God of Shamisen

Untu is the metal incarnation of Gamelan Suara Baru, a Javanese gamelan collective founded in Los Angeles in 2014 by composer Sean Hayward that later relocated its performing core to Surakarta/Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Its 2019 debut album 'Rats of Oran,' based on Albert Camus' 'La Peste,' fused a death-metal band with a full traditional gamelan ensemble rather than using gamelan as mere texture.

Fabulae Dramatis is a Colombian-Belgian progressive/avant-garde metal act founded in 2011 in Antwerp, Belgium by singer Isabel Restrepo (Medellín, Colombia), Daniel Díaz, and a member known as Hamlet. The band weaves classical, acoustic and ethnic instrumentation — including sitar, harmonium and tambura — into a progressive-metal base, with Restrepo shifting between metal screams, operatic vocals, growls and South American vocal traditions. Their 2024 album "Violenta" and its single "Fábula Violenta" dramatize Restrepo's childhood during Medellín's drug-war years, complete with a self-directed concept music video.

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Sal y Mileto are Ecuador's most influential rock band, fusing progressive/alternative rock with hardcore, heavy metal, jazz and electronics into what they call 'Rock Libre Ecuatoriano.' Formed in 1994 in Latacunga, they've staged theatrical works blending poetry and contemporary dance and woven in Andean instrumentation like the traversa flute.

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System of a Down are an Armenian-American alternative-metal band from Los Angeles, formed in 1994, whose sound welds thrash aggression to Armenian folk melodies, abrupt tempo shifts and Serj Tankian's operatic, politically charged vocals. Multi-platinum records like Toxicity (2001) and the Mezmerize/Hypnotize pair made them one of the era's biggest metal acts. In 2008 Tankian co-wrote and traded vocals with Mike Patton on 'Bird's Eye' for the Body of Lies soundtrack.

Einvera was a Los Angeles avant-garde extreme metal trio that released one EP, In Your Image (2011). The record blends grind, thrash, and black metal riffing with progressive structure, folk/bluegrass instrumentation (banjo, mandolin, pedal steel), and orchestral color (violin, cello, trumpet, flamenco guitar). Reviewers likened its genre-scrambling, 'fever dream' quality to Unexpect and Arcturus's La Masquerade Infernale era.

HAH (formerly Hardcore Anal Hydrogen) is an avant-garde metal project formed in Monaco in 2009 by guitarist Martyn Clement and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Sacha Valony. Across four albums the duo (expanded to an eight-piece for 2021's Chimaera Monstrosa) folds flute, sitar, mandolin, Portuguese guitar, and orchestral strings into a genre-hopping metal base, drawing comparisons to Mr Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, and Igorrr. Guitarist Martyn Clement is also a touring/studio guitarist for Igorrr, whom he joined in 2021.

Nucleus Torn was a Swiss avant-folk/progressive-metal project founded in 1997 by multi-instrumentalist Fredy Schnyder, expanding into a chamber-metal ensemble with cello, violin, flute, and an array of folk instruments (hammered dulcimer, bouzouki, oud, bagpipes). Signed to Prophecy Productions from 2006, the band moved between folk-rock, 1970s progressive-rock homage, and extreme metal across a decade-plus discography, including a conceptual Nihil/Knell/Andromeda Awaiting trilogy. Active until 2015, the later lineup included Eluveitie's Anna Murphy.

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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.

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter are a long-running Weimar, Germany act (formed 1995) whose sound resists easy categorization, fusing melodic death metal, folk metal, power/symphonic metal and Neue Deutsche Härte with punk energy and, in later albums, jazz and ambient touches. Their 2017 album 'Der Rote Reiter' was recorded and released entirely in German, marking a deliberate turn toward their home-language folk-metal identity. The band has toured internationally for three decades and remains active on Nuclear Blast/The End Records.

Frore 5 Four is an instrumental avant-garde/progressive metal project from Canada, releasing a run of Bandcamp albums built around unusually prominent accordion. Reviewers describe the sound as 'stomping accordion polka weirdness juxtaposed to neoclassical harmonies' — vocal-free, structurally unpredictable, tonally caught between creepy and jovial.