Avant-garde metal, also known as
avant-metal or
experimental metal, is a subgenre of
heavy metal music loosely defined by use of experimentation and characterized by the use of innovative, avant-garde elements, large-scale experimentation, and the use of non-standard and unconventional sounds, instruments, song structures, playing styles, and vocal techniques. Avant-garde metal is influenced by
progressive rock and
extreme metal, particularly
death metal, and is similar to and often overlaps with the similarly experimental
progressive metal genre. 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.