Avant-garde Metal

Triptykon is the latest musical brainchild of Thomas Gabriel Fischer, founding member of metal pioneers Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Apollyon Sun. Fischer announced his departure from Celtic Frost in May 2008 and shortly afterwards revealed his new project would be entitled Triptykon, which is a play on the word tryptych, as Triptyokn is Thomas Gabriel Fischer's third project after Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. Triptykon are currently working on their second studio album, which is scheduled for release sometime in 2014.  Triptykon will be making an exclusive U.S.

Behold... The Arctopus is an experimental metal band from Brooklyn, New York, United States.  The group was formed in 2001 by Colin Marston and Mike Lerner, who had been playing guitar together for over a year-and-a-half by the time they found a drummer.  Behold... The Arctopus play instrumental music inspired by both metal and 20th century classical music.

Yakuza is an avant-garde metal band, formed in Chicago in 1999.  They have been acclaimed for their incorporation of jazz and world music elements.

Wolves in the Throne Room is an American black metal band formed in 2003 in Olympia, Washington.  According to the band, one of the founding concepts of WITTR is to channel the "energies" of the Pacific Northwest's landscape into musical form.  Wolves in the Throne Room has rejected most of the traditional traits of black metal such as corpse paint, use of pseudonyms and Satanic imagery.  Member Aaron Weaver has said "Wolves in the Throne Room is not black metal, or, more accurately we play black metal on our own terms, for our own reasons.

Sigh is a Japanese extreme metal band from Tokyo, formed in 1989. They are credited as being one of the first Japanese black metal bands, when the majority of black metal in early 1990s came from Scandinavia. They gradually shifted from a more traditional black/thrash metal sound, to a more experimental, avant-garde style.

Agalloch is an American metal band formed in 1995 in Portland, Oregon. The band is led by vocalist and guitarist John Haughm and so far have released four limited EPs, four full-length albums, two demos, one split album, one compilation album and one live DVD.  Agalloch performs a progressive and avant-garde style of folk metal that encompasses an eclectic range of tendencies including neofolk, post-rock, black metal and doom metal.  Agalloch will be making their 2nd appearance at Maryland Deathfest in 2014.