Cloak of Altering
Netherlands · formed 2011 · last active 2018
Cloak of Altering is the avant-garde black metal solo alias of Dutch multi-instrumentalist Maurice "Mories" de Jong, begun in 2011 as a continuation of his earlier black metal band Ophiuchus and run alongside his other projects Gnaw Their Tongues, De Magia Veterum, Aderlating and Seirom. Where De Magia Veterum is his straight black-metal outlet, Cloak of Altering fuses 'mutated symphonic black metal' with breakcore-derived electronics and industrial noise, inviting comparisons to Blut Aus Nord and An Axis of Perdition. Albums such as Plague Beasts (2014) and Manifestation (2015), released via Crucial Blast, circle cosmic and occult themes across sprawling, drone-heavy tracks.
SCORE PROFILE
Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.
WHY THOSE SCORES
- Glitch 6 — Bandcamp/press descriptions call the project's fusion 'nightmarish breakcore madness' and 'hellish electronics' laid over black metal.
- Theatrical 4 — Albums are built around cosmic/occult concepts (black holes, a 'celestial deity') described as 'mutated symphonic black metal' (Bandcamp description of the catalog).
- Drone 4 — Manifestation (2015) is tagged 'black metal, drone, experimental' on Bandcamp and built from long, sustained industrial-electronic passages (7-8 minute tracks) rather than conventional song structures.
- Ambient 3 — A Metal Archives user review of The Night Comes Illuminated with Death describes 'haunting atmospheres... serenity, and transcendence' framing the black-metal material.
MEMBERS
- Maurice "Mories" de Jongall instruments, vocals, production· also in Crystalline Thunderbolts Pierce the Sacred Mountain, De Magia Veterum, Ophiuchus
CONNECTIONS
- Crystalline Thunderbolts Pierce the Sacred Mountainpath →
De Jong founded and runs Cloak of Altering, his other synth-heavy black metal solo project. source ↗
- De Magia Veterumsatellitepath →
Both are solo vehicles of Maurice "Mories" de Jong; De Magia Veterum is his dedicated straight black-metal project. source ↗
- Gnaw Their Tonguespath →
Both are solo projects of Maurice "Mories" de Jong; Gnaw Their Tongues is his primary, more electronic/drone-leaning alias. source ↗
- Obscuring Veilpath →
Maurice De Jong (Mories), who runs Cloak of Altering solo, plays keyboards/synthetics in Obscuring Veil. source ↗
- Ophiuchuspath →
Maurice "Mories" de Jong is the sole member of both Ophiuchus and Cloak of Altering (confirmed against Cloak of Altering's own atlas entry, data/bands.json); Ophiuchus ended in 2011, the same year Cloak of Altering began. source ↗
- The Black Mysteriespath →
Maurice de Jong (Mories) is 'Everything' in both The Black Mysteries and Cloak of Altering source ↗
- Gnaw Their Tonguespath →
Crucial Blast artist (Plague Beasts, 2014; Manifestation, 2015) — anchored at Gnaw Their Tongues, the label's flagship (both are Mories projects). source ↗
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- UnaffiliatedEI 24ChoronzonBlackGlitchTheatrical
Choronzon is a merger of two unrelated American projects — Florida black-metaller P. Emerson Williams and San Francisco industrial artist Demitria Monde Thraam — who discovered each other online in 2002 and combined forces. What resulted, starting with 1998's Samoth-signed Magog Agog, is ritualistic, electronics-soaked black-industrial metal conceived explicitly as ceremonial music for occult initiates. Williams' background in London's FoolishPeople theatre troupe, where he literally played the demon Choronzon on stage, leaks into everything the band does.
- UnaffiliatedEI 16Decline of the IBlackGlitchTheatrical
Parisian avant-garde post-black metal project led by AK (also of Merrimack and Vorkreist, both off-atlas), pairing abrasive tremolo-driven black metal with electro/industrial samples and symphonic passages. The discography runs as two philosophical concept trilogies — the first drawing on neurologist Henri Laborit, the second (starting with 'Johannes,' 2021) on Soren Kierkegaard, continuing through 'Wilhelm' (2025). Released on Agonia Records.
