The Dr. Orphyus Project

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.

Tantric Bile is the solo avant-death/free-jazz project of North American multi-instrumentalist Matt Stephens, who also leads Effluence and Neural Indent; the name is a nod to a Painkiller track. Since 2021 it has released a steady stream of albums on Stephens' own Putrefactive Recordings, blending guttural goregrind vocals with squealing saxophone-adjacent woodwinds, film samples and John Zorn/Naked City-style jump-cut composition, often joined by regular Effluence collaborators Paul Acuña and Ollie Burgess.

Effluence is the one-man 'free death' project of California multi-instrumentalist Matt Stephens, begun in 2020 and released through his own Putrefactive Recordings. The music welds brutal and technical death metal and goregrind to free-jazz improvisation and noise, a chaotic, through-improvised sound Stephens coined 'free death' and is widely credited with pioneering. His jazz training surfaces in the frantic piano and horn runs threaded through the blast beats.

Agabas is a six-piece 'deathjazz' band formed in Trondheim, Norway, fusing death metal aggression with jazz harmony and improvisation, anchored by saxophonist Alexander Dellerhagen alongside a full metal rhythm section. Several members hold jazz performance master's degrees, and press coverage draws comparisons to Meshuggah, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Gojira crossed with John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. The band signed to Mascot Records around their 2025 album Hard Anger.

Evneveikplay in the dock

BandcampSpotify

compare profiles →

miRthkon are an Oakland sextet of two guitars, two woodwinds, bass and drums, self-described as 'an amplified chamber ensemble masquerading as a rock band,' with material fully scored down to the drum parts. Across Vehicle (2009) and Snack(s) (2013) on the Italian AltrOck label, critics describe a satirical, Zappa-inflected collision of thrash riffing, big-band horns, and jazz harmony staged with circus-like theatrical framing. Keyboardist/bassist Matt Lebofsky doubles as keyboardist in Secret Chiefs 3, giving the band a direct, sourced line into the Estradasphere/Secret Chiefs 3 orbit already on the atlas.

Zhagunkplay in the dock

BandcampSpotify

compare profiles →

Killing Spree is a French avant-jazz/death-metal duo of saxophonist Matthieu Metzger (Klone, Orchestre National de Jazz) and drummer Grégoire Galichet (Deathcode Society, Kwoon), formed after the pair met on a tour of Japan. Their 2020 debut EP A Violent Legacy reworked Death and Meshuggah tracks through saturated free-jazz saxophone and talkbox, and their 2024 full-length Camouflage (Klonosphere/Season of Mist) pushes further into technical, hardcore-adjacent death-metal-via-jazz territory. Not to be confused with several unrelated straight thrash-metal bands of the same name.

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.

ByoNoiseGenerator are a five-piece avant-garde/brutal death metal and deathgrind band from Perm, Russia, formed in 2014, built around a dedicated saxophone player alongside the standard metal lineup. Their three LPs (Turbulent Biogenesis 2015, Neuromechanica 2018, Subnormal Dives 2025) blend insanely technical grindcore with freeform jazz, funk (Primus-style) guitar work and drum-and-bass detours. Subnormal Dives (2025) drew coverage from Angry Metal Guy, The Progressive Subway and Everything Is Noise for this jazz/deathgrind hybrid.

IQ69Exaltationsplay in the dock

Spotify

compare profiles →

LA duo of guitarist Lee Wanner and vocalist Paula Stefanini, active since 2012, fusing djent, jazz-fusion, blues and country into a genre-scrambling avant-garde metal project. Their two albums, Butterfly (2012) and Exocoetidae: Flying Fish (2013), pair death-metal vocal bursts with virtuosic, humor-laced composition. Guest musicians on Exocoetidae include prog drummers Morgan Ågren and Marco Minnemann.

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.