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Converge is an American band formed in 1990 in Salem, Massachusetts by vocalist/visual artist Jacob Bannon and guitarist/producer Kurt Ballou, and are pioneers of metalcore and its subgenre mathcore. Their fourth album, Jane Doe (2001), recorded when the classic four-piece lineup solidified with bassist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller, is a landmark of the genre. Guitarist Kurt Ballou runs GodCity Studio, making him one of heavy music's most prolific producers, while Bannon founded the label Deathwish Inc. in 1999. In 2021 the band released Bloodmoon: I, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe.

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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.

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.

Mutoid Man is an American heavy metal band formed in 2012 in Brooklyn, New York City by Cave In vocalist/guitarist Stephen Brodsky and Converge drummer Ben Koller. The project began as a two-piece before adding bassist Nick Cageao, who was replaced in August 2021 by Jeff Matz of High on Fire. Their sound has been described as metalcore that engages hardcore punk, rock and roll, math rock, progressive rock, and psychedelic music.

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Better Lovers is an American metalcore and chaotic hardcore band formed in 2023 in Buffalo, New York, uniting three former members of Every Time I Die (Jordan Buckley, Steve Micciche, Clayton Holyoak) with guitarist/producer Will Putney and vocalist Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan. The group released the EP God Made Me an Animal (2023) and its debut full-length Highly Irresponsible in October 2024 through SharpTone Records. Puciato fronted the band from its formation until the two parties amicably parted ways in February 2026.

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The Number Twelve Looks Like You is an American mathcore band formed in Bergen County, New Jersey in 2001 (initially as And Ever), taking their name from a 1964 Twilight Zone episode. Their dystopian screamo/grind fuses metal, hardcore, and Frank Zappa-esque experimental shifts across albums including Mongrel (2007) and, after a 2010–2016 split, the comeback record Wild Gods (2019). The band is fronted by longtime vocalist Jesse Korman and guitarist Alexis Pareja, with a lineup that has turned over repeatedly since its early-2000s inception.

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Retox was formed in San Diego in 2011 by vocalist Justin Pearson and drummer Gabe Serbian, who had already spent years detonating grindcore convention together in The Locust. Trading that band's sci-fi costumes for stripped-down nihilist hardcore, Retox specialized in short, sharp blasts of noise-punk — their Ipecac debut Ugly Animals burns through eleven tracks in about thirteen minutes. Two further albums, YPLL (2013) and Beneath California (2015), followed on Epitaph before Pearson and guitarist Michael Crain carried the lineage into Dead Cross with Dave Lombardo and Mike Patton.

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At the Drive-In are a post-hardcore band formed in El Paso, Texas in 1994, best known for Relationship of Command (2000) — a chaotic, tightly-wound record critics have called "the high against which every post-hardcore record since 2000 has been measured." The band split in 2001; frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López went on to found The Mars Volta, and bassist Paul Hinojos later joined them there too. ATDI reunited in 2016 for the album in•ter a•li•a (2017).

The Dillinger Escape Plan was an American mathcore band formed in 1997 in Morris Plains, New Jersey, evolving from the hardcore band Arcane. Founded and anchored throughout by guitarist Ben Weinman, the group fused hardcore intensity, technical metal precision and jarring time changes across landmark releases including Calculating Infinity (1999), Miss Machine (2004), Ire Works (2007), One of Us Is the Killer (2013) and Dissociation (2016). After original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis departed, Greg Puciato fronted the band from 2001 until its disbandment in December 2017. The band reunited in 2023 to mark the 25th anniversary of their debut.

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SikTh are a British progressive/technical metal band formed in Watford, Hertfordshire in 1999, known for their dual-vocalist attack, dissonant mathcore-adjacent riffing, and unorthodox compositions. They are widely cited as pioneers of the djent and tech-metal movement, breaking through with their debut album The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait for Something Wild (2003), followed by Death of a Dead Day (2006) and, after a reunion, The Future in Whose Eyes? (2017).

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