Artist |
Genre |
Description |
Aastraal | Experimental Black Metal |
Abaddon | Brutal Death Metal | Notable for including elements of Funk Metal on their sole album |
Abhorrent | Technical Death Metal |
Abhorrent Expanse | Experimental Death Metal |
Abhoth | Death Metal |
Abigor | Experimental Black Metal |
Abjeto | Eperimental Black Metal |
The Abodox | Experimental Grindcore | Wonky Technical Avant-Grind not too dissimilar to Asterisk* et al. |
Abominor | Dissonant Black Metal |
Abriosis | Technical Death Metal | Notable Mathcore influence and wonky, Voivod-esque riffing style |
Abruptum | Experimental Black Metal | Pioneers of improvised Blackened Noise Metal |
Absolutely | Post-Hardcore |
Absolute Zero | Technical Thrash Metal | Some of the most knotty and out-there Thrash I've ever heard |
The Abstract | Technical Death Metal |
An Abstract Woe | Progressive Death Metal |
Abstruse | Avant-Garde Metal |
Absu [ITA] | Experimental Black Metal | Weird ameteurish nofi-Ritual Metal |
Absu [US] | Black/Thrash Metal | Well-known Black/Thrash with excellent drumming |
Absurd² | Technical Thrash Metal | Busy and intense, with a bit of a Mathcore-vibe, especially in the vocals |
Abu Lahab | Experimental Black Metal |
Abysmal Torment | Technical Brutal Death Metal |
Abyssal | Dissonant Death Metal | Murky blackened Cavern-Death |
Abyssal Suffering | Experimental Technical Death Metal |
Acausal Intrusion | Dissonant Death Metal |
AC/DC | Hard/Blues Rock | You know who these guys are |
Acephalix | Death Metal / Crust Punk | Pretty much a straight fusion of Death Metal and Crust Punk |
Acerbus | Technical Death Metal |
Acheode | Technical Death Metal |
Achiral | Experimental Black Metal |
Achokarlos | Technical Death Metal |
Acid Bath | Sludge Metal | Legendary NOLA-sludge with heavy influences from Southern Metal, Grunge and occasionally Death Metal |
Acid Death | Technical Death Metal |
Acid Injector | Technical Goregrind |
Acid King | Stoner Metal | Leans a bit more towards the mellow, psychedelic side of the genre |
Acrania | Experimental/Technical Death Metal |
Very heavy influence from Latin Jazz, especially in the percussion. Imagine Atheist, if they had kept developing the style they explored on "Elements" and gotten significantly sloppier |
Acrimony | Stoner Metal |
Ad Christi Gloriam | Experimental Black Metal |
Adebisi Shank | Math Rock | Bouncy and upbeat, somewhat similar to Battles, but without the electronic experimentation |
Adeia | Progressive Metal |
Ade Parlor | Progressive Death Metal |
Ad Nauseam [ITA] | Dissonant Death Metal |
Ad Nauseam [UK] | Art Punk | Basically just Cardiacs in all but name |
Adolf Satan | Sludge Metal | Crusty Sludge featuring Seth Putnam of Anal Cunt fame |
Adrian Belew | Progressive/Art Rock | Played in King Crimson from 1981 to 2013, but also had a fairly prolific solo career |
Ænigmatum | Progressive Death Metal |
Æpoch | Melodic Death Metal |
Aero Gros M | Hypnagogic Ambient |
Ætheria Conscientia | Experimental Progressive Black Metal |
Ævangelist | Avant-Garde Metal |
Aeviterne ★ | Experimental Dissonant Death Metal | Pretty much the successor band to Flourishing. Highly atmospheric Disso-Death with Post-Hardcore-ish melodic flourishes. |
Afflicted | Death Metal |
Afgrund | Grindcore |
Afterbirth ★ | Progressive/Brutal Death Metal | Started out as one of the earliest Slam acts, before emerging 20 years later, playing Prog-Death |
Aftermath | Technical Thrash Metal |
The Aftermath | Technical Deathgrind |
Ageless Oblivion | Technical Death Metal |
Agent Orange ★ | Punk Rock |
Agent Steel | Speed Metal |
Ages Gone | Experimental Death Metal | Seriously bizarre psychedelic jamming Hippie-DM. Sounds like nothing else. |
Agony | Technical Brutal Death Metal |
Agony Conscience | Brutal Death Metal |
Agony Face | Technical Death Metal |
Agoraphobic Nosebleed | Cybergrind | Classic Cybergrind with blasting drum machines and a lots of drug references |
Agretator | Technical Thrash Metal | Almost leans into Proto-Djent at times |
Ahab | Death Doom Metal |
Ahleuchatistas | Brutal Prog / Math Rock | Extremely technical instrumental wankery |
Ahrimah | Experimental Death Metal | Doomy and atmosphere-focused |
Ahulabrum | Experimental Black Metal | Les Legions Noires for UFO-fanatics |
