums last week. We’re about four or five deep in now. If we stay on the schedule, hopefully we’ll get everything done by February and start touring again then. Depending on what the label says, we’ll put it out around May.”