So I've been a massive fan of Return To Forever, Al Di Meola, Chick Corea, Struntz & Farah, Mahavishnu Orchestra for some time now. I revisited the early-70's Mile Davis albums such as Bitches Brew and Tribute to Jack Johnson and I want to dive a bit deeper into this sort of stuff. In general I prefer more guitar-centered music but as long as it's got rock instrumentation then I want to hear it.

I'm going to check out Weather Report and Tony Williams Lifetime (best records by them?), but I want to know what other records should be essential for any jazz-fusion enthusiast. Looking for your favourites from the heavy-hitters and pioneers of the style as well as more obscures groups. Modern stuff welcome too. Would love to hear some really badass Latin and Eastern-tinged material with tense chords and fast playing as well.

I love Joni Mitchell's album Hejira.
It's less virtuosistic than the ones you mentioned, but it has beautiful vocals, great atmosphere, really creative guitar playing and Jaco Pastorius on bass.. try it!

For more modern stuff Snarky Puppy is a must hear. An ensemble of vurtuosos with amazing taste for melodies and incredible skills... check out any song and you'll be impressed, they are our day's Weather Report

I like Santana's s/t, "Abraxas" and "Moonflower" a lot.

Jazz is a rabbit hole in of itself. I'm partial to Albert Ayler and Sun Ra. "Albert Ayler in Greenwich Village" and the recent Sun Ra compilation "The Singles" are good starting points. Sun Ra has 50+ releases alone.

John Coltrane is great, so is Alice Coltrane. Cecil Taylor's "Berlin" boxset is unreal. Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman...

Modern stuff? Kamasi Washington's "The Epic" was one of my favorite albums last year.

You know The Aristocrats?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1yQPhGCjPg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io-f6yYOZ0c

That American fusion scene that sprang from Bitches Brew, which you already mentioned, is pretty much all gold. Be sure to also check out Jaco Pastorius' and Billy Cobham's solo output. Also Herbie Hancock if you're into funkier stuff. Allan Holdsworth is also considered essential, he's a badass guitarist no doubt but personally I've never really gotten into his stuff, but I guess you should check him out anyway.

As for slightly more obscure stuff, I can wholeheartedly recommend the British band Brand X. Just start with the first album (Unorthodox Behaviour) and take it from there. Another interesting European guitarist with a decidedly personal take on the genre is Terje Rypdal.

Edit: Since you asked about Weather Report, I'd recommend starting out with Heavy Weather (which contains their all time classic "Birdland") and Black Market.

Brand X was cool! Surprised I hadn't heard of them before given the lineup involved. Terje Rypdal didn't quite hold my interest after a couple songs but maybe I didn't hear the right stuff. Herbie I'm familiar with but I had a fun time revisiting Headhunters and I've been diving into the discogs of the Bitches Brew and post-Mahavishnu Alumni as well. Cobham's solo stuff is great and I'm enjoying Jean-Luc Ponty's solo stuff as well. I'm a little familiar with Holdswarth but haven't gotten into his solo material yet. But I did check him out in Bruford's solo albums and those are great! Will dig into Heavy Weather this week.

MaleficDevilry: Cheers! I'm familiar with most of those artists although I've barely scratched the surface of Sun Ra so I'll have some digging to do there. Great call on Kasami Washington though--that album was unreal!

Morn Of Solace: I've seen Snarky Puppy mentioned a few times so I'll have to give them a shot soon here. Any particular place I should start with them?

Opus: Hell yeah, big Guthrie Govan fan here

Thanks for the recs!