Elagabalus

Al-Kamar is a Japanese blackgaze/depressive black metal project, essentially the solo work of a musician known as Tsukisima, begun in 2010 as a doujin circle arranging Touhou Project music before evolving into an atmospheric post-black/shoegaze sound that incorporates Vocaloid/voice-synthesis vocals. Live performances feature supporting musicians; the self-titled 2022 album marked a deliberate return to black metal roots.

Laster is a Dutch avant-garde black metal trio from Utrecht, active since 2012, that has steadily dissolved conventional black metal form into a hybrid of art rock, new wave, and shoegaze. Their Dutch-language lyrics dwell on love, distress, and identity across albums like Ons vrije fatum and Andermans mijne. In 2023 they toured Europe as support for Japanese avant-garde metal veterans Sigh.

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Dëgénéréscence is a French black metal project, active since 2019, centered on the musician known as Infämie, who handles vocals and all instruments. The project is affiliated with the Cërcle Mortüaire collective (alongside Feuille Morte, Mortuaire, Olatom Amespïrïa and others) and released albums such as Hélas ! Je n'étais pas fait pour cette haine... (2020) and ...Ainsi ! Nous dansâmes aux limbes détestées... (2022) through Drakkar Productions. Its sound is catalogued as depressive/atmospheric black metal shading into blackgaze, pairing raw riffing with piano-led, ambience-forward passages.

Asofy is the black/doom metal solo project of Italian multi-instrumentalist and visual artist Tryfar, born in Milan in early 2000 and signed to Avantgarde Music since 2013's Percezione. Tryfar handles guitar, bass, vocals and programming across a discography (Ebym, Percezione, Nessun luogo, Amusia, Svanire) that trades blast-and-riff black/doom for gloomy reverb-soaked atmospheres. 2020's Amusia, its sixth release, drew its concept from Oliver Sacks's Musicophilia, framed by reviewers as sitting 'between doom and black metal' with beautiful, decaying guitar layers and breathy vocals.

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Nostalghia is the one-man atmospheric/post-black metal project of Alex Becerra, based in Mexico City. Moved toward a more avant-garde, blackgaze-inflected post-black metal sound on The Last Path and Duelo (both 2023).

A one-person Saudi Arabian project that has released an extraordinarily prolific run of blackgaze/atmospheric-black-metal albums since 2024, pairing raw black metal with synth textures and long-form ambient passages. Track and album titles swing between clinical/medical imagery and Arabic-language poetry, giving the catalog a disorienting, diaristic quality. Entirely self-released on Bandcamp under Creative Commons licensing.

Towards Rusted Soil is a black metal side project of Tamás Kátai, better known as the founder/mainman of Thy Catafalque (and also of Gort and Gire), on which he performed all vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards and programming himself. The project released two demos, Forsaken in Fog (2000) and A Landscape Slumbering (2003), before its material was reissued on a 2014 four-way split alongside fellow Makó-scene acts Gort, Namtar and Gire.

Alcest is a French band formed in 2000 in Bagnols-sur-Cèze by multi-instrumentalist Neige (Stéphane Paut), initially as a solo black metal project. Widely credited with pioneering blackgaze and post-black metal, the band pairs black metal's tremolo and blast-beats with the shimmering, ethereal textures of shoegaze and dream pop to evoke Neige's recurring theme of a luminous 'other world.' Since 2009 Alcest has been a duo of Neige and drummer Winterhalter, releasing albums such as Souvenirs d'un autre monde (2007), Les Voyages de l'âme (2012) and Kodama (2016) on Prophecy Productions before moving to Nuclear Blast.

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Lengsel are a Norwegian progressive/avant-garde 'unblack' metal band formed in 1995, whose 2000 debut Solace won a following for its atmospheric, experimental take on black metal. The band is tightly bound to Extol: guitarist Tor Magne Glidje joined Extol in 1999 (first on bass, later guitar) and, over time, all three Lengsel members became members of Extol. The overlap left Lengsel a largely studio-bound project.

Anonymous avant-garde black metal project from Bonn, Germany, active since 1999 and released through the German DIY label Zeitgeister Music. The person behind it has never revealed their identity; early records leaned on spoken-word poetry and grandiose German baritone vocals rather than harsh screams, and 2013's 'Weisse Nacht' was described by Avantgarde-Metal.com as sounding 'like a bright shoegaze album played the black metal way.' The project blends black metal with doom, ambient keyboard textures, and industrial elements across six releases since a 1999 demo.