Sarcastic Burn Victim

Painkiller (stylized PainKiller) is an avant-garde trio formed in 1991 by John Zorn (saxophone), Bill Laswell (bass) and Mick Harris (drums), the latter fresh from grindcore pioneers Napalm Death. Their early records Guts of a Virgin (1991) and Buried Secrets (1992) fused blast-beat grindcore with free jazz, while the 1994 double album Execution Ground steered the group toward dub and ambient textures. After Harris left in 1995 to focus on electronic music, Zorn and Laswell continued Painkiller with drummers including Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins, and the original trio reunited in 2024 with Harris on electronics.

A Northern California one-man band whose 'Never Was' (2024) and 'Shriek' (Lou Kelly...and Friends) LPs bounce between jazzcore, mathcore, grindcore, crust punk and harsh-noise-wall under a self-described 'Progressive-Violence-Jazz' banner, all written, performed and produced solo. The 'Shriek' record began as a drunken online invitation for strangers to sing over Kelly's instrumentals and grew into a 14-track collaborative curio on the tiny label THE HILLS ARE DEAD Records. Listeners have likened the results to a heavier Mr. Bungle/Mike Patton side-project, though that is a stylistic comparison only — no verified personal connection exists.

Zu are an Italian avant-jazz/noise-metal trio formed in Ostia near Rome in 1997, built on the unconventional lineup of Luca T. Mai's baritone saxophone, Massimo Pupillo's bass and Jacopo Battaglia's drums. Their heaviest album, Carboniferous (2009), was their first release for Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings. It features guest appearances by Mike Patton on vocals (notably on "Soulympics") and King Buzzo (Buzz Osborne) of the Melvins on guitar for "Chthonian."

Soulympics (with Mike Patton)play in the dock

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Hunab Ku was a Seattle avant-garde metal act built around vocalist Mike Gilmore, guitarist Luke Jaeger (ex-Sleep Terror, joined 2008 replacing founding guitarist Dan Hagerty), bassist Matt Finn, and drummer Mark Villano. Their 2007 debut "The Gaze Inward" (Black Sheep Records) was reviewed as chaotic mathcore-indebted avant metal, drawing explicit critical comparisons to Dillinger Escape Plan, Cephalic Carnage, and Fantomas, with vocals ranging from screams to croons and moans. IMPORTANT DISAMBIGUATION: this is distinct from an unrelated Costa Rican black metal band of the same name (founded 2016 by Lord Eythraz) and a dark-ambient project — the Seattle act is the one matching the chart description and reviews cited here.

Pecking Out My Stained Glass Eyesplay in the dock

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Raxinasky is a Brussels, Belgium noise-core/mathcore/avant-garde metal outfit formed in 2001, self-described as 'Freemetal' and compared to Zu, Ruins, and Discordance Axis. Their records — the demo Koffie Anhal (2003), Transport de Viandes (2005), and The Anti-apopathodiaphulatophobicoustical Days (2008) — are built on abrupt time/dynamic shifts and swings between harsh extremes and gentler clean sections, with a trumpet in the original founding lineup.

9635 Hangover String Koffie Anhalplay in the dockcompare profiles →

Vomitatrix is a Jupiter, Florida-based noisecore/acid-grind project whose self-titled debut (July 2022) was recorded in Austin, TX and mixed by drummer Weasel Walter. The band bills itself as building on the legacy of Morbid Florist, delivering ten tracks of abrasive, dada-tinged grindcore. The lineup pairs Weasel Walter (also founder/leader of The Flying Luttenbachers) with bassist Tim Dahl (Child Abuse, Lydia Lunch Retrovirus), guitarist Rick Eye, and vocalist Gyna Bootleg.

The Flying Luttenbachers are an American instrumental noise/avant-garde band formed in Chicago in 1991 and led throughout by composer-drummer Weasel Walter, who coined 'brutal prog' for their aggressively dissonant fusion of free jazz, no wave, punk and death metal. Over 20-plus albums and a rotating cast of 40+ Chicago-improv and avant players, they've morphed from punk-jazz trio to industrial sound-collage to a ferocious, hyper-technical metal-prog engine. The band dissolved in 2007 and reformed in 2017, remaining an uncompromising touchstone of extreme instrumental music.

NekRock is a one-person Russian (Moscow-based) avant-garde/electronic metal project, self-described as 'avant-aesthetique,' fusing cybergrind, black metal, and harsh noise with trance, house, and jazz elements.

An Oakland art-thrash unit fusing King Crimson-style tempo shifts and free-jazz saxophone skronk with Slayer-speed riffing, math-rock structure, and post-punk snarl. Signed to Crucial Blast for City of Dis (2005), critics placed them alongside Naked City and Yakuza for pushing metal and jazz into the same collapsing structure.

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.

Camera Shyplay in the dock

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