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One-man Vienna-based experimental progressive metal project helmed by David Angerer, whose 2026 album Palingenaeon plays like 'a film score at a party' -- neoclassical/symphonic prog metal stitched together with circus music, absurdist black comedy, and a loose concept about botched reincarnation. Extremely new and thinly documented outside a handful of prog/metal press write-ups.

Edge of Reality is a Nashville art-metal quintet whose 2019 album In Static packs jazz-inflected saxophone, carnival theatrics, and djent-adjacent riffing into a maximalist, constantly shifting progressive-metal frame. Reviewers place them alongside Native Construct, Thank You Scientist and Haken: dense, technically ambitious, occasionally overstuffed songwriting paired with a comedic, narrative-driven concept. Guitarist Joey Frevola also plays in UK prog act KYROS and LA's An Endless Sporadic, though neither is part of the EMMA atlas.

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Winds are a Norwegian neoclassical progressive-metal band formed in 1998, trading black-metal ferocity for classically-informed composition, clean vocals and duelling piano and guitar. Drummer Jan Axel 'Hellhammer' Blomberg — best known from Mayhem — anchors the group alongside guitarist Carl August Tidemann and pianist Andy Winter across Of Entity and Mind (2001) and Reflections of the I (2002). The result is one of the scene's most overtly 'classical' side-projects, far from its members' extreme-metal roots.

Giant Robot was the short-lived mid-1990s trio built around guitarist Buckethead, drummer Bryan 'Brain' Mantia, and keyboardist/producer Pete Scaturro, releasing one self-titled album on the Japanese NTT label in 1996 before Brain's departure broke up the group. The record is a virtuosic, sample-strewn instrumental record splicing film dialogue into dense guitar shredding, with absurdist song titles signaling its jam-session, prank-prone character. It sits adjacent to Buckethead's vast solo catalog but stands as its own band credit -- distinct from the same-titled 1994 Sony Japan Buckethead SOLO album that shares its name and caused the scout's identity confusion.

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Shaolin Death Squad are a theatrical progressive/avant-garde metal band from Denton, Texas, formed around 2001-2002, performing under kung-fu-themed stage personas. Their sound is dynamic prog metal with lead vocalist The White Swan frequently compared to Mike Patton, across releases including Intelligent Design (2006) and a 2024 self-titled record on Soman Records.

Buckethead (Brian Patrick Carroll) is an American guitarist from the San Francisco Bay Area, famous for performing in a white mask and a KFC bucket and for one of the most prolific solo discographies in music, numbering hundreds of albums. His playing spans thrash, fingerpicking, slap and avant-improv, and he conceives much of his output as soundtracks for rides at his imaginary amusement park, Bucketheadland. He released his 1992 debut on John Zorn's Avant label and that same year became the guitarist of Bill Laswell's supergroup Praxis.

Primus are a San Francisco Bay Area experimental rock trio led by bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, whose virtuosic slap-and-tap bass, absurdist storytelling and cartoonish character sketches define a sound that fuses funk, thrash, prog and Americana. Formed in 1984, they broke through with Sailing the Seas of Cheese (1991) and Pork Soda, later returning with records like The Desaturating Seven (2017). Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin, a longtime friend of Claypool's, guested on several early Primus recordings.

Mattias 'IA' Eklundh is a Swedish guitarist, vocalist, and the founder of Gothenburg progressive/avant-garde metal band Freak Kitchen (1992-present), whose sound mixes heavy metal with gypsy-jazz-adjacent influences and absurdist humor. He is also a solo 'Freak Guitar' artist released on Steve Vai's Favored Nations label and named Frank Zappa as one of his two biggest musical influences, though no direct collaboration with Zappa, Mats/Morgan, or the Zorn/Secret Chiefs 3 circle was found.

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Flagman is a funk-metal/avant-metal band founded in 2015 in Orlando, Florida by bassist-vocalist Sam Stewart and guitarist Cody Singleton, later relocating to Seattle, Washington. Their sound centers on Stewart's Les Claypool-indebted slap bass and theatrical, character-voiced vocals, wearing clear influences from Primus, Mr. Bungle, System of a Down, and Faith No More across releases like 'Thank You, Come Again' (2022), 'Tastes Incredible' (2024), and the industrial-tinged EP 'Before The Blast' (2025). Press coverage has also compared their more recent, blunter material to 'funky Chat Pile.'

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Haarlem sextet Schizoid Lloyd builds bombastic, theatrical prog-metal from Queen-style vocal-harmony bombast, Zappa-esque guitar knots, and a Mr. Bungle-indebted carnival-barker sense of humor, with reviewers also flagging touches of death-metal snarl (comparisons to Gorguts) and hip-hop-informed production quirks. Formed in 2007 and eventually signed to Blood Music in 2014, the band's catalog runs from two early EPs (Virus, Circus) to their sole full-length, The Last Note in God's Magnum Opus (2014).

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