Eibon la Furies

Osculum Serpentis ('Kiss of the Serpent') is a French one-man raw/vampiric black metal project from Paris, formed in 2022 by Maxime Taccardi under the alias Vipera, who handles all guitars, bass, synth, drums, and vocals. In roughly two years the project released a striking run of material — Maleficia (2023), The Curse of the Vampyre (2023), Miseria (2024), Satanā (2024, Giin Productions), Vampyre Lord (2024), and The Streams of Sorrow (2025) — steeped in the primitivist Légions Noires lineage but pushed toward theatrical excess: Vipera deploys 'a multitude of demonic voices' compared to Attila Csihar's ceremonial delivery, layered over dark-ambient, cinematic textures amid the raw riffing. Reviewers have called it 'sheer diabolic Black Metal extravaganza,' an 'epic, even flamboyant' take on vampiric/occult raw black metal.

The Return of the Vampyre Lordplay in the dock

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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.

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.

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

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Chilean avant-garde/post-black metal band from the Region Metropolitana (Santiago), formed 2008. Blends post-black metal with industrial elements, melodic post-rock, and operatic Spanish-language vocal delivery reminiscent of Arcturus. Discography includes "Rerum Imaginaria" (2012), "Argonautas", and "La Casa de los Siete Espejos" (2024, inspired by a legendary Valparaiso brothel and Sergio Larrain's photography).

The Black Mysteries is a one-man ritualistic black metal project of the Dutch multi-instrumentalist M. de Jong -- better known as Mories, the mastermind behind Gnaw Their Tongues, De Magia Veterum and Cloak of Altering. Debut album Lemegeton (2018, Iron Bonehead Productions) marries malevolent riffing with choirs and organ passages in service of occult, ceremonial-magic themes drawn from the grimoire of the same name. Reviewers describe a hybrid of melancholy and 'uncomfortable negativity,' alternating ponderous, ambient-tinged passages with feral barrages of riffs.

Lemegeton (full album, incl. title track)play in the dock

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KZOHH is a Ukrainian 'pestilent black metal ritual' project from Kharkiv, active since 2014, drawing members from Khors, Ygg, Reusmarkt, Ulvegr and Elderblood. Known for atmospheric, drone-like passages punctuated by blasting tremolo sections, and for ceremonial live shows featuring black masks, hooded robes and incense smoke.

Massebegravelserplay in the dock

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Titaan is the one-man occult black metal project of Italian musician Lalartu, based in Trieste, built around a conceptual exploration of ancient Mesopotamian mythology across Kadingir (2016) and ITIMA (2020). The project fuses aggressive second-wave black metal with dark ambient textures and ritualistic vocal chanting, aiming for a 'cinematic' rather than song-based listening experience. Releases are issued via the Italian label ATMF.

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Tormentor is the Hungarian black-metal band (Budapest, 1986) whose vocalist Attila Csihar went on to define Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas; their own catalog runs from the foundational proto-black-metal of Anno Domini to the far stranger Recipe Ferrum (2000, Avantgarde Music), which wraps Hungarian-folklore imagery, orchestral samples, and a theatrical Dracula narrative around the riffing. It sits at the root of second-wave black metal rather than inside any later avant-garde scene, connected to the wider atlas chiefly through Csihar's own subsequent collaborations.

Dracula!play in the dock

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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.