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Panzerballett is a Munich jazz-metal quintet founded in 2004 and led by guitarist-composer Jan Zehrfeld, fusing delicate interlocking funk grooves with brutally hard, polyrhythmic Meshuggah-informed riffs and genuine jazz improvisation. Alongside Zehrfeld's originals they stage virtuosic reinterpretations spanning Deep Purple, Meshuggah and Weather Report, and are known for comedic, theatrical live shows. Signed to ACT Records, their guest-heavy albums (e.g. Planet Z, Übercode Œuvre) recruit elite fusion drummers.

Pin-Up Went Down is a French experimental band from Rouen, begun in 2006 as multi-instrumentalist Alexis Damien's solo project before vocalist Aurelie 'Asphodel' Raidron joined, followed by Damien's brother Nicolas in 2010. Self-described as blending 'art rock, metal, avant-garde, and pop', their albums 2 Unlimited (2008) and 342 (2010) on Ascendance Records mix gothic, death, funk, and progressive metal beneath Asphodel's famously wide-ranging, theatrical vocal delivery; a planned third album, Perfreaktion, stalled after Asphodel's 2014 departure.

The Sound That Ends Creation is the one-man experimental mathgrind project of Chris Dearing, based in Allen, Texas, launched in 2016 and citing Daughters, Psyopus, and See You Next Tuesday as key influences. The project has evolved from deathgrind/mathgrind roots toward incorporating big-band and orchestral elements, culminating in 2021's Boomers, Zoomers, Desperate Coomers, which Metal Injection called a 'jazzy mathgrind explosion' arguably closer to 'mathjazz.' Dearing layers piano into nearly every track alongside tapping-heavy, panic-chord guitar work, building a chaotic, carnival-like sound across eight-plus full-lengths.

Duct Tape Mustache were a Chicago-area experimental/metal/jazz band active in the early-to-mid 2000s, releasing a self-titled EP in 2002 and 'Mise En Scéne' in 2004 before disbanding in 2005. The lineup blended saxophone, keyboards, and dual guitars into a genre-hopping, horn-driven sound described online as circus-tinged avant-garde metal. Following the split, members scattered into other Chicago-scene projects including Ideamen.

Psykup is a French experimental/groove metal band from Toulouse, active since 1995, known for self-describing their genre-blending sound as 'autruche core' (ostrich core) and citing Strapping Young Lad, Mr. Bungle, and Primus as touchstones. Their Season of Mist album We Love You All (2008) drew reviews noting abrupt swings between thrash riffing, funk slap-bass breakdowns, and jazz-mood interludes within single songs. The band, now led by founding members Julien Cassarino (vocals/guitar) and Brice Sansonetto (drums), released its most recent album The Joke of Tomorrow on Verycords in 2025, marking 30 years of activity.

Electrocution 250 was a short-lived instrumental trio from Minnesota — guitarist Todd Duane, keyboardist Lalle Larsson, and drummer Peter Wildoer — who recorded a single album, 'Electric Cartoon Music From Hell' (2003/2004), fusing jazz-fusion virtuosity with Carl Stalling-style cartoon-music motifs and occasional thrash-metal bombast. Larsson and Wildoer are separately known for progressive/metal session and band work (Karmakanic, Darkane, among others), but this project stands as a standalone one-off. It is unrelated to the atlas's Ulver electronic era.

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Koenji Hyakkei (Kōenji Hyakkei, "Hundred Sights of Koenji") is a Japanese zeuhl band founded in Tokyo in 1991 by drummer/vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida as his tribute to the operatic, chant-driven Zeuhl idiom pioneered by France's Magma. Fronting frantic, meticulously composed avant-prog sung in an invented language, Yoshida remains the band's only constant across an evolving cast, steering the sound from folk-tinged prog toward the jazz-fusion complexity of Angherr Shisspa (2005). The group records for Yoshida's own Magaibutsu label in Japan and Skin Graft Records in North America.

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Titan to Tachyons is a New York instrumental quartet led by guitarist Sally Gates, built around a two-bassist frontline (Trevor Dunn and Matt Hollenberg) with drummer Kenny Grohowski, fusing free-jazz improv, prog counterpoint, and metal violence into sci-fi-themed instrumentals. Their 2022 album Vonals was released on John Zorn's Tzadik label (following 2020's Cactides on Nefarious Industries), and the polyrhythmic, two-bass arrangement gives the compositions an unusually dense, contrapuntal low end. Every member's other credits (Mr. Bungle, Fantômas, Tomahawk, Secret Chiefs 3, Cleric, Imperial Triumphant) wire this band into the Zorn/downtown-jazz and Patton-adjacent avant-metal orbit.

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Valtozash is a fifteen-to-seventeen-piece 'jazz-thrash-metal' big band out of Brisbane, Australia, led by composer and electric vibraphonist Andre Bonetti. A full horn section collides free-jazz harmony and improvisation with thrash-metal aggression, drawing press comparisons to a conducted orchestra 'brutally assaulting' jazz standards. Albums like Wizard-Bird (2017) and Boiling Solitude (2021) showcase the ensemble's scale, arranging dense big-band charts against metal riffing.

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Ruins is a Japanese progressive-rock duo formed in 1985 by drummer/vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida, intended as a power trio until the guitarist never showed, leaving a manic bass-and-drums unit. Heavily indebted to French zeuhl pioneers Magma, Ruins performs written-out, fiendishly complex compositions sung in an invented Kobaian-like tongue, veering through prog, jazz fusion and noise rock. Yoshida, the band's only constant, is one of the pillars of Japanese avant-rock; Ruins released several albums on John Zorn's Tzadik label, including Hyderomastgroningem (1995). The bass seat rotated across the group's history.

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