Helium Horse Fly
Belgium · formed 2009 · last active 2019
Helium Horse Fly are a Liège, Belgium avant-garde/experimental-rock act formed in 2009, fronted by vocalist/keyboardist Marie Billy alongside guitarist Stéphane Dupont, bassist Dimitri Iannello and drummer Gil Chevigné (who replaced founding drummer Bastien Dupont in 2014). Critics have described their sound as 'progressive baroque hardcore' and compared its dark, brooding intensity to Kayo Dot, spanning EPs A Dispute to Redefine Clearly Frontiers Between Devils and Angels (2010) and Fishing for Ghosts (2011) through the albums Helium Horse Fly (2013) and Hollowed (2019). Reviewers place them across post-metal, art rock and experimental-rock tags.
SCORE PROFILE
Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.
WHY THOSE SCORES
- Jazzy 3 — Described as feeling like 'prog rock, jazz, art rock or post-metal' (organthing.com review).
- Hardcore 4 — Self/critic-applied genre descriptor 'progressive baroque hardcore' appears across multiple sources (heliumhorsefly.com, Spotify bio).
- Technical 6 — Prog/baroque arrangement complexity, compared to Kayo Dot and Extra Life's avant-metal writing (organthing.com).
- Glitch 2 — Described in their own bio as making 'venomous noise music.'
- Theatrical 4 — Vocal delivery framed as oscillating 'between tense breathing spells and cathartic violence'; reviewed as 'dark brooding' and epic (heliumhorsefly.com, organthing.com).
- Doom 3 — 2019 album Hollowed reviewed as 'noisier, darkened atmospheric hardcore and experimental...post-metal.'
- Drone 2 — Atmospheric post-metal passages noted in reviews of Hollowed.
- Shoegaze 2 — Post-metal wall-of-sound quality implied by the band's 'atmospheric' post-metal tagging.
- Ambient 3 — Hollowed reviews describe the record as 'atmospheric' post-metal.
MEMBERS
- Marie Billyvocals, keyboards
- Stéphane Dupontguitar, vocals, keyboards
- Dimitri Iannellobass
- Gil Chevignédrums (joined 2014, replacing Bastien Dupont)
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- Post-metalEI 15The OceanTechnicalHardcoreTheatrical
The Ocean (also known as The Ocean Collective) is a German post-metal band formed in 2000 in Berlin by guitarist and principal composer Robin Staps, built around a fluid, revolving cast of musicians. Their sound blends post-metal, progressive metal, sludge and avant-garde elements across ambitious concept albums exploring geology, evolution and oceanic depths, including Precambrian (2007), the paired Heliocentric and Anthropocentric (2010), Pelagial (2013), and the Phanerozoic double-album series (2018-2020). The band released early records via Make My Day Records before signing to Metal Blade Records, and Staps also runs the post-metal imprint Pelagic Records.
- Post-metalEI 8Cult of LunaTechnicalHardcoreDoom
Cult of Luna is a Swedish post-metal band formed in 1998 in Umeå, emerging from members of the local hardcore group Eclipse. Widely regarded as a leading force in post-metal alongside Neurosis and Isis, their songs are long, slow and crushing, layering heavy distorted passages with orchestral interludes and post-rock-esque forays. Their discography includes Salvation (2004), Somewhere Along the Highway (2006), and the Metropolis-inspired Vertikal (2013). In 2016 they released the space-themed collaborative album Mariner, recorded with American vocalist Julie Christmas.
- Patton-verseEI 11OxbowTechnicalTheatricalHardcore
Oxbow were a San Francisco experimental/noise-rock band founded in 1988, built on the partnership of vocalist Eugene S. Robinson and multi-instrumentalist and composer Niko Wenner. Their music blends noise rock, avant-garde jazz, musique concrete and blues into caustic, paranoid soundscapes framed by Robinson's high, anguished voice. Their eighth and final album, Love's Holiday (2023), was their first for Ipecac Recordings; the band dissolved in 2024.
