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Animals as Leaders is an American instrumental progressive metal band from Washington, D.C. It currently consists of guitarists Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes and drummer Matt Garstka, having been formed by Abasi in 2007. They are a prominent band within the djent scene. Prosthetic Records released the band's eponymous debut album in 2009. They went on to release the albums Weightless (2011), The Joy of Motion (2014), The Madness of Many (2016), and Parrhesia (2022).

Animals as Leaders formed after guitarist Tosin Abasi's previous metalcore band, Reflux, disbanded. The heavy metal record label Prosthetic Records saw Abasi's guitar work and asked him to create a solo album for them. Abasi initially declined, feeling such an endeavor would be "...egotistical and unnecessary." Abasi decided to take a year off to study music, as he felt he was unable to reach his peak at guitar playing. After Abasi had completed his course, he took up the label on the offer of a solo project. The name Animals as Leaders was inspired by Daniel Quinn's 1992 novel Ishmael, which addresses anthropocentrism. Abasi coined the name as a reminder "that we're all essentially animals".

Vildhjarta is a Swedish progressive metal band from Hudiksvall, formed in 2005. The band plays in a Meshuggah-influenced musical style employing heavily down-tuned seven-string guitars, as well as harmonic minor chord progressions, jarring staccato riffs, layers of reverberant guitars and dual lead vocalists.

The group released a two-track EP entitled Omnislash in 2009 before they proceeded to sign with Century Media Records in 2011, spawning their debut full-length album Måsstaden that same year. In 2013, they followed up with a second EP, Thousands of Evils released on an exclusive 1,000-copy vinyl record run. Their second full-length album Måsstaden under vatten was released in October 2021.

Evan Brewer (born September 23, 1981) is an American bass player from Nashville, Tennessee. He is the former bassist of Entheos and technical death metal band The Faceless and has been involved in other bands such as Reflux and the last bassist to be a part of Animosity. He also released two solo albums under his own name. In 2011, he released his debut solo album titled Alone, and his second solo album, Your Itinerary, was released on July 16, 2013.

He is a former member of Animosity and Reflux, which also featured guitarist Tosin Abasi and Ash Avildsen (CEO of Sumerian Records). He has a project called Climaxes with Barry Donegan of Look What I Did and Alex Rüdinger of The Faceless, which is currently in the writing process according to MTV.COM Metal File. They have currently only released two songs; "Clock In & Die" and "Meet Me There". He has also filled in for A Life Once Lost and Terror on tour. In early 2011, he joined death metal band The Faceless after the departure of Brandon Giffin, who joined Cynic as a touring member. Brewer also has a solo project under his own name, for which he has currently released two albums (Alone and Your Itinerary). All the sounds on Alone were created using a bass guitar, hence the album's title. Your Itinerary has more of a "full band type of feel", with drums, keyboards and electronics. Navene Koperweis (formerly of Animals As Leaders and Animosity) assisted in the production process and created the final mix of the album, as well as providing drums on several tracks. He chose to leave The Faceless in October 2014 to pursue other musical interests, such as recording the Primal EP with technical death metal band Entheos. In September of 2020, he joined Nashville-based experimental rock collective Look What I Did

Tesseract are an English progressive metal band from Milton Keynes. The band, formed in 2003, consists of Daniel Tompkins, Alec "Acle" Kahney, James Monteith, Amos Williams and Jay Postones. The band is currently signed to Kscope. They are credited as one of the bands to pioneer the djent movement in progressive metal. As of 2022, Tesseract have released four studio albums: One, Altered State, Polaris and Sonder, as well as two live albums, Odyssey/Scala and Portals, and the extended plays Concealing Fate, Perspective and Errai.

Rosetta is an American post-metal band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania incorporating elements of post-hardcore, shoegazing, drone, post-rock, avant-garde and ambient, with influences as diverse as Neurosis and Isis, My Bloody Valentine, Frodus, and Stars of the Lid. The band somewhat humorously self-describes its music as "metal for astronauts", and its members are very interested in astronomy and space travel.

Hey, this is Ant_Smusher here. You may ask yourself, "WTF is up with this guys username?" and here's why. I was eating at my desk a lot and left the dirty plates and cups beside my computer desk. Well, let's say it was an old house with an ant problem, so I'd sit there all hours on the computer smushing countless numbers of ants. This was around the time I was starting my Wiki account and couldn't think of a very good name, so I though, "I'm smushing ants... Ant_Smusher!

