Black Spring Monolith
Germany · formed 2013 · last active 2014
Solo vehicle of German musician Leonhard von Stein (Eichstätt, Bavaria), prolific 2013-2016 across Stonehill and Cosmic Gates Records (Rise of the Behemoth, Of Silence and Tears, The Taste of Mankind, Buried in Blood, Tropfen, Sun EP, Lightforger). German-language reviews (metal.de) place the project 'at the intersection of black metal, drone, doom, psychedelic, electro and jazz' — instrumental 'headphone cinema' of guitar noise-cascades, jazzy rhythms, melancholic piano/strings, sitar, electronic beats and extensively explored drones, plus a heavily processed EBM/electro mode on other releases.
SCORE PROFILE
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WHY THOSE SCORES
- Jazzy 4 — metal.de's review of The Taste of Mankind notes 'jazzige Rhythmen' (jazzy rhythms) surfacing amid the black/drone/doom/psychedelic/electro blend, alongside melancholic pianos and violins.
- Glitch 4 — metal.de's Tropfen review describes the release as built on 'elektronischen Spielereien' (electronic manipulations) with heavily processed vocals in an EBM/electro-industrial mode.
- Drone 5 — metal.de's Sun EP review describes 'weit ausgelotete Drones' (extensively explored drones) paired with oppressive bass weight; Sunn O))) cited as a stated influence.
- Ambient 4 — The Taste of Mankind is framed as 'maximales Kopfkino' (headphone cinema) of vocal-less instrumental scenes; the Sun EP has a 15-minute passage of texture-first sonic experimentation.
MEMBERS
- Leonhard von Steinall instruments, vocals, production (solo project)
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- UnaffiliatedEI 23Sol KiaDoomBlackDrone
Belgian duo pairing vocalist Stephane Van Tricht with multi-instrumentalist Guillaume CZLT (also of Ôros Kaù and a founding member of Neptunian Maximalism), Sol Kia's debut Zos Ethos fuses raw black-metal violence with cosmic psych-doom, drone, and Middle-Eastern melodic color. The record unfolds as a single hallucinatory ritual rather than a set of discrete songs, favoring slow-building drone architecture and occult atmosphere over blast-beat velocity. It leans toward the ritualistic/psychedelic wing of avant-garde metal rather than technical or jazz-fusion experimentalism.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 22AssyrianDoomBlackDrone
Atmospheric progressive doom/death metal act from Puebla, Mexico, formed in 2009 around guitarist-vocalist Josué Narciso. Their own description places the sound spanning 'funeral doom to shoegaze,' folding in noise, jazz-tinged passages and black/death metal across a five-chapter conceptual album series called Inconmensurable (Self-Portrait 2011, Negación 2016, Ira 2017).
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 24Oranssi PazuzuBlackTechnicalDoom
Oranssi Pazuzu is a Finnish psychedelic black metal band formed in 2007 in Tampere. Their sound fuses black metal with psychedelic rock, space rock, krautrock, dark ambient and electronic textures into a hypnotic, boundary-dissolving whole, a synthesis critics have struggled to categorize. Across six studio albums, from Muukalainen puhuu (2009) to the acclaimed Muuntautuja (2024), they have become one of the most celebrated exports of Finland's experimental heavy underground.
- UnaffiliatedEI 11DolaBlackDoomAmbient
Dola are a Polish avant-garde black metal trio formed in Poznań in 2018 and now based in Toruń. Their sound couples a dissonant, aggressive black-metal backbone with ritual ambient, sludge/post-metal heaviness and pronounced jazz elements, the latter carried by Maras's trumpet. Recent album 'Tabernakulum' (2024, Piranha Music) swings between brutal dissonance and the atmospheric avant-garde passages that define the band.
- UnaffiliatedEI 12LychgateBlackDoomTechnical
Lychgate is a London-based avant-garde black/doom metal band formed around 2011-2012, built on a foundation of pipe/church organ used as the compositional backbone of every track. Their influences span late-19th/early-20th-century art music, Rock in Opposition and musique concrete. They record for Debemur Morti Productions, with a discography running from the 2013 self-titled debut through 2025's 'Precipice.'
- Southern Lord / droneEI 25KhlystDoomDroneBlack
Khlyst is an American experimental drone/doom project formed in New York in 2006, built around guitarist James Plotkin (Khanate, OLD, Phantomsmasher), Norwegian vocalist Runhild Gammelsæter (Thorr's Hammer), and drummer Tim Wyskida (Khanate, Blind Idiot God). Their sole album, the dually-titled "Chaos Is My Name" / "Kaos er mitt navn," was released by Hydra Head Records in October 2006. Across eight Roman-numeral-titled pieces it alternates Gammelsæter's shrieked, free-form vocals with eerie ambient guitar and percussion soundscapes.
- UnaffiliatedEI 23The BodyDoomGlitchDrone
The Body are an American experimental-metal duo — guitarist/vocalist Chip King and drummer/programmer Lee Buford — formed in 1999 in Providence, Rhode Island. They fuse crushing doom and sludge with harsh noise, power electronics, programmed beats, samples and gospel/choral arrangements into a bleak, overwhelming sound, and rank among the most prolific collaborators in heavy music (Full of Hell, Thou, Uniform, BIG|BRAVE and many more). Chip King's piercing shriek and Buford's electronic production make them a cornerstone of modern experimental metal.
- UnaffiliatedEI 20ThawDoomDroneBlack
Thaw are a blackened sludge/doom/noise band from Sosnowiec, Poland, whose discography — from the 2010 demo Decay through 2024's Fading Backwards on Agonia Records — has drifted from straightforward black metal toward increasingly drone- and dark-ambient-soaked territory, with 2017's Grains singled out by listeners as their 'least metal' record. Guitarist Artur 'A' Rumiński doubles as guitarist in fellow Polish black metal act Furia, and Thaw's records layer industrial electronics and modulated drone guitar under blast beats and a funereal doom stomp.
- UnaffiliatedEI 15XenochBlackAmbientTechnical
Xenoch is a solo New York City black-metal project stacking bardo-metal dissonance against chamber music, modern classical, and free-jazz textures. 2023's 'poison lotus corpse pearl' pairs blackened death riffing with classical and free-jazz Bandcamp tags across five sprawling 'sign' movements, while 2026's 'Shedding Broken Shells like Feathers' pushes further into electroacoustic, glitch, and xenharmonic/microtonal territory. Dense, philosophical liner notes about the 'abolition of the temporal dimension' frame the project as bedroom avant-garde black metal rather than a full band.
- UnaffiliatedEI 23ConvulsifDoomDroneJazzy
Convulsif is a Swiss instrumental unit built around bassist Loïc Grobéty, trading guitars for a lineup of bass, drums, treated violin and bass clarinet. Billed as a 'jazz-grindcore collective,' they fuse doom, drone, black metal and noise through conceptual improvisation, with 2020's 'Extinct' marking their fifth full-length.