A.I.D.S. | Experimental Black Metal | Grimy and urban, with heavy Noise Rock influence |
AinMatter | Experimental Death Metal | No guitars, only bass |
AIR | Trip Hop |
Akakor | Technical Death Metal | Entirely instrumental |
Akercocke | Progressive Death Metal | Grand and operatic with some Black Metal influence |
Akimbo | Sludge Metal | Mid-paced and crushing, with heavy influence from Noise Rock, Hardcore Punk, Post-Hardcore and Stoner Metal |
Alamaailman Vasarat | Avant-Prog |
Alameda | Experimental Rock |
Alarum | Progressive Death Metal | Fairly generic Atheist/Cynic-wannabes |
An Albatross | Experimental Noisecore | Hilarious bullshit, fusing chaotic Noise-/Sasscore bursts with keyboard-laden Retro-Prog (on "Blessphemy" at least) |
Albino Slug | Avant-Garde Metal | Completely unpredictable and hard to describe |
Alboth! | Brutal Prog | Noisy and intense, with a general piano-focus and Grindcore-influenced songstructures |
Alchemist | Progressive Metal | Started out playing experimental Death Metal, but became increasingly proggy and psychedelic over time |
Alestorm | Power/Folk Metal | Cheesy, highly accessible pirate-themed Power/Folk-Metal |
Alexander Brandon | Electronic / Videogame Soundtracks | Probably best known for his work on the phenomenal soundtrack to the original Deus Ex |
Algophobia ★ | Technical Death Metal | One of the better Atheist-wannabes out there |
Alice in Chains | Grunge | Sits on the heavier end of the genre, with noticeable influence from Stoner- and Sludge Metal |
Alienation Mental ★ | Technical Deathgrind | Intense and quirky Czechgrind, with thousands of riffs flying through the air |
Alien Crucifixion | Technical Cybergrind | Chaotic and intense UFO-grind |
Alitor | Technical Thrash Metal |
Alkaloid | Progressive Death Metal |
Allegaeon | Progressive Death Metal |
Altarage | Dissonant Death Metal |
Altered Moves Two | Technical Thrash Metal |
Altered States | Brutal Prog |
Alte Zachen | Surf Rock / Jewish Folk Music | Jewish folk music filtered through a Surf Rock lens, with an added noisier edge shining through on occasion |
Alucarda | Doom Metal | Unusually fast-paced, often leaning more into Stoner Metal or Garage Punk territory |
Aluk Todolo | Psychedelic/Noise Rock |
Alustrium | Technical Death Metal |
Amboog-A-Lard | Experimental Thrash Metal |
Amebix | Crust Punk | Classic Crustcore with noticeable Heavy Metal and Post-Punk influence |
Amenra | Sludge Metal |
American Heritage ★ | Progressive Sludge Metal | Generally similar to the likes of Keelhaul, Knut, or even early Mastodon. Technical yet crushingly heavy. |
Amia Venera Landscape | Post-Metal |
Amnesia | Experimental Technical Death Metal | Completely unhinged |
Amnesia Scanner | Experimental Electronic | Chaotic Club sounds of the Cyberpunk future |
Amogh Symphony | Technical Metal | Jazzy, fusiony, djenty techwank |
Amok | Technical Death Metal |
Amon Amarth | Melodic Death Metal | Rode an eight-legged horse into Metal superstardom off a strong ear for "epic" melodicism, despite their overall mediocrity |
Amon Düül II | Krautrock | One of the Krautrock essentials. Somewhat heavier and more psychedelic than most of their peers. |
Amorphic Form | Technical Death Metal |
Ampere | Technical Screamo | Blindingly fast-paced, rubbing up against Emoviolence stuff like Combatwoundedveteran |
Amputated Genitals | Brutal Death Metal | Pretty typical for colombian BDM: raw, underproduced and beyond br00tal |
Amun Dragoon | Ambient Vaporwave |
Anaal Nathrakh | Black Metal / Grindcore |
Anachronic | Technical Thrash Metal |
Anachronism | Dissonant Death Metal |
Anacrusis | Progressive Thrash Metal | More melancholy and melodic than many of their peers, though burdened with some awful harsh vocals |
Ananda | Metalcore / Mathcore |
Anarcrust | Crust Punk / Technical Thrash Metal | An interesting oddity. You rarely hear this kind of off-the-wall songwriting in something Crust-adjacent |
Anata | Technical Death Metal |
Anatomy of the Heads | Noise / Drone |
Ancestors | Black Metal | Noisy and intense, with strong Hardcore Punk influence |
Ancestral | Death Metal |
Ancient Necropsy | Brutal Death Metal | More technical and even melodic than most Colombian BDM |
