Ecliptic

Hail Architeuthis! is a chaotic instrumental metal duo from Bloomington, Indiana, combining technical, prog-metal riffing with cinematic, ambient, and post-rock textures across dynamically extreme compositions. Released a self-titled debut EP in 2009 and a full-length in 2010, both via the Auris Apothecary label.

Gigan is an American technical/dissonant death metal band formed in 2005 by guitarist Eric Hersemann (ex-Hate Eternal, ex-Diabolic), known for pairing brutal dissonant riffing with heavy psychedelia, theremin, synths and otomatone. Their 2024 album Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus (Willowtip) was recorded by Sanford Parker in Chicago. The sci-fi-themed sound is described as an 'unsung vanguard of abstract and creatively dissonant extreme metal.'

Emptiness are a Brussels avant-garde metal act formed in 1998 by bassist/vocalist Jérémie Bézier and guitarist Olivier J.L.W., both formerly of Enthroned (not in the E.M.M.A. atlas). Metal Archives tracks their evolution from Black/Death Metal in the early years toward Post-Metal/Post-Punk on later records, and their own bio describes the arc as moving 'through black and death metal, avant-garde experimentation, and claustrophobic minimalism.' Now signed to Season of Mist, their 2026 album Nowhere Speaks was tracked live in studio and deliberately loops back into the closing riff of 2014's Nothing But the Whole; the band also played Roadburn Redux 2021.

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Kyomdarak is a Japanese atmospheric/experimental black metal project from Gifu Prefecture, active since 2007 with a large self-released Bandcamp catalog (kyomdarak.bandcamp.com). Its sound favors drum-machine-driven rhythmic patterns, warbling synth atmospherics, and low-key drones layered under raw black-metal riffing rather than blast-beat aggression. Albums include "mugen" (2016), "Night and Sleep," and "A new ecosystem" (2024).

Blood Incantation are an American death-metal band from Denver, Colorado, formed in 2011 around guitarist-vocalist Paul Riedl and drummer Isaac Faulk. Their 2016 debut Starspawn, on Dark Descent Records, drew wide acclaim for its cavernous, progressive, cosmically themed death metal; they later moved to Century Media and stretched their palette across the fully ambient synth album Timewave Zero (2022) and the sprawling Absolute Elsewhere (2024). They rank among the most celebrated acts of the modern death-metal revival.

Windham Hell was a mostly-instrumental avant-garde metal duo from Snoqualmie, Washington, active from the mid-1980s/1993 through 1999, consisting of Leland Windham and Eric J. Friesen. Across three Moribund Records full-lengths (South Facing Epitaph, 1994; Window of Souls, 1996; Reflective Depths Imbibe, 1999) they combined neoclassical shredded guitar with dissonant classical scales, sparse death-toned vocals, and extensive ambient/atmospheric passages recorded with lo-fi, bedroom-scale means. Friesen left in 1999 to go solo and died in 2006, effectively ending the band.

Thecodontion is a Rome-based black/death metal band formed in 2016 around the unusual choice to abandon guitars entirely, building their sound from two finger-picked distorted basses (plus a third for solos), drums, and vocals. Their releases, including the 2020 full-length Supercontinent on I, Voidhanger Records, follow a 'prehistoric metal of death' concept tracing Earth's continental drift and ancient lifeforms. Reviewers note the band moved from a rawer black/death attack toward a more atmospheric, minimalist, and surprisingly melodic sound, punctuated by bass-driven ambient instrumental passages.

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Montreal trio blending sludge and death metal weight with jazz-inflected saxophone, ambient dronescapes, and psychedelic textures across long-form concept albums. Their 2022 record Hivemind unfolds as a continuous sci-fi narrative about first contact with an insectoid hivemind, drawing comparisons to early Mastodon, Dvne, Neurosis, and Oranssi Pazuzu. Formed from the ashes of Montreal band The Wild Hunt in December 2016, the band restructured as a three-piece in January 2021 with all members sharing vocal duties and reaching for non-traditional instrumentation.

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Owl is the Bonn, Germany atmospheric death-doom project of Christian Kolf (also of Valborg) and drummer Patrick Schroeder, running since 2010 as an outlet for the death-doom and funeral-doom territory Kolf's main band doesn't cover. Records like the self-titled 'Owl' (2011) and 'Nights in Distortion' (2018) split roughly evenly between churning, Immolation/Deathspell-Omega-tinged death metal and long ambient passages of shifting keyboards and reverbed guitar drone. Their most recent compilation, 'Grid Shimmer' (2022), was released jointly through Zeitgeister and Total Dissonance Worship, and they shared a 2019 split with Slovak act 0N0.

One-man US avant-garde black/death metal project by the artist known only as R.P., combining heavily syncopated death-metal riffing with nightmarish soundscapes, industrial rhythms and film-score-like atmospheric passages. No Clean Singing (2017) singled out its 'distinctly smooth' unfurling and sparing-but-grand blast-beat eruptions against a mostly slower, tech-doom-leaning foundation. Discography: 82121 (2014), HHEOALLE (2017), The Hunting Boar! The Hunting Tyrant! (2020), compiled as Collected Works: MMXIV-MMXX (2023).