Gates of Paris

SNAILFORCE! is the genre-hopping instrumental project of Greg Eldridge and Adam Stacey, based in Portland, Oregon, blending metal, Balkan, prog and other styles into what the band calls a "musical slime project." Adam Stacey is also known for recording with Estradasphere, Atomic Ape, Secret Chiefs 3, High Castle Teleorkestra and Igorrr. The band's debut, the two-track EP "Greg and Adam's Wilderness Adventure," was released on May 24, 2024, mixed and mastered by Justin Phelps at The Hallowed Halls, with a rotating cast of guest players on strings, horns, shamisen and more.

Lies of the Machine were a Budapest, Hungary avant-garde/symphonic steampunk metal band, active 2013-2020, built around a concept world ruled by a 'Machine Lord' and blending symphonic and folk metal with industrial, thrash and cabaret elements. Their sole full-length, 'Freakshow' (2016), pairs clean vocals from Dauda Judit with the varied melodic/aggressive vocals of Buza 'Don' Balázs, and the band staged elaborate steampunk/circus ('psychocircus') live shows.

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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.

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Diablo Swing Orchestra is a Swedish avant-garde metal band formed in Stockholm in 2003, built around a genre-hopping fusion of swing, symphonic and progressive metal, jazz, and classical orchestration. Their theatrical sound pairs operatic and rock vocals with a horn section and cello, threaded through crunching riffs — an aesthetic they trace to a tongue-in-cheek mythology about a 16th-century "Diablo Swing" music guild. Across five studio albums from The Butcher's Ballroom (2006) to Swagger & Stroll Down the Rabbit Hole (2021), they have remained one of the more distinctive one-of-a-kind acts in avant-garde metal.

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2 Foot Yard was a San Francisco/Oakland-based chamber-rock trio led by violinist-vocalist Carla Kihlstedt, alongside cellist-vocalist Marika Hughes and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily (drums, guitar). Functioning as a songwriting collective, the group blended chamber-music intimacy with rock and avant-pop, occupying "the fertile cracks between art song and pop song." It grew out of a solo album Kihlstedt released on Tzadik and released two records: the self-titled "2 Foot Yard" (Tzadik, 2003) and "Borrowed Arms" (self-released, 2008).

První Hoře ('First Grief,' named after a Franz Kafka short story) is a Czech alternative/experimental rock band formed in 1998 in Jičín, fronted by theatrical stage personas. Won the 2008 Anděl Award (Czech national music award) in the Hard'n'Heavy category. Fundamentally an alt-rock/jazz-punk-chanson act rather than a metal band by genre identity, with only a later 'metal-tinted playing style'.

Sebkha-Chott are a shape-shifting French avant-garde/experimental-rock ensemble from Le Mans, active since 1999, centered on bassist Wladimir Ohrelianov II, drummer Yüla Slipobitch, and (since 2009) saxophonist/vocalist Souv Ponky Ponk. They coin their own genre tag release to release — 'Mekanik Metal Disco,' later 'Bizarre AvantPorn Mekanik TheaterCore' — blending metal, jazz, zeuhl, gypsy/Egyptian melodicism, and African percussion, staged live as absurdist burlesque theater. Critics and the band themselves invoke Frank Zappa, Magma, Mr. Bungle, and Fantômas as touchstones, though no documented member or label overlap with either metal act was found.

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Charming Hostess is an American experimental ensemble that grew out of the avant-rock scene of Oakland, California in the mid-1990s, led by singer, composer and bassist Jewlia Eisenberg. Blending Balkan and Jewish vocal traditions with funk, punk and doo-wop, the group described its own genre as "Nerdy-Sexy-Commie-Girly." Their debut "Eat" (Vaccination, 1998) was a rock big band featuring members of Idiot Flesh/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, while later releases such as "Trilectic" (Tzadik, 2002) and "Sarajevo Blues" (Tzadik, 2004) recast the project largely as a women's vocal trio.

Faun Fables is an American avant-folk / dark-folk band based in Oakland, California, formed in the late 1990s by Spokane-raised singer, dancer and songwriter Dawn McCarthy. Known for a theatrical "songtelling" style, the band blends British, Scandinavian, Appalachian and Eastern European folk traditions with art rock and performance art. McCarthy's principal collaborator is Nils Frykdahl of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, whom she married; the two build the project around McCarthy's voice and Frykdahl's multi-instrumental work.

Rabbit Rabbit Radio is the song-a-month art-pop duo of Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi, both formerly of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Founded in February 2012, the project releases a new song to Bandcamp subscribers on the first day of every month, collecting them into yearly volume albums. Drawing on art song, folk song, industrial and improvised music and heart-wrenching balladry, their songs are described as raw, beautiful, sparse and rich. The core duo is expanded in performance and recording by Jeremy Flower and Jon Evans.