Merzbow

Zonal are the British duo of Justin Broadrick (Godflesh) and Kevin Martin (The Bug), a reactivation of their 1990s Techno Animal partnership trading in cavernous bass, cacophonous dub and ear-splitting drone. Their debut album Wrecked was released on Relapse Records on 25 October 2019, with Philadelphia poet-vocalist Moor Mother featured across its first six tracks. The record was mastered by Stefan Betke (Pole) and pairs industrial hip-hop menace with drone-metal weight.

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Incapacitants are a foundational Japanese noise duo formed in Osaka in 1981 by Toshiji Mikawa as a solo offshoot from Hijokaidan. After relocating to Tokyo, Mikawa was joined by Fumio Kosakai (also of C.C.C.C.) to form the enduring duo, whose stated aim is 'pure' noise free of musical intention or human idea, built from feedback, vocals and electronics. Alongside Merzbow and Hijokaidan, they are pillars of the 1980s Japanoise movement.

Excepter are a Brooklyn experimental/noise group founded in 2002 by John Fell Ryan (ex-No-Neck Blues Band), released on Load Records and Animal Collective's Paw Tracks — often grouped with Animal Collective and Black Dice as part of a mid-2000s New York noise/psych "class of 2003." Their 2013 record Christisland was recorded in Copenhagen with an expanded, Escho-scene lineup that included Düreforsög's Nis Bysted and KLoAK's Niels Kristian Eriksen.

KK Null (Kazuyuki Kishino, b. 1961, Tokyo) is a prolific Japanese noise and experimental musician — composer, guitarist, vocalist and electronicist — who founded the progressive-hardcore trio Zeni Geva and the project Absolut Null Punkt, and has released well over 100 albums. His solo electronics moved onto Neurot Recordings with Atomik Disorder (2003) and Oxygen Flash (2009). He has collaborated widely, with named partners including Merzbow, Keiji Haino, James Plotkin, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Jim O'Rourke and Boredoms' Seiichi Yamamoto.

Hijokaidan are a foundational Japanese noise/free-improvisation group formed in 1979, the project of guitarist Jojo Hiroshige, who also runs Osaka's legendary Alchemy Records. With a lineup that has swelled from two to fourteen members, they pioneered Japanoise as an anti-music of chaotic feedback and notoriously destructive live performances. Regulars include Hiroshige's wife Junko and electronics player Toshiji Mikawa.

Scorn is an experimental industrial, dub, and isolationist project formed in Birmingham, England, in 1991 by drummer Mick Harris and vocalist/bassist Nic Bullen, both former members of grindcore pioneers Napalm Death. Beginning as an industrial metal band on the 1992 debut Vae Solis, the project rapidly moved away from its metal roots toward dark dub, hip-hop, and post-industrial ambient, notably on 1994's Evanescence. Bullen left in April 1995, after which Harris (also of Painkiller with John Zorn and Bill Laswell) continued Scorn as a solo vehicle focused on extremely low, heavy bass frequencies.

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Greymachine is an experimental industrial noise project formed in 2006, built around Godflesh and Jesu frontman Justin Broadrick and Isis frontman Aaron Turner, with bassists Dave Cochrane (Head of David) and Diarmuid Dalton (Jesu). Broadrick described it as needing "something black to Jesu's white," pairing crushing beats, dissonant guitar, and harsh electronics. Their debut album Disconnected was produced by Broadrick and released on 4 August 2009 via Turner's label Hydra Head Records.

Bastard Noise is an American noise/powerviolence project founded in 1991 in Los Angeles by Eric Wood, Henry Barnes, and W.T. Nelson as a sister project to Man Is the Bastard; Wood has been its sole constant member since Man Is the Bastard's 1997 breakup. The project builds harsh-noise walls of feedback, crackling electronics, and low synth drones under guttural vocals, with Wood collaborating live and on record with artists including Merzbow and Keiji Haino. The band favors physical releases over streaming/digital distribution.

Author & Punisher is the one-man industrial/drone/doom-metal project of San Diego mechanical engineer Tristan Shone, who performs on custom-designed and hand-fabricated instruments he calls 'Drone Machines' and 'Dub Machines'. Handpicked by Tool to support their 2020 tour, Shone returned the favor on his 2022 Relapse album Krüller: Tool's Danny Carey drums on 'Misery' and bassist Justin Chancellor plays on 'Centurion'. The result pairs monolithic, machine-driven weight with dub space and industrial menace.

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Solo vehicle of Dutch producer Jason Köhnen, who cut his teeth in death-doom band Celestial Season before founding Bong-Ra in 1996 as one of the first projects to weld extreme-metal riffing to breakcore's stutter-edited breakbeats. Three decades on, the project has swung from jungle/gabber assault (Full Metal Racket, Grindkrusher) through a 'crushing, ritualistic experimental doom' phase indebted to Om and Sunn O))) (Antediluvian, Meditations), alongside side-projects in doomjazz. Now signed to Debemur Morti Productions, 2025's Black Noise pushes toward industrial metal while keeping the breakcore DNA intact.

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