CKRAFT
France · last active 2025
CKRAFT is a Paris-based jazz-metal quintet -- Charles Kieny (augmented accordion), Theo Nguyen Duc Long (tenor saxophone), Antoine Morisot (guitar), Marc Karapetian (bass), and William Bur (drums) -- whose members met studying at conservatories including Berklee and the Paris Conservatoire. Their albums Epic Discordant Vision (2022) and Uncommon Grounds (2025), the latter winner of the Audience Prize at the Triomphes du Metal Francais, fuse djent-adjacent metal heaviness with free-jazz improvisation and Gregorian-chant-derived medieval melody.
SCORE PROFILE
Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.
WHY THOSE SCORES
- Jazzy 7 — The Progressive Subway review highlights 'the nuance of free jazz' with substantial improvisational tenor-sax components
- Technical 8 — Described as 'a Meshuggah like jam session with King Crimson while listening to National Health', citing djent-fueled complexity married to Canterbury-jazz interplay (Ghost Cult Magazine)
- Theatrical 5 — 'Misconstruction of the Universe' uses the Gregorian chant 'Universi Qui Te Expectant' as its main lead melody, filmed as a cinematic video in a Normandy airship hangar (Decibel Magazine premiere)
- Folk 4 — Charles Kieny's 'augmented accordion' (a standard accordion wired to synthesizers) is a core lead voice across the catalogue, not just texture (charleskieny.com)
MEMBERS
- Charles Kienyaugmented accordion
- Théo Nguyen Duc Longtenor saxophone
- Antoine Morisotelectric guitar
- Marc Karapetianelectric bass
- William Burdrums
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13Electrocution 250TechnicalJazzyTheatrical
Electrocution 250 was a short-lived instrumental trio from Minnesota — guitarist Todd Duane, keyboardist Lalle Larsson, and drummer Peter Wildoer — who recorded a single album, 'Electric Cartoon Music From Hell' (2003/2004), fusing jazz-fusion virtuosity with Carl Stalling-style cartoon-music motifs and occasional thrash-metal bombast. Larsson and Wildoer are separately known for progressive/metal session and band work (Karmakanic, Darkane, among others), but this project stands as a standalone one-off. It is unrelated to the atlas's Ulver electronic era.
- Bay Area / SGMEI 25Cosa BravaTechnicalJazzyTheatrical
Cosa Brava is an experimental rock and free improvisation group formed in March 2008 in Oakland, California, by guitarist and composer Fred Frith (Henry Cow, Skeleton Crew, Naked City). All About Jazz described their sound as existing somewhere between folk, Celtic, modern chamber, Latin, funk, Eastern, and prog-rock. The quintet released Ragged Atlas (2010) and The Letter (2012) on Switzerland's Intakt Records, followed by Z Sides (2024). Its lineup draws together members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum with longtime Frith collaborator Zeena Parkins.
- Patton-verseEI 21Mondo CaneTechnicalTheatricalJazzy
Mondo Cane is Mike Patton's orchestral love letter to 1950s–60s Italian pop, assembled after his years living in Bologna: a 40-piece orchestra, 15-piece band, and choir behind Patton crooning Neapolitan standards and Ennio Morricone's 'Deep Down', released on his own Ipecac label in 2010. Co-produced and arranged with conductor Daniele Luppi, the recordings were stitched together from live European performances in 2007. It earns its place in an experimental metal atlas as the purest example of where the genre's members go when they leave metal entirely — the Faith No More and Mr. Bungle frontman trading screams for Morricone-era orchestration, and critics compared it favorably to Mr. Bungle's California.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13ValtozashJazzyTechnicalTheatrical
Valtozash is a fifteen-to-seventeen-piece 'jazz-thrash-metal' big band out of Brisbane, Australia, led by composer and electric vibraphonist Andre Bonetti. A full horn section collides free-jazz harmony and improvisation with thrash-metal aggression, drawing press comparisons to a conducted orchestra 'brutally assaulting' jazz standards. Albums like Wizard-Bird (2017) and Boiling Solitude (2021) showcase the ensemble's scale, arranging dense big-band charts against metal riffing.