The Ancients Rebirth | Technical Black Metal | Chaotic, grandiose and fairly melodic |
Anciients | Progressive Metal | Heavy influence from Stoner and Sludge Metal, pushing into similar territories as Dvne or Baroness |
Android ★ | Hardcore Punk | Noisy, fast and violent. "Evolution Letdown" in particular is an absolute Hardcore-masterpiece. |
Andromorphus Rexalia | Brutal/Technical Death Metal |
Similar to some of the more technical Colombian stuff, elevated by a weird fixation on aliens and conspiracy theories |
Anetia Insignis | Progressive Thrash Metal | Thin and melancholy with weak vocals |
Aneural | Avant-Garde Metal | Shitty quirkcore |
Anfinnsaas | Experimental Sludge Metal | Atonal Progressive Djent-Sludge. Very weird. |
Angel of Disease | Progressive Death Metal | Underwhelming latter day Death wannabes |
Angst Skvadron | Experimental Black Metal | Genuinely weird retro-scifi BM |
Anguine | Dissonant Death Metal |
Animal Collective | Experimental Psychedelia |
Animals as Leaders | Technical Metal | Bland guitarwank with heavy Djent and Jazz Fusion influences. Feels weirdly lightweight and poppy. |
Animosity | Technical Deathcore | Pretty solid, with a bit of Deathgrind in the mix |
Anna Pest | Technical Deathgrind | Too quirky for its own good, with awful cleans and melodic bits courtesy of some unwelcome Deathcore influence |
Annihilator | Thrash Metal | Classic Canuck-thrash with impressive guitar acrobatics |
Annon Vin | Progressive Metal |
Anodyne ★ | Mathcore / Metalcore | Intriguing fusion of blunt, hardcore-derived riffing with some insane drumwork |
Ansur | Experimental Progressive Metal |
Antarctica | Mathcore |
Antareth | Doom Metal | Melancholy and amateurish, with awful vocals |
Antediluvaian | Blackened Death Metal | A dense, chaotic maelstrom of hellish noise |
Anthrax | Thrash Metal | Probably the punkiest and most up-beat member of the big 4, always one step short of being actually good |
Anthurus d'archer | Brutal Prog / Jazz-Metal |
Antigama ★ | Technical Grindcore / Mathcore | Heavy and brutal, with some seriously weird riffs |
Antigua y Barbuda | Experimental Progressive Metal | Pretty great music dragged down by questionable vocals |
Antipsychocircumseptemsomambulation | Experimental Cybergrind / Brutal Prog | Extremely weird, with a strong focus on microtonality and atonality |
Antlion | Technical/Progressive Death Metal |
Antropophobia | Avant-Garde Metal / Experimental Rock |
Anubi | Experimental Black Metal | Infamously odd Lithuanian Folk-Jazz-BM |
Aokigahara Online | Ambient Vaporwave |
The Apemen | Surf Rock | Solid 90s retro-surf from the Netherlands |
Aphasia | Sound Collage |
Aphex Twin | IDM |
Aphrodite's Child | Progressive/Psychedelic Rock |
Apocryphon | Death Metal |
Apotheosys | Technical/Melodic Black Metal |
Appalling Spawn | Technical/Brutal Death Metal | Predecessor band to Lykathea Aflame. Takes the intensity and violence of BDM and injects a stronger sense of melody. |
Ara | Technical Death Metal |
Arab on Radar | Noise Rock / No Wave | Weird and wonky, with influences from Experimental Jazz and Post-Punk |
Arca | Experimental Electronic |
Part of the whole "Deconstructed Club" scene, taking the sounds of contemporary club beats and reshaping them into abrasive, cyberpunk soundscapes |
Archaïa | Zeuhl | A relatively early example of electronic influence in rock-based music |
Archspire | Technical Death Metal |
Arch Ultra | Progressive Rock |
Area | Avant-Prog / Jazz-Rock |
Ares Kingdom | Death/Thrash Metal | Somewhat reminiscient of Arghoslent |
Arghoslent | Melodic Death Metal | Very melodic, with strongly Heavy Metal-influenced riffs and let's say controversial lyrics |
Arkaik | Technical Death Metal |
Arkhe | Progressive Death Metal |
The Armed | Noise Rock / Mathcore |
Armia | Hardcore Punk / Avant-Garde Metal | Odd stuff, with frequent horn use and christian themes |
Armory | Speed Metal | Solid enough retro-Metal with high-pitched vocals |
Arms | Mathcore |
Arnaut Pavle | Black Metal | Heavy influences from Crust/Hardcore Punk, not too dissimilar from some of Darkthrone's stuff |
Arrigo Barnabé e a Banda Sabor de Veneno | Experimental Rock |
Arsebreed | Technical Brutal Death Metal |
Arsedestroyer | Noisecore / Grindcore | for fans of the Gerogerigegege |
