Alkuharmonian Kantaja

Henget is a Finnish avant-garde black metal project founded in late 2021 by guitarist Jesse J. Heikkinen (also of The Abbey and Iterum Nata) and vocalist King Aleijster de Satan (of Saturnian Mist), signing to Season of Mist in September 2022. Their debut album Beyond North Star (May 2023) pursues a violent hallucinatory journey rooted in psychedelia, the occult, and ancient shamanism.

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Formed in 1991 by Alexander Nordgaren and Svein Egil Hatlevik, Fleurety began as a conventional Norwegian black metal band before radically expanding its palette: Min Tid Skal Komme (1995) folded in atonal harmonics and folk elements, and Department of Apocalyptic Affairs (2000) - produced by Ulver's Kristoffer Rygg - spans metal, jazz, trip-hop and electronica. Both records leaned heavily on the Norwegian avant-garde scene for guest performers, pulling in Mayhem's Hellhammer and Maniac, Ulver's Rygg (as vocalist "G. Playa") and Tore Ylwizaker on programming, Arcturus/Winds' Steinar "Sverd" Johnsen, and Borknagar's Knut Magne Valle; a later 2009 EP brought in Mayhem's Hellhammer and Necrobutcher again alongside Thorr's Hammer vocalist Runhild Gammelsæter.

Aryos is a long-running French avant-garde black metal act from Ussac/Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze), formed in 1994 (originally as Forlorn, renamed 1997). Built around an occult/esoteric concept by members using the stage names Napharion, Pétal and Alilteas Gornnec, their sound layers jazz-tinged synths, classical piano and prog-rock textures over a black metal core. Later releases like Les Stigmates d'Hécate (2015) lean into atmospheric, folk-tagged textures.

Vaina is an active Finnish avant-garde black metal project (formed by siblings in 2014) whose records braid raw black-metal riffing and shrieked/growled vocals with flute, horns, strings, choral and clean singing, and dense ambient/noise passages — critics have compared the effect to Dead Can Dance colliding with black metal. Sung entirely in Finnish, releases run from the 2017 EP Viisikärki through 2024's Unio Mystica (Aesthetic Death, UK).

Solefald is a Norwegian avant-garde metal duo formed in 1995 by Cornelius Jakhelln and Lars Are 'Lazare' Nedland. They build on a black-metal foundation while folding in clean vocals, piano, jazz guitar, classical passages, punk, electronic components and folk rhythms, self-described as 'Red Music With Black Edges.'

Aenaon is a Greek avant-garde/progressive black metal band from Ioannina, formed in 2005 and signed to Agonia Records. Mastermind Achilleas C. (also of Varathron and Katavasia) leads the band with drummer Haris (Varathron), vocalist Astrous (Katavasia) and saxophonist Orestis Zyrinis, whose horn work gives their dark, noir-tinged black metal a distinctive jazz-inflected edge, as heard on 2022's 'Mnemosyne.'

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Inquisitor were a Vilnius, Lithuania avant-garde black metal band active 2002-2016, best known for the concept album The Quantum Theory of Id (2010), a four-part metaphysical narrative pairing harsh black-metal riffing with jazzy/spooky acoustic piano and disjointed, technical song structures. A 2014 follow-up, Clinamen | Episteme, continued in the same 'progressive, complex and extremely dynamic blackened metal' vein. They are a niche entry in the Lithuanian black metal underground with no documented ties to other EMMA atlas acts.

Devar is a Norwegian avant-garde/black metal band from Bergen, active since 2003, known for fusing black metal with 70s progressive rock, art rock and dark 50s-tinged rock'n'roll under King Diamond-esque theatrical vocals. Albums include Alternate Endings (2009, Code666), House of Bones and Mausoleum (both 2017, Gymnocal Industries). Reviewers compare their genre-blurring approach to Sigh's use of jazz/avant-garde technique within black metal.

Anubi were a Lithuanian avant-garde/experimental black metal band from Kaunas, active 1992-2002, built around frontman Martynas Meskauskas ('Lord Ominous,' also a noted painter) and themed around death and Egyptian mythology. Their sole full-length, Kai pilnaties akis uzmerks mirtis (1997, Danza Ipnotica Records), wove piano, saxophone, accordion, and natural sound recordings into their black metal, and was reissued in 2025 by Inferna Profundus Records. The band dissolved after Meskauskas drowned in a sailing accident on Lake Michigan in March 2002.

Kodel Sustoje Mirties Laikrodziaiplay in the dock

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Vegard Sverre Tveitan, known as Ihsahn, is the Norwegian guitarist/vocalist of the seminal black metal band Emperor (not currently an E.M.M.A. node) who since 2006 has built an acclaimed solo catalogue blending black metal with progressive rock, industrial and free-jazz textures - most notably via saxophonist Jorgen Munkeby of Shining (Norway). He co-founded the avant-garde project Peccatum with his wife Heidi 'Ihriel' Solberg Tveitan, guested on Arcturus's 'The Sham Mirrors,' and hosted Ulver/Arcturus/Borknagar vocalist Kristoffer Rygg on his own debut. His Hardingrock side project fuses traditional Norwegian Hardanger-fiddle folk music with metal.

Frozen Lakes On Marsplay in the dock

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