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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.

Empalot were a French experimental band formed in the Landes in 1998 by Gojira's Joe and Mario Duplantier with friends from Joe's high-school thrash band. Self-described as "terroir metal," they welded alternative metal, jazz fusion, funk rock and avant-garde noise to burlesque, self-deprecating theatre, with members costumed as axes, clouds and flowers on stage. Conceived as the festive antithesis of Gojira, the group toured France between 1999 and 2004 and released a single studio album, Tous aux Cèpes (2002), before going on hiatus. The Duplantier brothers performed under the aliases Vensceslas Podoldo and Daniel Pestous.

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Dog Fashion Disco is an American avant-garde metal band formed in Rockville, Maryland in 1995, built around vocalist Todd Smith and long-serving drummer John Ensminger. Frequently likened to Mr. Bungle, they splice heavy metal with jazz, circus and film-noir cabaret, 1960s psychedelia, ska and funk into whiplash, concept-driven records. A saxophone/woodwind chair (Matt Rippetoe) anchors the jazz side of the lineup, and their 2001 major-label album Anarchists of Good Taste features a guest turn from System of a Down's Serj Tankian.

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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Puscifer is the shape-shifting studio-and-performance-art project of vocalist Maynard James Keenan, formed in Los Angeles around 2003 out of a fictional band gag from HBO's Mr. Show. Where his other bands Tool and A Perfect Circle deal in heavy rock, Puscifer wanders through electronic rock, trip-hop, art rock and post-industrial textures, wrapped in tongue-in-cheek desert-Americana theatrics. The core trio of Keenan, multi-instrumentalist/producer Mat Mitchell and singer Carina Round fuse music, live performance and visual art into a single conceptual whole.

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Waltari is a Finnish experimental/crossover metal band formed in Helsinki in 1986 and led by principal songwriter Kärtsy Hatakka, notorious for splicing progressive, alternative and extreme metal with hip-hop, techno, industrial, pop and punk. Their conceptual ambition peaks in staged productions like the orchestra-backed Yeah! Yeah! Die! Die! Death Metal Symphony in Deep C (1996) and Evangelicum (1999), the latter incorporating ballet, light shows and a guest turn from Nightwish's Tarja Turunen. Alumni include Sami Yli-Sirniö (Kreator), Roope Latvala (Children of Bodom) and Janne Parviainen (Ensiferum).

Stolen Babies are an American experimental/avant-garde rock band formed in California in 2001, built around Dominique Lenore Persi's accordion and theatrical vocals in a 'dark cabaret' meets prog-metal frame. Twin brothers Rani and Gil Sharone anchor the rhythm section; influences include Oingo Boingo, Mr. Bungle and Fishbone. They released There Be Squabbles Ahead (2006) via No Comment/The End Records.

Ordkløver is a music-and-poetry project begun in 1999 by Düreforsög vocalist Boris Schiøler alongside bandmates Nis Bysted and Andreas Hauer-Jensen. Its sole release, Byen Buldrer ("The City Rumbles", 2005, Escho), pairs Schiøler's phonetic poetry with rock guitar and drums and an eight-voice choir, described by reviewers as sounding like "intoxicated monks and/or sea pirates."

Kettle Cadaver were a deathrock/industrial metal band from Temecula, California, active from 1995 until 2017, led by vocalist Edwin Borsheim. The band became notorious for extreme, self-harming stage shows -- Borsheim was known for stapling his lips shut, cutting himself, and nailing wood to his body -- drawing comparisons to GG Allin; this history is documented in the 2016 film Dead Hands Dig Deep. Their catalog, including Halloween (1996) and Horronomicon (1995) on Horror Rock Records, has been tagged across databases as deathrock, horror punk, and avant-garde metal. Borsheim died by suicide in June 2017, coinciding with the band's end.

První Hoře ('First Grief,' named after a Franz Kafka short story) is a Czech alternative/experimental rock band formed in 1998 in Jičín, fronted by theatrical stage personas. Won the 2008 Anděl Award (Czech national music award) in the Hard'n'Heavy category. Fundamentally an alt-rock/jazz-punk-chanson act rather than a metal band by genre identity, with only a later 'metal-tinted playing style'.