My first contribution was on the 2008 in heavy metal music page. I wanted to add some bands i knew had been releasing albums I knew about, but weren't getting on this list. So I decided I was going to help this Wiki page along by contributing when I can to each consecutive year. 2009 in heavy metal music I helped the whole year, battled off some punkers adding Harcore Punk and AC/DC to the heavy metal lists, and then started the 2010 in heavy metal music page. This page is going absolutely smoothly, except for some rabid Post-Harcore fan spamming the list with bands that aren't Heavy Metal... *sigh*

Oluwatosin Ayoyinka Olumide Abasi, is an American musician, best known as the founder and lead guitarist of the instrumental progressive metal band Animals as Leaders. He has recorded and released five albums with Animals as Leaders: a self-titled debut, Weightless, The Joy of Motion, The Madness of Many, and their most recent album, Parrhesia. Abasi was ranked #97 on the Guitar World list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of all time.

Daniel Hanford Briggs (born September 27, 1984) is a musician from Erie, Pennsylvania, best known for playing bass guitar for the American progressive metal band Between the Buried and Me.

In addition to his bass duties with Between the Buried and Me, he also plays bass for jazz fusion band Trioscapes and progressive rock band Nova Collective as well as both guitar and bass in the band Orbs. He is a vegan and straight edge.

Dan uses Spector NS-5XL basses with D'Addario EXL160-5 nickel wound strings, a Fender-reissued Sunn 300T amp and an Ampeg SVT-810E. Dan states that he chose a Spector bass over other basses because he got it at the age of 16 and it was the "nicest bass in my price range." The Spector Bass has stock EMGs and is tuned in C# Standard. Regarding guitar playing, Briggs has stated, "I never use the pick as I learned with my fingers."

Paul Antonio Ortiz is an English multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work under the pseudonym, or solo project, of Chimp Spanner. He recorded, produced, mixed and mastered in his home studio, both the 2005 album Imperium Vorago and 2009's At The Dream's Edge. Ortiz has also composed for computer games, advertising, television and radio — and for clients ranging from Red Bull to Dolby Laboratories — and mixed and mastered albums for other musicians.

Ortiz categorizes the work under his Chimp Spanner moniker as an ambient/progressive metal project, combining heavy guitars with ambient textures, electronica and melodic elements, whilst also demonstrating his guitar virtuosity. Chimp Spanner is often labelled as djent or progressive metal. 2005 saw the release of his debut album Imperium Vorago, which as well as being self financed and produced, was also distributed by Ortiz himself, without the backing of a distribution company. Ortiz released his second album entitled At The Dream's Edge in December 2009. The album is available in a physical format and as a download.

Tragic Hero Records is an independent record label founded in Raleigh, North Carolina, in March 2005 to represent the growing metalcore and post-hardcore scene of North Carolina. The label was founded by Tommy LaCombe, David Varnedoe, and Jason Ganthner. Alesana was the first band the label signed. Among Tragic Hero's best-known signees are Strawberry Girls and A Skylit Drive, who reached No. 64 on the Billboard 200; Alesana, who later signed with Fearless Records, Letlive, who later signed with Epitaph Records, and He Is Legend, who signed with Tragic Hero after several successful full-lengths on other labels.

Animals as Leaders is an American instrumental progressive metal band from Washington, D.C. It currently consists of guitarists Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes and drummer Matt Garstka, having been formed by Abasi in 2007. They are a prominent band within the djent scene. Prosthetic Records released the band's eponymous debut album in 2009. They went on to release the albums Weightless (2011), The Joy of Motion (2014), The Madness of Many (2016), and Parrhesia (2022).

Animals as Leaders formed after guitarist Tosin Abasi's previous metalcore band, Reflux, disbanded. The heavy metal record label Prosthetic Records saw Abasi's guitar work and asked him to create a solo album for them. Abasi initially declined, feeling such an endeavor would be "...egotistical and unnecessary." Abasi decided to take a year off to study music, as he felt he was unable to reach his peak at guitar playing. After Abasi had completed his course, he took up the label on the offer of a solo project. The name Animals as Leaders was inspired by Daniel Quinn's 1992 novel Ishmael, which addresses anthropocentrism. Abasi coined the name as a reminder "that we're all essentially animals".

Scale the Summit is an American instrumental progressive metal band based out of Houston, Texas. It formed in 2004 and signed to Prosthetic Records. The band is influenced by other progressive acts such as Cynic and Dream Theater. The band gained notice as part of the Progressive Nation 2009 tour with Dream Theater, Zappa Plays Zappa and Bigelf.

