Zelophilia
Zelophilia is the solo studio project of Lou Kelly, based in Ukiah, California, releasing one full-length, Lust, Loathing & Love, in December 2011. Blends death metal, hardcore, and mathcore with baroque classical touches and absurdist, humor-laced songwriting.
SCORE PROFILE
Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.
WHY THOSE SCORES
- Hardcore 5 — Self-tagged 'hardcore' and 'punkish'.
- Death 4 — Self-tagged 'death metal'; growled vocals and palm-muted riffing.
- Technical 4 — Self-tagged 'mathcore' and 'mildly-technical'.
- Glitch 3 — Incorporates sampled dialogue from films and external audio sources.
- Theatrical 4 — Deliberately absurdist songwriting, doctored cover art, confessional/theatrical track titles.
MEMBERS
- Lou Kellyvocals, all instruments, production, lyrics· also in Lou Kelly
CONNECTIONS
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- UnaffiliatedEI 12Melted BodiesHardcoreTheatricalDeath
Melted Bodies are an avant-garde metal quartet from Los Angeles who fuse thrash/death-metal riffing with pop-leaning synths, programming and post-punk elements. Frequently compared to System of a Down and Mr. Bungle, they pair theatrical, satirical vocals with body-horror multimedia and chaotic live shows. Their debut album is Enjoy Yourself.
- Mathcore / DEP-verseEI 14Today Is the DayHardcoreTechnicalTheatrical
Today Is the Day is an American noise-rock and experimental-metal band led by guitarist/vocalist and producer Steve Austin, formed in Nashville in the early 1990s. Blending grindcore, hardcore and avant-garde metal with heavy sampling and unhinged, erratic arrangements, the group became a touchstone for the noisecore and mathcore underground. Their 1999 Relapse album In the Eyes of God featured a young rhythm section of bassist Bill Kelliher and drummer Brann Dailor, both formerly of Lethargy, who soon left to co-found Mastodon.
- UnaffiliatedEI 11MutationHardcoreTechnicalGlitch
A UK extreme-metal collaboration led by Wildhearts frontman Ginger Wildheart with Scott Lee Andrews (Exit International) and drummer Denzel, functioning as a revolving-door supergroup anchored by Napalm Death's Shane Embury. The double debut The Frankenstein Effect / Error 500 (2013) folds in Merzbow noise and Mark E. Smith spoken-word, veering from melodic pop-metal hooks into industrial noise-grind chaos. Error 500 was released on Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings.
- UnaffiliatedEI 4Pitch Black ForecastsatelliteHardcoreTechnicalDeath
Pitch Black Forecast is an American metal supergroup formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 2005 (originally as Absentee) around ex-Mushroomhead vocalist Jason Popson and drummer Gene Hoglan (Strapping Young Lad, Death, Dark Angel, Testament), who met in 2004 while Popson sold merch on a Strapping Young Lad/Meshuggah tour. Rounded out by former Integrity bassist Steve Rauckhorst and guitarists Rob Reinard and Tom Shaffner, the band plays a groove-heavy blend of metalcore and thrash. Their catalogue spans the debut Absentee (2008) through Burning in Water... Drowning in Flame (2012) and As the World Burns (2014), with guest turns from Randy Blythe, M. Shadows, Devin Townsend and Ringworm's Human Furnace.
- Dissonant tech-deathEI 107000 Dying RatsHardcoreTheatricalDeath
7000 Dying Rats are a long-running Chicago 'comedy grind' collective, active in various lineups since 1992, built around joke song titles and a deliberately rotating cast of 30-plus contributors rather than a fixed band. Their records (Fanning the Flames of Fire, The Sound of No Hands Clapping, Season in Hell) mix grindcore/noise aggression with tasteless, cult-favorite humor. The most notable alumnus is drummer/vocalist Weasel Walter, who passed through the Rats between stints leading The Flying Luttenbachers and later drumming for Behold... The Arctopus.
- Cavalera / GojiraEI 6NailbombsatelliteHardcoreDeathTechnical
Nailbomb was an industrial-thrash side project formed in 1993 by Max Cavalera, then frontman of Sepultura, and English musician Alex Newport of Fudge Tunnel, welding grinding industrial metal and thrash to crust punk and sludge. Their lone studio album, Point Blank (Roadrunner, 1994), was cut largely by the duo with session help from Sepultura bandmates Igor Cavalera (drums) and Andreas Kisser (guitar) plus Fear Factory's Dino Cazares. The band played only a warm-up show and a set at the 1995 Dynamo Open Air Festival, documented on the live album Proud to Commit Commercial Suicide, before disbanding; its harsh, sample-laced attack became a cult touchstone of 90s extreme metal.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13Monastat 7HardcoreTechnicalTheatrical
Monastat 7 was a Cheyenne, Wyoming grindcore trio whose 1993/94 debut 'Now Available Without A Prescription' — produced by Dan Lilker of Brutal Truth and reissued on Relapse — paired technical cybergrind riffing with heavy sampling, comedy/rap interludes and skits (a track built around a grocery-store clerk's price-check announcement over the PA). The lineup leaned into avant-garde instrumentation for a 1993 grind band, with Henkaboo E. Boltz credited on guitar, programming AND violin alongside Dr. Stat3's bass/keyboards. A 1995 follow-up EP, 'Operatic Genitalia Of 7 Bowel Movements,' continued the project on the same Japanese DIY label, Lost Frog Productions.
- ZornEI 11Bologna ViolentaHardcoreTechnicalGlitch
Bologna Violenta is the noise/electrogrind project of Treviso violinist and multi-instrumentalist Nicola Manzan, founded in 2005. Early releases built distorted guitar, strings and electronic drums around samples from 1970s Italian poliziottesco cinema; the project expanded into a duo in 2015 with drummer Alessandro Vagnoni and later shifted toward violin-led arrangements on Cortina (2017) and Bancarotta Morale (2020), with 2026's OBLOMOVISMO returning to its cybergrind roots. Manzan has also worked as a sideman for Baustelle and Il Teatro degli Orrori and collaborated with J. Randall of Agoraphobic Nosebleed.
- Cavalera / GojiraEI 4Cavalera ConspiracysatelliteHardcoreDeathTechnical
Cavalera Conspiracy is a Brazilian-American heavy metal supergroup formed in 2007 by brothers Max Cavalera (vocals/rhythm guitar) and Igor Cavalera (drums), reuniting the pair for the first time since Max left Sepultura in 1996. Trading in a raw fusion of thrash, groove, and death metal, the band made its debut with Inflikted (2008), on which Gojira's Joe Duplantier handled bass alongside guitarist Marc Rizzo. The project functions as a family channel for the brothers' primal, tribal-tinged riffing, running in parallel with Max's Soulfly and Igor's other work.
- Mathcore / DEP-verseEI 4Better LoverssatelliteHardcoreTechnical
Better Lovers is an American metalcore and chaotic hardcore band formed in 2023 in Buffalo, New York, uniting three former members of Every Time I Die (Jordan Buckley, Steve Micciche, Clayton Holyoak) with guitarist/producer Will Putney and vocalist Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan. The group released the EP God Made Me an Animal (2023) and its debut full-length Highly Irresponsible in October 2024 through SharpTone Records. Puciato fronted the band from its formation until the two parties amicably parted ways in February 2026.