- UnaffiliatedEI 21Those Darn GnomesJazzyTechnicalFolk
A San Diego collective mixing free-jazz horns (sax, tuba, French horn) and folk instrumentation (banjo, accordion) with noise-rock abrasion and beatnik-poetry vocals, resisting the 'metal band' label despite billing themselves as extreme. Press describes them as an unpredictable blend of free improvisation, algorithmic composition, and 'ancient campfire songs' colliding with shattered noise.
- UnaffiliatedEI 15Anthurus d'ArcherTechnicalJazzyTheatrical
Anthurus d'Archer is a five-piece experimental metal-jazz fusion outfit from Poitiers, France, blending free jazz, industrial textures and avant-garde rock with saxophone, flute, brass, percussion and samples. Their releases lean into absurdist song titles and elaborate visual/theatrical presentation, including a trilogy culminating in the stage-based piece "Le voyage d'André" (2008). The project has self-released steadily since the debut album Plastofilène (2004), often partnering with visual artist Patrice Le Garrec and percussionist Frank Quintard.
- UnaffiliatedEI 15Nuclear RabbitTechnicalJazzyTheatrical
Long-running Novato, California outfit built around Jean Baudin's tapped/slapped 11-string bass, splicing metal, funk, ska, hardcore, and jazz with East Indian and Egyptian melodic detours and deliberately absurd lyrics. Active since 1989 with a loyal underground following (Papa Roach, Alien Ant Farm, and Deftones all opened for them early on), they've resisted easy genre classification across albums like Intestinal Fortitude, Mutopia, and Vicuna. Classified as RIO/Avant-Prog by ProgArchives and tagged Avant-Garde/Funk/Alternative Metal elsewhere, they sit at the noisier, punkier end of the genre-scrambling spectrum despite being blacklisted from Metal Archives proper.
- UnaffiliatedEI 10Mattias IA EklundhTechnicalJazzyTheatrical
Mattias 'IA' Eklundh is a Swedish guitarist, vocalist, and the founder of Gothenburg progressive/avant-garde metal band Freak Kitchen (1992-present), whose sound mixes heavy metal with gypsy-jazz-adjacent influences and absurdist humor. He is also a solo 'Freak Guitar' artist released on Steve Vai's Favored Nations label and named Frank Zappa as one of his two biggest musical influences, though no direct collaboration with Zappa, Mats/Morgan, or the Zorn/Secret Chiefs 3 circle was found.
- Estradasphere / MimicryEI 18miRthkonTechnicalJazzyTheatrical
miRthkon are an Oakland sextet of two guitars, two woodwinds, bass and drums, self-described as 'an amplified chamber ensemble masquerading as a rock band,' with material fully scored down to the drum parts. Across Vehicle (2009) and Snack(s) (2013) on the Italian AltrOck label, critics describe a satirical, Zappa-inflected collision of thrash riffing, big-band horns, and jazz harmony staged with circus-like theatrical framing. Keyboardist/bassist Matt Lebofsky doubles as keyboardist in Secret Chiefs 3, giving the band a direct, sourced line into the Estradasphere/Secret Chiefs 3 orbit already on the atlas.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13Gonin-Ish (五人一首)TechnicalJazzyTheatrical
Tokyo progressive/avant-garde metal quintet active since 1997, built around keyboardist Masashi Momota's sweeping piano work and vocalist Anoji Matsuoka's genre-hopping delivery, from spitting growls to a more crooned register. The band favors through-composed 'movements' over verse-chorus form, blending death metal weight with jazz and fusion harmony; their 2005 sophomore album Naishikyo-Sekai reached the West via a 2008 Season of Mist reissue. Early drummer Junichi Harashima left the band (replaced by Gaku Yamaguchi around 2006) to become the longtime drummer of fellow Japanese avant-garde metal act Sigh.