Arsonists Get All the Girls | Experimental Deathcore | Quite mathy, with plenty of synths and other electronic gimmickry |
Art Far Away | Progressive Metalcore |
Artificial Brain ★ | Dissonant Death Metal | Spacey and expansive, with some noticeable Brutal Death Metal and Black Metal influence |
Artillery | Thrash/Speed Metal | Technically impressive, with expressive, high-pitched vocals and a strong melodic bent |
Ascended Dead | Blackened Death Metal |
Aseitas | Dissonant/Experimental Death Metal | Pretty sludgy, at times even dipping into Death-Doom tempos |
Ashbreather | Progressive Metal |
Ashenspire | Experimental Progressive Metal | Grand and operatic, with dramatic clean vocals and occasional string use |
Asleep Country | Experimental Electronic / Sound Collage |
Asmodeus | Technical Thrash Metal | Notable mainly for its occasional inclusion of Czech folk elements |
Assassins of God | Art Punk / Post-Hardcore | Proggy and weird, reminiscient of groups like NoMeansNo or Plaid Retina |
Association Area | Noise Rock / Mathcore |
Assück | Deathgrind | Fast-paced and very heavy, with great drumming and left-wing/anarchist lyrical themes |
Asterisk* ★ | Technical/Experimental Grindcore / Noisecore |
Seriously bizarre stuff, shifting from noisy blasting into vaguely Discordance Axis-inspired technical sections and god knows what else |
Asters | Techno | Floaty and atmospheric, heavily inspired by Vaporwave and Ambient music |
Astharoth | Technical Thrash Metal |
As the Sun Sets | Technical Grindcore / Mathcore |
Astral Tomb | Experimental Death Metal | Serious weirdoes, approaching the whole spacey scifi-DM thing from a more psychedelic angle |
Asystole | Dissonant/Technical Death Metal | Heavy and BDM-inspired |
Atheist ★ | Progressive/Technical Death Metal |
Top-notch musicianship and songwriting with heavy Thrash Metal and Jazz fusion influences. Produced a very good debut followed by two of the very best (Metal) albums ever made and then broke up, before reunifying almost two decades later and releasing a solid, but underwhelming fourth album, oh well. |
Atheretic | Technical Brutal Death Metal |
Atka | Technical Grindcore / Mathcore | Very intense and spazzy, with a weird, Gridlink-esque melodic undercurrent that shines through on occasion |
Atomic Rooster | Progressive/Hard Rock |
Atomsmasher | Experimental Rock | Aka Phantomsmasher. Grindcore samples, glitching and electronic influence. Completely unique. |
Atrocity | Death Metal / Gothic Metal (later) |
Started out making intricate and accomplished semi-technical Death Metal, before turning into god-awful Goth/Groove/Industrial peddlers |
Atrox | Experimental Progressive Metal | Choppy, almost djenty rhythms and a female singer delivering emotive clean vocals |
At the Drive-In | Post-Hardcore |
At the Gates | Progressive Death Metal (early) / Melodic Death Metal | Along with Carcass laid the groundwork for Melodeath as we know it |
Atvm ★ | Progressive Death Metal | Focused on lengthy songs with a bit of a melodic focus and some thrash influence. Very weird and unique, despite that description. |
Aufgehoben | Noise / Noise Rock |
Augury | Progressive Technical Death Metal |
[auloplegma] | Experimental Noise Metal | Sludgy and atmospheric, leaning into Industrial and Ambient territories |
Australis | Technical Death Metal |
Autechre | Experimental IDM |
Autocatalytica | Technical Metal |
Autokrator | Experimental Death Metal | Droning, repetitive and massively heavy |
Autonoesis | Melodic Blackened Thrash Metal |
Autopsy | Death Metal / Death-Doom | One of the earliest DM-groups to emphasize slower tempos and sheer heaviness, leading to the creation of Death-Doom |
The Avalanches | Dance / Sound Collage | Up-beat, sunny Dance music built from samples of various popular music |
Avicularia | Experimental Technical Death Metal | Mainly notable for its peculiar style of percussion |
Axis of Perdition | Experimental Industrial Black Metal | Bleak and grimy, frequently leaning into Ambient territories |
Ayasoltec | Technical Death Metal |
Azath | Death Metal |
Azure Emote | Experimental Death Metal | Extremely bizarre and unique, with heavy electronic influences |
Azusa | Progressive Metal / Post-Hardcore |