Astru

Astru is the solo Hungarian black metal vehicle of Mazarine, credited on Bandcamp for "all that sounds," active and prolifically releasing since the early 2010s. La Pionnier Aveugle (NGC Prod, Aug. 12, 2022) is tagged industrial black metal, dark ambient, and doom metal, described by the label as the project's "most dramatic and emotional" album, built on "melancholy, brooding, cogitation, longing, and tears" rather than aggression. Void (2019) leans into raw black metal and harsh noise, while the 2017 split with fellow NGC Prod act Nagaarum, ...a mizantrópia és elidegenedés újabb értelmezései..., is billed as "funeral metal industrial." Across a large catalog (16+ Bandcamp releases), Astru consistently pairs lo-fi black metal with dark-ambient, funeral-doom, and industrial textures rather than a single fixed sound.

SCORE PROFILE

JazzyBalkanHardcoreSurfBarbershopDeathBlackTechnicalGlitchTheatricalFolkDoomDroneShoegazeAmbient8-bit
Jazzy0
Balkan0
Hardcore0
Surf0
Barbershop0
Death0
Black7
Technical0
Glitch2
Theatrical0
Folk0
Doom5
Drone4
Shoegaze0
Ambient5
8-bit0

Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.

WHY THOSE SCORES

  • Black 7Bandcamp tags "black metal"/"raw black metal"/"industrial black metal"/"psychedelic black metal" recur across La Pionnier Aveugle, Void, and the Astru/Nagaarum split.
  • Glitch 2"Industrial"/"industrial black metal" tagging on La Pionnier Aveugle and the Nagaarum split points to machine/electronic texture layered into the black metal base.
  • Doom 5La Pionnier Aveugle and the Astru/Nagaarum split are both tagged "doom metal"/"funeral doom" on NGC Prod's Bandcamp.
  • Drone 4La Pionnier Aveugle and the Astru/Nagaarum split carry the "dark ambient" tag, indicating sustained-tone passages between riff sections.
  • Ambient 5Same "dark ambient" tagging plus the label's description of the album evoking "autumn and winter" soundscapes (NGC Prod Bandcamp).

MEMBERS

  • Mazarineall instruments/vocals/production ("all that sounds")

CONNECTIONS

collaboration
  • GuilTheepath →

    GuilThee founder Gábor Tóth, recording under his solo alias Nagaarum, and Astru released a joint split, '...A Mizantrópia És Elidegenedés Újabb Értelmezései...' (NGC Productions, 2017) — Astru's own material occupies Side A, Nagaarum's Side B. Astru's own atlas description already cites this release as 'the 2017 split with fellow NGC Prod act Nagaarum.' source ↗

FURTHER LISTENING

Nearest score profiles in the atlas.

  • UnaffiliatedEI 14
    Thralldom
    BlackAmbientDrone

    Thralldom is the long-running studio project of Ryan Lipynsky (aka Killusion, also of Unearthly Trance) and Jared Turinsky (aka Jaldagar), formed on Long Island, NY in 1997. Deliberately never a live band, Thralldom trades in a blackened dark metal that folds in noise, drone, and industrial texture - 2006's 'A Shaman Steering the Vessel of Vastness' was reviewed for its 'lo-fi drone and dread' and 'doom-laden ambience,' built from what its label describes as 'an amalgam of half-tuned radio channels, machine noises, and shamanistic repetition.' The project returned in 2016 after a decade away with 'Time Will Bend Into Horror,' balancing that same experimentalism against tighter riff-craft.

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  • UnaffiliatedEI 11
    Ice Bound Majesty
    BlackDoomAmbient

    Ice Bound Majesty is a one-man atmospheric black metal project from Sheffield, England, run entirely by Bleek (all instruments, vocals). Releases like the 2007 'A Tomb to Erect' EP and 2016's 'SHI.IM.TI' EP appear on the Sheffield tape label Frequency Thirteen Recordings (self-billed as 'true sheffield black psychedelia'), with Bandcamp tagging the music as experimental, ambient, doom metal and psychedelic rather than straight black metal.

