Celtic Frost

The Canyon Observer are a Slovenian quintet formed in 2011 whose experimental post-metal fuses black metal, noise, doom and sludge with delicate atmospheric passages into something 'chaotic, deranged and powerfully disorienting'. Across the FVCK (2015) and NØLL (2018) LPs on Kapa Records they alternate crushing heaviness with hallucinatory atmosphere, staged live amid fog and strobes. Their experimentalism lives largely in noise and genre-collapse rather than any single exotic ingredient.

Bethlehem are a German black/doom band formed in Grevenbroich in 1991 by Jürgen Bartsch and Klaus Matton. Their 1994 debut Dark Metal gave an entire subgenre its name, welding black metal's tremolo and shriek to doom's crawl plus violin, piano and keyboard for a uniquely desolate, avant-garde atmosphere. Later records pushed further into Suicidal/Depressive Black Metal territory and, briefly, electronic Neue Deutsche Härte.

Tagebuch Einer Totgeburtplay in the dock

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Thorr's Hammer was a short-lived doom/death metal band formed in Ballard, Seattle during the winter of 1994-1995 by guitarists Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, fronted by Runhild Gammelsæter, a then-17-year-old Norwegian exchange student who sang and wrote lyrics. Active for roughly six weeks, the band played two shows and recorded the EP Dommedagsnatt before disbanding when Gammelsæter returned to Oslo. Dommedagsnatt was first issued on cassette in 1996 and reissued on CD in 1998 as the very first release on Southern Lord Records. O'Malley, Anderson and drummer Jamie Sykes went on to form Burning Witch, while Anderson and O'Malley later founded Sunn O))).

Hex Arcana is an international avant-garde/black metal project based in Tampere, Finland, led by American multi-instrumentalist Matron Thorn (also of Ævangelist and Præternatura) with vocalist Frater A.A. and Erethe Arashiel on vocals/artwork. The project operated 2018-2020 as Devil Worshipper before adopting the Hex Arcana name, fusing dissonant black metal with industrial textures, doom, and occult theatrics for I, Voidhanger Records. The 2022 album 'Eternally Yours' was mixed and mastered by Jeremie Bezier of Emptiness.

Porta Nigra is a German avant-garde black metal band founded in Koblenz in 2010 by Gilles deRais (guitars, bass) and drummer/vocalist O., who recorded the first two albums as a duo before expanding to a full band. Their concept records — Fin de Siècle (2012), Kaiserschnitt (2015), Schöpfungswut (2020) and Weltende (2023), the last inspired by World War I — move between straightforward black metal fury and more psychedelic, spoken-word-laced detours, released through Soulseller Records. Guitarist Gilles deRais has described the project as a way of channeling 'old spirits' through the music.

Amthrya is an Italian avant-garde death/black metal band founded by guitarist-drummer Barry Yukimura and fronted by vocalist Kasumi Onryō. Their 2022 concept album Passage (Ad Noctem Records/Drakkar Productions), recorded at Black Church studio in Ghemme, Italy, is built around Japanese mythological horror themes of demons and vengeful spirits, rendered through extended, dissonant, depressive-tinged compositions. Guest vocalist Clode of Tethra appears on the title track.

Minnesota trio Worn Mantle emerged from an earlier, unnamed doom/post-metal project to craft sprawling, noise-caked blackened death/doom, stretching songs well past the 15-minute mark and drifting, per Decibel, into 'guitar-driven psychedelic ambience' between passages of black/death intensity and doom/sludge weight. Their self-titled 2022 debut and 2023 follow-up Hole have built them a quiet but attentive following in the deep underground doom scene.

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Pyrithe are a Pittsburgh, US experimental sludge/post-metal band whose 2022 Gilead Media debut Monuments to Impermanence smears sludge and doom across noise, ambient, post-rock, hardcore and black-metal extremes. The trio treat the studio as a junk-shop orchestra, folding a Finnish kantele, coconuts, egg-shakers and literal trash into their whirlwind, avant-garde compositions. It is a savage, absurdist 'strange symphony' that stays coherent despite trying to do everything at once.

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.'

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.'