- UnaffiliatedEI 18DargarBlackGlitchDrone
Dargar is a Los Angeles-based experimental black metal studio project by Pete Majors (vocals/guitars, also of Harassor) and James Brown III, aka Horus (programming/mixing/editing; the solo USBM artist behind the Rising Beast label/archive). The project's name is an inside joke referencing Marc Singer's 'Dar' (The Beastmaster) and Sam Elliott's 'Gar' (Mask). Songs were built by having Horus program drum-machine beats in GarageBand, Majors improvise guitar/vocals over them, then Horus sample and loop those fragments into finished compositions — yielding a lo-fi, glitchy, ambient-tinged black metal sound. The debut was recorded in 2006 and released on cassette in 2012 (100 copies); a second collection, The Shores of Space, followed in 2017.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 20Crystalline Thunderbolts Pierce the Sacred MountainBlackGlitchTheatrical
Crystalline Thunderbolts Pierce the Sacred Mountain is a synth-driven raw black metal / dark ambient project of prolific Dutch multi-instrumentalist Maurice 'Mories' de Jong (Gnaw Their Tongues, Cloak of Altering, De Magia Veterum, Obscuring Veil, Aderlating, Seirom). Releases like Blessed Hands Touch the Ophanim Under the Golden Rainbows (2023) and Shine Like the Suicidal Madness of the Sacred Amethyst (2024) are built from 'wild keyboard music exclusively' — chaotic, saturated electronic textures layered with black-metal atmosphere and grandiose, scripture-tinged song titles about celestial beings. It's tagged avant-garde/symphonic/black metal on metal.academy and functions as one more mutation in de Jong's sprawling, genre-blurring catalog.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 26Gnaw Their TonguesBlackGlitchTheatrical
Gnaw Their Tongues is the solo project of Dutch composer Maurice de Jong (a.k.a. Mories), established in 2004 and originally conceived under the name Dimlit Hate Cellar. The music fuses noise, dark ambient, black metal, drone, and industrial into oppressive, orchestral-sounding walls of dread, with the project name drawn from the Book of Revelation 16:10-11. De Jong is prolific to the point of running several parallel aliases (De Magia Veterum, Aderlating, Cloak of Altering, Seirom), and Gnaw Their Tongues alone accounts for over seventy releases across labels including Crucial Blast, Consouling Sounds, and Candlelight.
- UnaffiliatedEI 15BlackholepitBlackGlitchAmbient
Blackholepit is a one-off industrial/black-metal side-project by Venezuelan producer Federico Ágreda (Zardonic), released as the free 2008 album 'Portals' on Death To Music Productions. Described by the artist as 'the most metal of all his projects,' it mixes black metal atmospheres with industrial soundscapes, dark ambient textures, and IDM/electronic production across nine tracks including 'Angiel,' 'Blackhole,' and 'Solitude.'
- UnaffiliatedEI 16La Torture des TénèbresBlackGlitchDrone
Solo raw black metal project of Ottawa multi-instrumentalist Jessica Kinney, running since 2016 across roughly eight releases including full-lengths and splits. The sound layers harsh, noise-caked black metal against warped, decayed ambient passages, earning press comparisons to Sutekh Hexen, Gnaw, and dark-ambient artist The Caretaker. Albums build a recurring retro-futuristic, dystopian mythos described by Vice as 'Metropolis meets Victorian death cult.'
- UnaffiliatedEI 19Void (UK)BlackGlitchTheatrical
Void is a UK avant-garde/fringe metal project active since 1999, built around founding member and guitarist/vocalist Matt Jarman. Press consistently bills the band as 'avant-garde metal pioneers,' fusing black, death and industrial metal with noise, electronica and post-metal songwriting, citing touchstones from Dødheimsgard and Emperor to Aphex Twin and Venetian Snares. The current lineup grew directly out of Dødheimsgard's 2019 'Void Dancers' tour, and features musicians who also play in Dødheimsgard and Doedsmaghird. Their fourth album, Jadjow (2023, Brucia Records), was co-written by that touring lineup.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13OpheBlackTheatricalGlitch
Ophe is a one-man avant-garde/post-black metal project from Châtillon, France, created by Christophe "Bargnatt XIX" Denhez (also frontman of OMRÅDE and Demande à la Poussière), who handles all vocals, instruments and programming. Debut album Litteras Ad Tristia Maestrum Solitude arrived on My Kingdom Music in 2018, followed by Somnium Nocte Mendaciis (2022) on the same label. The project pairs primal black metal with dissonant, hermetic song structures and post-industrial, noise-inflected atmospheres, drawing comparisons to Dodecahedron, Ævangelist and Spektr.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13SaprovoreBlackGlitchTechnical
Saprovore is the solo industrial black/death metal project of an Italian musician also known for the band Strigiform, released through I, Voidhanger Records. His album 'Numinous Abditory Deflagration' (2026) is described by the artist as exploring 'cosmic emptiness' with a more refined, symphonic-leaning songwriting approach than his debut 'Unuttered Aporetic Omen.' Cited influences include Gnaw Their Tongues, Jute Gyte, Blut Aus Nord, and Thantifaxath (stated influences, not collaborations).