Ebonylake

Angst Skvadron was a Norwegian avant-garde/post-black metal project formed in 2008 by Trond Bråthen (Trondr Nefas, also of Urgehal, Kvist, and In Lingua Mortua), fusing early-90s black metal with 70s progressive rock around a recurring alien-invasion concept. Core collaborator Lars Fredrik Frøislie (drums, keyboards, mellotron, minimoog) helped build the project's spacey, synth-laden atmosphere across the Flukt (2008) and Sweet Poison (2010) full-lengths on Agonia Records, with Octavia Marina Petru contributing vocals, Tibetan singing bowls, and vocoder. Bråthen died in 2012, and the project's status is listed as split-up.

SkyThala are an anonymous American avant-garde/symphonic black metal trio from Tennessee, part of the cryptic Moonlight Cypress Archetypes collective, who debuted with 2022's Boreal Despair on I, Voidhanger Records. Their music fuses the Stravinsky-descended dissonance of Russian modernist classical music with an Emperor-derived symphonic black metal blueprint, weaving oboes, bassoons and trombones through ultra-heavy dissonant-death riffing. The result is a maximalist, sensory-overwhelming collision of 'high art' orchestration and extreme-metal savagery.

A Montreal avant-garde black metal trio whose 2015 album 'Une voûte sans clef' has been described by reviewers as a terrifying, exhilarating merger of black metal and circus music — cinematic, synth-layered black metal that lurches between harsh blast passages and eerie, carnivalesque calm. Roots trace back to the black metal project Esker before the 2015 rename.

Arcturus is a Norwegian avant-garde metal band formed in 1991 by keyboardist Steinar Sverd Johnsen and Mayhem drummer Jan Axel 'Hellhammer' Blomberg, evolving from the symphonic black metal of Aspera Hiems Symfonia (1996) into the theatrical, cabaret-inflected avant-garde of La Masquerade Infernale (1997). Their sound fuses classical instrumentation, spaced-out electronic samples and semi-operatic vocals with a black metal backbone. The band drew personnel from the core of the early-1990s Norwegian black metal scene, including Ulver founder Kristoffer 'Garm' Rygg, who fronted the group from 1993 to 2003.

Old Man's Child is a Norwegian symphonic/melodic black metal band formed in Oslo in 1993 (out of the earlier death/thrash outfit Requiem), and effectively the vehicle of sole permanent member Galder (Thomas Rune Andersen), who later also joined Dimmu Borgir. Their sound welds tremolo-driven melodic black metal to early-death-metal influence and symphonic keyboard orchestration, with a classic lineup that included drummer Tjodalv and guitarist Jardar. For the third album, Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion (1998), Galder brought in American drummer Gene Hoglan as a session player, recording at Sunlight Studio in Sweden with Tomas Skogsberg.

Black Seeds On Virgin Soilplay in the dock

BandcampSpotifyYT Music

compare profiles →

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.

Beannachd Leibh is the Toronto solo project of Alec McKay (formerly recording as Crux), pairing melody-driven black metal in the vein of Blut Aus Nord with the twisting, prog-damaged structures of Kayo Dot and Time of Orchids. Debut full-length Walking in His Works (2025) stretches songs past nine minutes, mixing blasting extremity with symphonic passages and near-hallucinatory melodic detours. It's black metal built for patience — technically dense and unwilling to settle into a single mode for long.

Damned Spirits' Dance is a Budapest, Hungary act (active 2002–2013+) that began as melodic black-death metal and mutated into a genuinely odd hybrid of blackened riffing, quirky synths, clean vocals, and circus-tinged theatricality, released via the Dutch label Vic Records and then Italy's Code666. Critics discussing Hungarian avant-garde metal have grouped the band alongside Arcturus and Unexpect for its playful, off-kilter approach to extremity. Their sole full-length, Weird Constellations (2009), is the clearest document of the sound.

Fakeplay in the dock

BandcampSpotify

compare profiles →

Carnival in Coal was a French extreme/avant-garde metal duo formed in Amiens in 1995 by vocalist Arno Strobl and multi-instrumentalist Axel Wursthorn, active until 2007 (briefly revived 2014). The band mixed death and black metal with disco, pop, reggae, and chamber-rock elements under a recurring carnival/circus concept, releasing albums via War On Majors, Season of Mist, and Earache's Elitist imprint. Critics drew comparisons to Faith No More/Mr. Bungle, Frank Zappa, and John Zorn for the band's genre-defying juxtapositions.

Junon is a German psychedelic black metal project whose debut LP The Golden Citadel of the Astral Sphere (2026, I, Voidhanger Records) warps second-wave black metal through avant-garde songwriting and a vocal performance that swings from shrieks to operatic wails to laughter. Bandcamp credits it as uniting musicians who have spent decades in bands like Hidden in the Fog, Imha Tarikat, and Temple Koludra, though press coverage instead frames it as a single artist's solo vehicle — individual identities remain undisclosed either way.

Unterm Glutmondplay in the dock

Bandcamp

compare profiles →