Some local scenes include Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, and Seattle in the United States, Oslo in Norway, and Tokyo in Japan.
[6] The Canadian group Voivod also influenced future bands in the genre, pioneering technique such as robotic vocal effects, unusual time signatures, and fractured, dissonant, unorthodox guitar sounds.
[8] Some early examples are the King Crimson releases Larks' Tongues in Aspic and Red in 1973 and 1974 respectively, with the latter album's title track defining an "avant-metal style" that Robert Fripp would revisit years later.
[10] Celtic Frost was an early pioneer of the genre;[11] the term "avant-garde metal" was coined to describe their 1987 release Into the Pandemonium.
[12] Other pioneers of avant-garde metal include Gorguts, Boris,[13] Earth,[14] Helmet,[15] Mayhem,[16] Maudlin of the Well,[17] Neurosis,[18] Sunn O))),[19] Mr. Bungle,[20] Today Is the Day, and Voivod.