Formed in Shreveport, Louisiana in 2007, iwrestledabearonce became known for extreme genre collisions within single songs, juxtaposing mathcore, deathcore, jazz, synthpop, and country in ways that divided critics and built a devoted cult following. Their 2009 album It's All Happening reached number one on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart; across four full-lengths and nine years together, the band remained one of the more genuinely unpredictable acts in experimental extreme metal.

Vverevvolf Grehv is the solo project of Dapose, a musician from Omaha, Nebraska best known as a member of the electronic act The Faint, combining death metal brutality, speed metal tempos, and industrial noise with the structural logic of IDM and electronic music. Signed to Relapse Records in 2007, the project released its sole album Zombie Aesthetics in 2008, a confrontational and genre-defying record that found a place in both the metal underground and experimental electronic circles. The band subsequently toured with Skinny Puppy.