Behold... The Arctopus

Meshuggah is a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Umeå in 1987, celebrated for the polymetric and polyrhythmic architecture of their music — thundering, downtuned guitar riffs written in shifting odd groupings over a steady 4/4 pulse. Fusing thrash, death, and groove metal with a cerebral jazz-fusion sensibility, they inadvertently launched the subgenre now known as djent and became one of the most technically influential acts in modern heavy music. Guitarist Fredrik Thordendal's Allan Holdsworth-inspired soloing and drummer Tomas Haake's mechanical precision are cornerstones of the sound.

Bleedplay in the dock

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Encenathrakh is an American brutal death metal supergroup founded in Columbus, Ohio around 2013-2014, uniting bassist/guitarist Colin Marston (Gorguts, Dysrhythmia, Krallice, Behold... The Arctopus), guitarist Mick Barr (Orthrelm, Krallice), drummer Weasel Walter (The Flying Luttenbachers, Behold... The Arctopus), and vocalist Paulo Henri Paguntalan. Their music pushes brutal death metal to an atonal, disjointed extreme, with Marston citing avant-garde composer Brian Ferneyhough's dense scores as a touchstone.

Extol is a Norwegian extreme metal band formed in 1993 in Bekkestua, celebrated for a restless fusion of technical and progressive death metal with black metal, thrash, and melodic, prog-rock sensibilities. Emerging from the Christian metal underground, they evolved sharply across records from the blackened death of Burial (1998) to the genre-defying, atmospheric The Blueprint Dives (2005) and the reunion-era self-titled album (2013). The core is built around the Espevoll cousins Peter and Christer alongside longtime drummer David Husvik and multi-instrumentalist Ole Børud. After their hiatus, members Christer Espevoll and David Husvik went on to co-found the international progressive metal band Azusa.

Betrayalplay in the dock

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XHOHX are a duo who describe their own music, in their own words, as "Chaotic and Organic No Wave, Poly-rhythmic and Atonal Music" — which is both accurate and about as much help as it sounds. Ramon Ribas Coca plays guitar and programs the drums, Oregolakatzor plays bass, and the result is heavy avant-rock built out of angular, disharmonic riffing that never repeats a bar it could complicate instead. Reviewers reach for Ruins, the Flying Luttenbachers and Univers Zero, and hear an industrial edge that comes from the rhythmic construction rather than from any electronics — the programmed drums are deliberately played straight, close enough to a human kit that the review noting them also notes you cannot really tell. Growled shouts surface between the instrumental passages. Two albums in eleven years, then a 2013 split with Ahleuchatistas recorded either side of the Atlantic, and not much since.

The Abodox (styled The AbodoX on some releases) were a Seattle band who formed in 1999 — the same year Dillinger Escape Plan's Calculating Infinity landed, which REDEFINE's review of their third album treats as the founding coincidence of the whole spazz-core lineage. Their thing is riff density taken past the point of sense: "riffs give way to riffs which give way to riffs within riffs, and by the time you start thinking 'that was cool, why didn't they stick to that for a while?' they've already cycled through eight more." Songs average about two minutes and Up The Excalibur (2009) is over in twenty-five. Blaine Patnode joined on second guitar from Seattle instrumental band The Swarming Hordes, making a two-guitar band out of a three-piece; the rhythm section pulled double duty in Seattle stoner prog outfit Lesbian. They ran 1999 to 2008 with occasional reunion shows after.

Dark Angel are an American thrash metal band formed in Downey, California in 1981, whose extremely fast, lengthy, tempo-shifting songs earned them the nickname "the L.A. Caffeine Machine" and the motto "too fast, my ass." They are widely credited as one of the progenitors of technical/progressive thrash — Time Does Not Heal (1991) was famously advertised with "246 riffs" — and their second album Darkness Descends (1986) is cited as a major influence on the later death, doom and groove metal scenes. The band launched the career of drummer Gene Hoglan, who joined in late 1984 and went on to Death, Testament and Devin Townsend's projects.

The Burning of Sodomplay in the dock

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Psyopus was an American mathcore band from Rochester, New York, formed in 2002 and led by guitarist Christopher "Arpmandude" Arp, the only constant member throughout its history. Known for Arp's unorthodox, extremely technical guitar work, the band fused controlled noise, jazz influences and abrupt melodic precision across dark thematic material. They released three studio albums: Ideas of Reference (2004), Our Puzzling Encounters Considered (2007) and Odd Senses (2009), the latter two through Black Market Activities / Metal Blade Records. The group went on hiatus in 2010 and briefly reunited in 2012.

Hunab Ku was a Seattle avant-garde metal act built around vocalist Mike Gilmore, guitarist Luke Jaeger (ex-Sleep Terror, joined 2008 replacing founding guitarist Dan Hagerty), bassist Matt Finn, and drummer Mark Villano. Their 2007 debut "The Gaze Inward" (Black Sheep Records) was reviewed as chaotic mathcore-indebted avant metal, drawing explicit critical comparisons to Dillinger Escape Plan, Cephalic Carnage, and Fantomas, with vocals ranging from screams to croons and moans. IMPORTANT DISAMBIGUATION: this is distinct from an unrelated Costa Rican black metal band of the same name (founded 2016 by Lord Eythraz) and a dark-ambient project — the Seattle act is the one matching the chart description and reviews cited here.

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Car Bomb is an American mathcore band from Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York, formed in 2000 from the merger of two local groups, Neck and Spooge. The quartet is known for a harsh, glitch-heavy and disorienting take on metal built on stop-on-a-dime tempo shifts and discordant riffing. After a 2007 Relapse Records debut, the band self-released the albums Meta (2016) and Mordial (2019), with Meta produced by Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier.

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Vomitatrix is a Jupiter, Florida-based noisecore/acid-grind project whose self-titled debut (July 2022) was recorded in Austin, TX and mixed by drummer Weasel Walter. The band bills itself as building on the legacy of Morbid Florist, delivering ten tracks of abrasive, dada-tinged grindcore. The lineup pairs Weasel Walter (also founder/leader of The Flying Luttenbachers) with bassist Tim Dahl (Child Abuse, Lydia Lunch Retrovirus), guitarist Rick Eye, and vocalist Gyna Bootleg.