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Cleric is a Philadelphia avant-metal band formed in 2003, fusing grindcore, doom, mathcore and free-jazz-informed improvisation into dense, extended compositions built on Matt Hollenberg's mathy, technical guitar work. The band sits squarely in John Zorn's orbit: they're signed to Web of Mimicry (Trey Spruance's label), released Chokhma as part of Zorn's Tzadik box set The Book Beri'ah, and had Zorn himself guest on alto saxophone on Retrocausal's closer 'Grey Lodge' — with Mick Barr also guesting on guitar on the same record. Hollenberg additionally plays guitar in Secret Chiefs 3's UR lineup, giving Cleric a direct personnel tie into that avant-garde ecosystem beyond stylistic kinship.

Praxis is producer/bassist Bill Laswell's shape-shifting experimental project, built around a core trio of Laswell, guitarist Buckethead and drummer Brain (Bryan Mantia) that fuses funk, jazz, hip-hop, dub and heavy metal into highly improvised music. The 1992 debut Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) drew in P-Funk's Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins, while the harsher 1993/94 album Sacrifist added John Zorn on saxophone and ex-Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris of Painkiller, plus vocalist Yamatsuka Eye. The result swings between noisy speed metal, dub and turntablist collage.

An Oakland art-thrash unit fusing King Crimson-style tempo shifts and free-jazz saxophone skronk with Slayer-speed riffing, math-rock structure, and post-punk snarl. Signed to Crucial Blast for City of Dis (2005), critics placed them alongside Naked City and Yakuza for pushing metal and jazz into the same collapsing structure.

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).

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.

Combat Astronomy is bassist James Huggett's long-running vehicle for downtuned, Meshuggah-inflected riffing fused with British free jazz — sax, bassoon, and flute from Martin Archer's circle collide with drum-machine noise and industrial grind. Since 1998 the project has moved from IDM-tinged solo recordings toward a horn-heavy ensemble sound critics compare to late-period King Crimson crossed with free jazz. It reads as avant-doom in weight but jazz-fusion in vocabulary, sitting closer to zeuhl and brutal prog than to any conventional metal lineage.

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Neuma emerged in 2001 from the ashes of Polish prog/noise-metal cult act Kobong, and by 2006's 'Weather' had built a sound around crushing, djent-like bass vamps under free-jazz saxophone improvisation. Reviewers compare its skronking, Colin Stetson-esque sax runs to a slow-motion 'jazz drone,' with fuzzy guitars splitting the difference between post-punk and post-hardcore. It reads as a sparser, stranger cousin to the metal/jazz-fusion lineage of bands like Estradasphere.

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Painkiller (stylized PainKiller) is an avant-garde trio formed in 1991 by John Zorn (saxophone), Bill Laswell (bass) and Mick Harris (drums), the latter fresh from grindcore pioneers Napalm Death. Their early records Guts of a Virgin (1991) and Buried Secrets (1992) fused blast-beat grindcore with free jazz, while the 1994 double album Execution Ground steered the group toward dub and ambient textures. After Harris left in 1995 to focus on electronic music, Zorn and Laswell continued Painkiller with drummers including Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins, and the original trio reunited in 2024 with Harris on electronics.

Zu are an Italian avant-jazz/noise-metal trio formed in Ostia near Rome in 1997, built on the unconventional lineup of Luca T. Mai's baritone saxophone, Massimo Pupillo's bass and Jacopo Battaglia's drums. Their heaviest album, Carboniferous (2009), was their first release for Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings. It features guest appearances by Mike Patton on vocals (notably on "Soulympics") and King Buzzo (Buzz Osborne) of the Melvins on guitar for "Chthonian."

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Metallic Taste of Blood is an instrumental supergroup led by Italian guitarist/producer Eraldo Bernocchi and Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin, fusing metal, dub, avant-jazz and progressive rock on RareNoiseRecords. The 2012 self-titled debut featured avant-jazz pianist Jamie Saft (Electric Masada, New Zion Trio) and drummer Balazs Pandi; the 2015 follow-up Doctoring the Dead swapped in drummer Ted Parsons -- also known for Swans, Prong, Godflesh and Jesu -- alongside keyboardist Roy Powell. Reviewers describe the results as cinematic, industrial-tinged instrumental pieces that balance brutal riffage against ambient, discordant delicacy.