Chris Letchford and Travis Levrier grew up in the same neighborhood, but never played music together until 2004, after they reconnected a few years earlier in a record store discussing a common interest, Between the Buried and Me. The duo formed a metal band in Houston that had trouble finding a bass guitarist and drummer. Letchford was set to attend the Los Angeles Musicians Institute a year after the band's formation, and Levrier decided to attend as well. The duo mainly hoped to meet new people to join their band, reasoning that their chances of doing so would be highest there, and after only a few months they met Jordan Eberhardt and Pat Skeffington, who joined on bass guitar and drums respectively. They first noticed Skeffington when they saw him wearing a Between the Buried and Me T-shirt with drumsticks protruding from his backpack, and Eberhardt joined in response to an ad the trio placed on Myspace. Reflecting on the experience, Letchford explained, "I still think to this day that it was just meant to be, as moving out to Los Angeles didn't guarantee anything. I think we all just crossed paths at the perfect time."

Ever Forthright ist eine US-amerikanische Progressive-Metal-Band aus New York City, welche 2008 von den Musikern Billy Anderson und Nicholas Llerandi gegründet wurde und der Djent-Bewegung zugeschrieben wird.

Im Jahre 2008 gründeten die beiden Gitarristen Billy Anderson und Nicholas Llerandi, welche beide gemeinsam an der staatlichen Universität des US-amerikanischen Bundesstaates New York in Purchase Jazz studierten, die Band. Gemeinsam begannen sie Lieder zu schreiben, welche sie in Andersons eigenem Studio am Computer aufnahmen und noch im selben Jahr auf einer Demo veröffentlichten. Zwischen 2008 und 2009 stießen der Keyboarder Kevin Theodore und der Schlagzeuger Jerad Lippi, welche ebenfalls an derselben Universität wie Anderson und Llerandi studierten, der Band hinzu. Des Weiteren trat Nicholas Llerandis Bruder Jon der Band als Bassist bei.

Intervals is a Canadian progressive metal band. Formed in Toronto, Ontario, the band has toured throughout Canada and the United States with bands such as Animals as Leaders, Protest the Hero, Between the Buried and Me and The Contortionist.

Corelia was an American heavy metal band from San Diego, California, United States. The band was managed by Outerloop Management until October 2016 and have released two EPs, Nostalgia (2011), and Nostalgia (Instrumentals and Extras) (2012).

The band has been embroiled in controversy. In 2015, Corelia raised over $30,000 via crowdfunding platform Indiegogo in 2015. Since they produced no updates from late 2016 to mid 2020, Corelia was long believed to be disbanded, leaving the many contributors to their crowdfunding campaign disgruntled.

On April 11, 2020, an anonymous individual claiming to be a former member of the band (presumed to be Chris Dower), created a separate Facebook page titled "Corelias", and announced that he had a copy of the unreleased album and attempted to release it to the public on April 20, without the formal authorization of the remaining band members. Though it was revealed to be a hoax by someone unrelated to the band, Corelia initially believed it to be credible and made their first public comment in nearly four years. On April 21, the remaining band members released a second statement apologizing for the years of silence. They confirmed an unnamed band member had indeed quit, and promised they will do whatever they can to release whatever material they have finished, as well as compensate anyone who contributed to their crowdfunding campaign.

Jeff Loomis (born September 14, 1971) is an American musician, best known for his role as lead guitarist in the progressive metal band Nevermore. In November 2014, it was announced he was to be the new guitarist for Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy.

Loomis got his first instrument at nine or ten years old, but didn't start practicing seriously until around the age of 15. As a teenager in Wisconsin he played in a handful of cover bands and three death metal bands before joining more established bands. Guitarists whose style influenced Loomis are Yngwie Malmsteen, Ritchie Blackmore, Marty Friedman, Jason Becker, Tony Iommi and Brian May At the age of 16, Loomis won Wisconsin's Guitar Wars contest.

Uneven Structure is a progressive metal band based in Metz, France. They play a style of post-metal which is heavily influenced by the Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah. The band blends polyrhythmic passages and extremely low tunings with a heavily layered production style and ambient soundscapes. They are often categorized in the djent movement due to the Meshuggah-like guitar tone they often employ. The band was formed after the split of Longchat, a band which featured Igor Omodei and Benoit Friedrich.

The Safety Fire were a British progressive metal band formed in London, England, in 2006. The Safety Fire first made a name for themselves in the UK scene with the release of their critically acclaimed EP "Sections" in 2009 and their reputation as a powerfully energetic live band. They toured extensively across the UK with bands such as Malefice, The Arusha Accord, Bleed From Within, and Rise to Remain, as well as progressive metal bands Periphery and Monuments throughout Europe. The Safety Fire also appeared at Sonisphere Festival UK in 2011 alongside Metallica, Slipknot, Mastodon, and The Mars Volta.