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Masters of Morbidity (2022)
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No Grave But The Sea (Deluxe Edition) (2017)
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Everything's Wrong (2018)
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Browse World Metal Bands
15 bands found
Washington, D.C.-area progressive metal architects Periphery are widely credited with popularizing the djent movement, with guitarist Misha Mansoor's polyrhythmic, heavily processed guitar tones and the band's complex compositions redefining what modern metal could sound like. Albums like 'Periphery II' and the two-part 'Juggernaut' cycle demonstrate a band equally comfortable with crushing low-end heaviness and soaring, emotionally resonant clean passages. Their DIY origins as an internet-based project that evolved into one of prog metal's biggest acts mirror the digital transformation of the entire music industry.
Spiritbox have become one of modern metalcore's most distinctive bands by making contrast feel precise rather than decorative. Courtney LaPlante and Mike Stringer carried a shared musical language into the project, building songs where glassy ambience, electronic restraint, low-tuned guitar violence, and sudden vocal transformations all serve the same emotional arc. The early EPs and singles established the approach, but "Holy Roller" turned the band's controlled brutality into a breakout moment. Eternal Blue then widened the picture with songs that moved between djent-like rhythm, alt-metal hooks, progressive pacing, and moments of near-weightless atmosphere. The Rotoscope singles and The Fear of Fear kept pushing the balance between industrial texture, melody, and crushing heaviness, while Tsunami Sea expanded the band's sense of space without removing the threat at the center. LaPlante's voice remains the defining instrument, able to shift from intimate clean lines to severe screams with no loss of character, and Stringer's guitar work gives those shifts a physical frame. Spiritbox's best songs feel carefully pressurized: beauty is held in tension until the exact moment it breaks.
Unprocessed are a German progressive metalcore band from Wiesbaden, formed in 2013, known for a highly technical but sleek sound that moves between djent, progressive metal, alternative rock, pop, R&B, and electronic textures. Guitarist and vocalist Manuel Gardner Fernandes is central to the band's identity, bringing virtuosic extended-range guitar work, precise rhythmic phrasing, and a clean melodic sensibility that helps separate Unprocessed from more conventional modern metalcore. Albums and releases such as In Concretion, Perception, Covenant, Artificial Void, Gold, ...and everything in between, and later material show a band constantly shifting the balance between heaviness and atmosphere. Their songs can move from glassy clean-guitar patterns and soft vocals into dense syncopated riffs, harsh vocals, and wide digital production. The collaboration with members of Polyphia around Real also highlighted the band's connection to a broader world of guitar-forward modern music. Unprocessed matter because they make technical metal feel stylish and emotionally fluid rather than purely athletic. The playing is impressive, but the real appeal is contrast: synthetic polish against human fragility, brutal rhythmic weight against smooth melody, and progressive ambition shaped into songs that still move.
vianova approach metalcore like a restless design problem, constantly interrupting heavy precision with flashes of color, groove, and oddball timing. Founded around brothers Felix and Paul Vogelgesang, the band built its reputation through sharp, emotionally charged songs that treat djent mechanics, modern metalcore breakdowns, electronic production, and pop-aware hooks as compatible tools. Tracks such as "Hypersomniac," "Mas Rapido," "User Experience," and "Whatever Alright" show how quickly they can move from tight low-string riffs and harsh vocals into playful rhythmic pivots, clean melodic passages, and almost hyperactive synth accents. The debut album Hit It! sharpened that identity into a full statement: heavy but not dour, technical but not sterile, and willing to be strange without losing the punch of the riff. Their best songs feel engineered for surprise, yet the emotional thread stays clear through the switchups. vianova make modern metalcore that sounds anxious, clever, stylish, and physically heavy all at once.
Vildhjarta are a Swedish progressive metal band from Hudiksvall whose name has become inseparable from the word thall, a shorthand for their warped approach to rhythm, atmosphere, and detuned guitar violence. Formed in 2005, the band emerged from the wider djent and Meshuggah-influenced landscape but developed a more eerie, fractured identity than many of its peers. Albums such as Måsstaden, Thousands of Evils, Måsstaden under vatten, and later material build strange narrative worlds through lurching low-end patterns, dissonant chord shapes, sudden silences, and ghostly melodic fragments. Vildhjarta's songs can feel less like linear compositions than hostile architecture, with riffs bending the listener's sense of where the downbeat should be. The production is massive but also spacious, leaving room for clean atmospheres, whispered dread, and vocals that cut through like another texture of pressure. The band matters because it made extreme rhythmic complexity feel immersive rather than merely technical. Vildhjarta's influence can be heard across modern progressive metal, but imitators often miss the mood: the real power is not only in the tuning or syncopation, but in the uncanny feeling that the music is alive, ancient, and moving at impossible angles.
Los Angeles djent pioneers Volumes helped define the progressive metalcore wave of the early 2010s with their polyrhythmic guitar work and genre-blurring incorporation of hip-hop and R&B vocal styles. Albums like 'Via' and 'No Sleep' showcased their technical chops and willingness to experiment, making them mainstays of the modern heavy music festival circuit.
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World Metal Index is an index of World heavy metal bands — death metal, black metal, thrash metal, doom metal, metalcore, hardcore punk, and all heavy music. Browse bands by genre, find metal concerts near you, and discover the World metal scene.