- Bay Area / SGMEI 27The Book of KnotsTechnicalTheatricalHardcore
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.
- Tool-verseEI 16ToolTechnicalTheatricalHardcore
Tool is an American progressive metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1990, meshing dark underground metal with the ambition of art rock into multi-sectioned, layered songs built on odd time signatures and lengthy instrumental passages. The classic lineup pairs vocalist Maynard James Keenan and guitarist Adam Jones with drummer Danny Carey and, since 1995, bassist Justin Chancellor, who replaced founding bassist Paul D'Amour. Across albums from Undertow (1993) through Ænima, Lateralus, 10,000 Days, and Fear Inoculum (2019), the band cultivated an almost mythic reputation for cryptic, cerebral heaviness. Keenan splits his time with A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, while Carey moonlights in the fusion outfit Volto!.
- Mathcore / DEP-verseEI 13These Arms Are SnakesTechnicalHardcoreTheatrical
These Arms Are Snakes were a Seattle post-hardcore band active from 2002 to 2009, formed by former members of Botch and Kill Sadie. Blending punk urgency with math-rock complexity and synth textures, they released three studio albums on Jade Tree: Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home (2004), Easter (2006), and Tail Swallower and Dove (2008). After disbanding, bassist Brian Cook went on to Russian Circles and Sumac.
- Patton-verseEI 14Faith No MoreTechnicalTheatricalHardcore
San Francisco shape-shifters who smuggled funk, hip-hop, synth-pop, thrash, lounge and film-score bombast into stadium-sized alternative metal, peaking commercially with The Real Thing (1989) and creatively with the gloriously perverse Angel Dust (1992). When Mike Patton was poached from Mr. Bungle in 1988, the band became the primary launchpad for his sprawling avant-garde universe — making Faith No More the closest thing this atlas has to a mainstream gateway drug. Few bands did more to convince metal that genre borders were optional.
- Turner-verse / Hydra HeadEI 17IsisTechnicalHardcoreDoom
Isis were an American post-metal band formed in Boston in 1997 and later based in Los Angeles, active until their breakup in 2010. Building on roots in hardcore punk and doom metal, they helped pioneer and evolve the post-metal sound established by Neurosis and Godflesh, favoring lengthy compositions built on repetition and gradual structural evolution. Led by Aaron Turner, founder of Hydra Head Records, the band's core lineup remained consistent across five studio albums including the acclaimed Oceanic (2002) and Panopticon (2004). They disbanded in June 2010, just before a split EP with the Melvins, and reunited once in 2018 as Celestial for a tribute show.
- Kayo Dot-verseEI 17maudlin of the WellTechnicalTheatricalJazzy
maudlin of the Well (stylized lowercase, often abbreviated motW) was an avant-garde metal band from Boston formed in 1996 around the songwriting core of Toby Driver, guitarist Greg Massi and lyricist Jason Byron. Across the 1999 debut My Fruit PsychoBells... A Seed Combustible and the 2001 companion albums Bath and Leaving Your Body Map, they braided death and doom metal with jazz horns, clean female and male vocals, chamber textures and ambient passages. The group dissolved in 2002 and Driver reconstituted the project as Kayo Dot; motW later reunited to record the fan-funded Part the Second (2009).
- Tool-verseEI 8A Perfect CircleTechnicalAmbient
A Perfect Circle is an American rock supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel, a former guitar tech for Tool, Nine Inch Nails and the Smashing Pumpkins, and Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Fronting a more melodic, art-rock-leaning counterpart to Tool, the band broke through with the platinum debut Mer de Noms (2000) and its David Fincher-directed single "Judith." The rotating lineup has drawn from across alternative rock, with Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, session drummer Josh Freese, and bassist Matt McJunkins among its long-running members. After a long hiatus the group returned with Eat the Elephant (2018).