Doxophobia

The solo, day-to-day-reality-grounded counterpart project of Dallas, TX multi-instrumentalist Garry Brents (also of Cara Neir and Gonemage), formed 2021. Tagged Avant-garde Black Metal / Grindcore on Metal Archives, Homeskin is built around rapid, often sub-24-hour recording sessions, intentional tape-wobbling production, and a hazy, melancholic take on black metal shot through with post-hardcore, screamo and noise-rock influences. Brents deliberately ended the project at its 17th release, 'End's Daze Without Organs,' after a self-imposed 15-month arc.

Cries Methodicallyplay in the dock

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precettö is the solo avant-garde metal project of Auckland, New Zealand musician Jessie Edwards (performing as Drella), a self-produced one-person operation covering 'each instrument, sample, screech, and act of fuckery' on their own recordings. Emerging from an online shoegaze/Y2K-aesthetic scene, the music collides progressive and dissonant death metal, digital hardcore, cybergrind, breakcore and glitch electronics with ambient and shoegaze passages, resisting any single genre label (the artist's own tagline: 'i do not make prog metal'). Recent releases include Siddhartha (2025) and Siddhartha 2 (2026), the latter covered by Heavy Blog Is Heavy as a 'lovable mess of electronic and metal' engaging themes of neurodivergence and queer/trans identity.

A New York trio-plus playing self-described 'alternative grindcore' — blackened powerviolence colliding with noise rock, grunge and shoegaze wash under the tag 'grindgaze.' Distorted Sound Magazine called them 'one of the most original' acts in the East Coast underground; their 2024 LP 'Hacksaw Morissette' was mastered by James Plotkin.

Bug Scienceplay in the dock

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Avant-garde black metal / digital hardcore project founded 2018 by Viktor Sohm (also of Vienna outfit PRLLNKRCHN) in Vienna, Austria. Debut EP Serotonin (2019) fused blackgaze atmosphere with dissonant black metal; the follow-up album NorAdrenalin (2021, reissued by Total Dissonance Worship) pushed further into deconstructed-club and digital-hardcore territory, blending distorted guitars with club-beat electronics around themes of trauma and existentialism.

Cave In is an American rock band formed in 1995 in Methuen, Massachusetts, whose 1998 debut Until Your Heart Stops established them in the metalcore scene before they shifted toward space rock with 2000's Jupiter. Founding vocalist/guitarist Stephen Brodsky leads the band alongside guitarist/vocalist Adam McGrath and drummer John-Robert Conners. Bassist Caleb Scofield died in a car accident on March 28, 2018, after which Nate Newton of Converge joined on bass and backing vocals. Much of their core catalog was released through Hydra Head Records.

Blinded By A Blazeplay in the dock

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Azusa is a multinational progressive extreme metal supergroup formed in 2014 by cousins Christer Espevoll (guitars) and David Husvik (drums) of the Norwegian band Extol, joined by bassist Liam Wilson of The Dillinger Escape Plan and vocalist Eleni Zafiriadou of Sea + Air. Their sound blends melodic thrash, jazz-fusion, hardcore and early-90s riff-pop, a style the band has tongue-in-cheek dubbed "Avant-Thrash." They released their debut album Heavy Yoke in 2018 and the follow-up Loop of Yesterdays in 2020, via Solid State Records (US) and Indie Recordings (Europe).

Interstellar Islandsplay in the dock

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Tokyo four-piece formed around 2017 by guitarist Adel and drummer Kazuma, later completed by vocalist Nana Yokota and bassist Junichi, fusing black metal blast beats and screamo intensity with a blurred, melodic shoegaze wall of sound (blackgaze). Debut album Doukei (2020) and follow-up Reikoku (2023) were both reissued for European/vinyl distribution via Gerpfast Record in 2025. Reviewers describe an intentionally raw, unpolished production framing gloomy, emotionally introspective post-metal songwriting.

胎海 (Taikai)play in the dock

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Ikd-sj is a Japanese avant-garde/nu/alternative metal act based in Tokyo, active since the 2000s with releases including The Mortuary (2006), World's End Fruit Basket (2009), Eternal Vacation (2016) and 死んだ雪白中毒者にキスを (2023). Reviewers describe a genre-hopping sound fusing post-hardcore, noise rock, industrial textures, shoegaze haze and djent-adjacent riffing under trance-like harsh vocals. The project has stayed active into 2025 with new singles.

E=ℱplay in the dock

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shrieking violet (lowercase, as styled on all official releases) is the Stavanger, Norway duo of Finn Baker and Nora Wiee, building noise-industrial collages out of harsh noise wall, glitch-damaged electronics and screamed vocals across albums like 'dead things with teeth' (2022) and 'the earth was split open' (2023, about, in the band's words, 'men who are pieces of shit'). Citing Lingua Ignota, Aaron Dilloway, White Suns and Have A Nice Life as touchstones, they fuse post-punk songcraft with abrasive noise and ambient decay, landing on RYM/Album of the Year under post-industrial, experimental rock and avant-garde metal tags.

Fleshwater is an American shoegaze/alternative band formed in Boston in 2017 as a side project of metalcore group Vein.fm, pairing Vein members Anthony DiDio and Matt Wood with vocalist-guitarist Marisa Shirar. Trading Vein.fm's chaos for soft-grunge and nu-gaze accessible melody indebted to Hum and Sunny Day Real Estate, their debut LP We're Not Here to Be Loved (2022, Closed Casket Activities) was produced and mixed by Converge's Kurt Ballou at GodCity Studio.

Kiss The Ladderplay in the dock

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