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The Book of Knots is a Brooklyn experimental art rock studio collective formed in the spring of 2003 at Joel Hamilton and Tony Maimone's Studio G, with Matthias Bossi and Carla Kihlstedt completing the core quartet. The group built a trilogy of themed concept albums: the self-titled debut (Arclight, 2004) about failed sea voyages, Traineater (Anti-, 2007) about crumbling Midwestern rust belt towns, and Garden of Fainting Stars (Ipecac Recordings, 2011) about flight and space travel. Their records feature a rotating cast of guest vocalists and musicians including Tom Waits, Mike Watt, Mike Patton, David Thomas, Blixa Bargeld, and Jon Langford.

Yakuza is a Chicago avant-garde metal band formed in 1999, led by saxophonist/vocalist Bruce Lamont. They build a metal base with progressive flair, folding in free jazz saxophone and clarinet, world music, doom, grind, and post-rock ambience into a jazz-metal hybrid sometimes tagged 'jazzcore.' Their discography spans Way of the Dead (2002, Century Media), Samsara (2006) and Transmutations (2007, Prosthetic), Of Seismic Consequence (2010) and Beyul (2012, Profound Lore), and Sutra (2023, Svart Records).

The Mars Volta is an American progressive rock band formed in 2001 in El Paso, Texas by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala after the breakup of At the Drive-In. Their maximalist, Spanish-tinged sound fuses prog, psychedelia, Latin rhythms, jazz fusion and post-hardcore into sprawling suites, heard across landmark records De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003) and Frances the Mute (2005). Fronted by Bixler-Zavala's high, theatrical vocals and driven by Rodríguez-López's restless studio direction, the band won a Grammy for 'Wax Simulacra' before disbanding in 2013 and reuniting in 2022.

The Widowplay in the dock

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Black Engine is a one-off 2007 Italian collaboration uniting three members of experimental jazzcore trio Zu - Luca T. Mai (baritone/alto sax), Massimo Pupillo (bass) and Jacopo Battaglia (drums) - with guitarist/producer Eraldo Bernocchi. Their sole album, 'Ku Klux Klowns' (Wallace Records, 2007), pushes Zu's usual free-jazz/noise-rock language into heavier, doom-drone-adjacent territory with Bernocchi's guitar riffing layered atop the horn-led chaos. The project effectively works as a heavier-guitar-driven Zu side outlet and presaged Bernocchi and Pupillo's later duo Obake.

Akphaezya are a self-described 'eklektik metal' band from Orléans, France, active since 2002 and built around guitarist/concept-writer Stephan H. Zag-Zero's multi-album story arcs. Reviewers (French-Metal.com, Metal Archives) describe them freely mixing death metal, jazz, gothic, stoner, and cabaret/bal-musette elements, with critics drawing style comparisons to Unexpect, Diablo Swing Orchestra, and Pin-Up Went Down (no documented member/label overlap with those acts was found). Vocal duties have passed from the operatic, ethnically-inflected Nehl Aëlin to current singer Hakata Ooh.

Dissociative Identity Disorderplay in the dock

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Deddom is the solo vehicle of Andrii, a one-man 'orchestra' from Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine active since 2018, who plays every instrument himself: guitars, bass, drums, saxophone, piano, harmonica, jaw harp, synths and field recordings. His Bandcamp catalogue is tagged across free jazz, grindcore, noise, drone, ambient and math, and reviewers have described his long-form, aging-themed pieces as spanning 'black metal, free jazz, ambient, and more.'

Гуцульський мольфар отримує свою першу пенсіюplay in the dock

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Ottone Pesante is an Italian instrumental trio from Faenza billing itself as the first 'brassmetal' band, replacing guitars with electronically processed trumpet and trombone over grindcore-rooted drums. Their 2024 album Scrolls of War (Aural Music) featured guest spots from Napalm Death's Shane Embury, Cattle Decapitation's Travis Ryan, Messa's Sara Bianchini, and ambient artist Lili Refrain. Reviewers describe their sound as 'jazz-infused metal and noise' that blends small-town brass-band bombast with extreme-metal intensity.

Black Bells of Destructionplay in the dock

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TDK are an avant-prog/jazz-metal band from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, self-styled as from the 'Separatist Republic of Dobrina,' blending psychedelic post-metal, free-jazz dissonance, noise and punk energy. Records like Uspeh (2019) and Nemesta (2023) mix spastic mathy technicality with hypnotic grooves and washed-out ambiance, augmented by saxophone, accordion and electric organ over largely Bulgarian-language lyrics.

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.

Tomahawk is the Nashville-formed supergroup that pairs Mike Patton's shape-shifting vocals with Duane Denison's razor-wire guitar, born in 1999 when the two started swapping tapes after a Mr. Bungle tour stop. With John Stanier's piston-precise drumming and bass from Kevin Rutmanis (later Trevor Dunn), the band deals in taut, noirish alternative/avant-garde metal that splits the difference between The Jesus Lizard's angular menace and Patton's cinematic weirdness. Five albums on Patton's Ipecac Recordings — from the 2001 debut through 2021's Tonic Immobility — make it one of the label's flagship acts.

God Hates a Cowardplay in the dock

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