Umbah

Whourkr was a Paris-based experimental death metal/grindcore project active 2005-2013, the vehicle where Gautier Serre (Igorrr) first fused blast-beat death metal with breakcore and glitch editing on guitars and programming. Vocalists cycled through the lineup: Laurent Lunoir (who records solo as Öxxö Xööx, 2005-2007), Yann Coppier as -i snor (2007-2011), and Mulk (2011-2013). Reviewers describe Concrete (2008) as throwing 'death metal, grindcore, jazz, opera, glitch, and breakcore into a meat grinder,' with blastbeats processed to resemble 'ten CDs all skipping simultaneously.' The project is widely regarded as the direct prototype for Serre's better-known solo project Igorrr.

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OLD (an acronym for Old Lady Drivers) was a New Jersey band formed in 1986 by James Plotkin and Alan Dubin out of the remains of Plotkin's grindcore act Regurgitation, releasing its self-titled debut of tongue-in-cheek grindcore on Earache Records in 1988. Across subsequent records the group shed its grind roots for avant-garde and industrial metal on Lo Flux Tube (1991) before shifting almost entirely into techno, industrial and electronica on its final album Formula (1995), by which point OLD had contracted to a Plotkin/Dubin duo. This dramatic grind-to-electronic transformation makes OLD an era-split candidate in the atlas. After OLD dissolved, Plotkin and Dubin went on to form the experimental doom band Khanate.

Illogo is an experimental band from Ravenna, Italy, whose name is a play on 'il logo' ('the logo') after a stylized emblem designed by Stefano Ricci — the group reportedly avoided printing any band or album name on their physical releases. Their 2007 album 'When Liquids Stay Dry' fuses post-core/grindcore with industrial electronics and jazzy death-metal riffing into what reviewers called a bizarre, treble-heavy, near-avant-garde record; Discogs tags their catalog Death Metal, Grindcore, Industrial, Avantgarde, and Doom Metal. A 2012 follow-up, 'La sorgente del punto di rotazione,' marked a turn toward a leaner, more minimal sound.

Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1989, widely credited as pioneers of the style for fusing death-metal growls and machine-gun riffing with clean vocals, synthesizers and electronic sampling. Their sound centers on Raymond Herrera's machine-precise drumming and Dino Cazares' staccato, down-tuned riffing, colored by Rhys Fulber's keyboards; breakthrough album Demanufacture (1995) wrapped this in a Terminator-inspired man-versus-machine concept, and its 1997 companion Remanufacture reworked the record entirely into electronica. Gene Hoglan drummed for the band from 2009 to 2012, appearing on Mechanize (2010).

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Solo dissonant death metal/grindcore project from Todesfelde, Germany, formed in 2022 (https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Ryona_Hime/3540547934) and run by producer 'The Popu,' who writes, records, mixes, masters and illustrates under genre tags including 'animegrind,' 'weebgrind,' 'dungeongrind' and 'trancegrind' (https://ryonahime.bandcamp.com/album/ritv-s-hrapta). Releases such as 'Ritvōs Hrapta' (2023) pull in guest musicians - clarinetist Yumi Sakata, guitarist/vocalist Alice Simard of Filesharemaiden, and vocalists Billy Qvarnström, Jesse Agiomamitis and Starlix - wrapping technically demanding, fretless-bass-driven dissonance in an anime-inflected aesthetic.

Phantomsmasher is a glitch-grind / digital-hardcore project led by guitarist James Plotkin, previously known as Atomsmasher, that fuses grindcore with electronic noise and cut-up programming. The trio of Plotkin (guitar, bass, electronics), vocalist DJ Speedranch, and drummer Dave Witte released their self-titled album on Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings on August 19, 2002. Plotkin is a prolific experimentalist also known for OLD, Khanate, Khlyst, Jodis, and Scorn.

Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects is the solo project of Meshuggah lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal, whose lone album Sol Niger Within (1997) is a landmark of avant-garde metal. Structured as one continuous 43-minute composition indexed into 29 tracks, it grafts Meshuggah's mathematical rhythmic language onto the fluid, Allan Holdsworth-inspired jazz-fusion soloing Thordendal is known for. The record's dense, free-associative sprawl draws comparisons to John Zorn's Naked City and features a cast of Swedish improvisers.

Strapping Young Lad is Devin Townsend's industrial/thrash/death metal band, active 1994–2007 with a stable lineup of Townsend, guitarist Jed Simon, bassist Byron Stroud and drummer Gene Hoglan (also of Dark Angel, Death, Testament). Built on polyrhythmic riffing and blast beats, the band is best known for a hyper-dense, multitracked "wall of sound" production style critics compared to Phil Spector and Frank Zappa, drawing on the harsh industrial/noise lineage of Foetus and White Noise. City (1997) was the critical breakthrough; The New Black (2006) leaned back into the band's tongue-in-cheek black humor before their 2007 disbandment.

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.

Vvon Dogma I is the Montreal project of 9-string bassist Chaoth (Frederick F.), formerly of avant-garde metal act Unexpect, formed after that band's split to keep exploring extended-range bass tunings and genre-collision songwriting. With Kevin Alexander (drums), Yoan MP (guitar), and Blaise Borboën (synths/strings/production), they mix progressive/djent metal with industrial-electronic and vocoder-heavy glitch textures — their 2023 album The Kvlt of Glitch even includes a Radiohead cover and was co-produced with Cryptopsy's Chris Donaldson. Some material started life as unfinished Unexpect ideas before being reworked into the new project.

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