  • UnaffiliatedEI 13
    Ulveblod
    BlackAmbientDrone

    Ulveblod is the solo black metal project of Vitriol, formerly guitarist of Dutch black metal band Nihill, launched after the death of Nihill co-founder/vocalist Michiel Eikenaar. The debut full-length 'Omnia Mors Aequat' (Fantoom/Consouling Sounds, April 2020) trades conventional song structure for extended, corrosive drones: reverb-drenched shrieks and 'demonic, sizzling guitars' sit on a single idea for minutes at a stretch (one closing track runs 21 minutes) until, per one review, 'static morphs into beautiful pulses.' The result sits at the abrasive, noise-soaked edge of black metal, with doom-paced riffs breaking through the wall of distortion.

  • UnaffiliatedEI 10
    Omega Centauri
    BlackAmbientDoom

    Omega Centauri is a UK-based atmospheric black metal project built around multi-instrumentalist Tom Vallely, blending glacial tremolo-riff black metal with dark ambient textures, doom-paced passages, and cinematic post-rock swells. Recorded piecemeal between 2006 and 2011, debut Universum Infinitum favors slow-burn atmosphere and philosophical/theological themes over aggression. The project sits in the same cold-and-spacious atmospheric black metal lineage as labelmates on Duplicate Records.

  • UnaffiliatedEI 9
    Chiva
    BlackDoomAmbient

    Chiva was a Swiss atmospheric doom/black metal and darkwave project from Sion, Valais, formed in 1996 as a parallel/solo outlet for the person behind the band Sadness, described in its own liner notes as 'a desire to realise my personal work through a different and majestic music.' The sole release, the CD 'Oracle morte' (1996, Witchhunt Records/SPV), features four tracks exploring sadness, loneliness, winter and majesty, with additional vocals from Robert Frost on 'Fire And Ice.'

  • UnaffiliatedEI 12
    Ritual Cairn
    BlackDoomAmbient

    One-person black/doom project from Seattle helmed by J.B., active since 2020, exploring prehistoric mysticism and psilocybin-tinged, entheogenic themes across the demo MMXX (2020) and a 2023 split with fellow Balor's Eye Productions act Graal. J.B. also drums in Graal, making the split a genuine bandmate connection rather than a mere label pairing.

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  • UnaffiliatedEI 18
    Todesstoß
    BlackAmbientDoom

    Todesstoß is the solo experimental black metal vehicle of German musician, poet and painter Martin Lang, active out of Munich since the early 2000s. Releases like Hirngemeer and the 46-minute single-track Ebne Graun fold harmonica, funeral-doom pacing and abrasive electronic texture into a deliberately disorienting, self-willed strain of black metal, released via I, Voidhanger Records.

  • UnaffiliatedEI 11
    Moroghor
    BlackDroneDoom

    Moroghor was the solo studio vehicle of Massachusetts musician David Lanciani (aka Dimaension X), active 2007-2010 and built around a fictitious three-person lineup of invented characters (Ndethatl, Ygorathla, Zatholal). The 2009 debut '...and Space as Chaos' billed itself as 'Psychedelic Xperimental Black Metal From Beyond,' while its same-year companion 'Darkness...' pivoted to minimal drone/doom the artist himself pitched as sitting alongside Sunn O))), Nortt, and Nadja. Lanciani has continued working similar minimal blackened-drone territory under other names since the project went on hold.

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  • Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 16
    Umbrtka
    BlackDoomAmbient

    Umbrtka is a prolific Czech black/doom/industrial project from Plzeň, active since 1999 and centered on a self-invented industrial deity presiding over the city's factories, railways and scrapyards. Their 'grey metal' sound layers dissonant black metal with field recordings, mechanical noise and surreal spoken-word narration. František 'Franta' Štorm — closely associated with Czech black metal pioneers Master's Hammer — served as a past vocalist.

  • UnaffiliatedEI 14
    Sghor
    AmbientBlackDrone

    Sghor is a solo Polish dark-ambient/black-metal project that began recording in 2004 under the name "Allen" before rebranding as Sghor in 2006 and shifting toward longer-form ambient composition. Across a large, steadily-released Bandcamp catalog (Depressive Black Ambient, Never Ending Dysphoria, Le Grand Mystère, the multi-part Lux Dei series, Ahrimanic Resignation, and more), the project favors long, hypnotic, drone-like tracks — often 4 to 16 minutes — that foreground funereal, occult-tinged atmosphere over riffing, with black metal, doom, and funeral-doom genre tags layered onto a predominantly dark-ambient core.

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