Emptiness

The dark-ambient/doom project of Matron Thorn (also of Ævangelist and Præternatura), based in Tampere, Finland, with six full-lengths 2021-2024. Bandcamp self-tags consistently describe it as experimental dark-ambient doom metal with post-rock and soundtrack qualities and occult lyrical themes — a slower, more spatial sibling to Thorn's more extreme-metal-facing projects.

Schammasch are a Basel, Switzerland avant-garde black metal band formed in 2009, named for the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash. Beginning in black/death territory, they grew increasingly experimental, peaking with the triple-album Triangle (2016) whose final disc is pure ambient, and Hearts of No Light (2019), which folds clean/post-punk vocals and ritualistic dark-ambient into their black-metal core. Occultism, spirituality and surrealism thread their long-form, atmosphere-first releases on Prosthetic Records.

Overmars was a French post-metal band active from 2001 to 2011, formed in Lyon around vocalist Xavier Théret, guitarists Antoine Simon and Pierrick Marin, bassist Marion Leclerc, drummer Benjamin Pic, and keyboardist Tiphaine Coudert. Their 2005 debut Affliction, Endocrine... Vertigo (Candlelight Records) fused doom, industrial, gothic rock, death and black metal into an oppressive, droning, oftentimes sludgy whole, while 2007's Born Again stretched that approach into a single 40-minute piece that NME later named among its 'Twenty Heaviest (Metal) Records of All Time.'

Affliction, Endocrine... Vertigo (Full Album)play in the dock

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Caged Bastard is the solo project of Tunisian multi-instrumentalist Muhammad Oun (Bizerte, Tunisia), formed in 2018 as a blackened hardcore/grindcore act before evolving since 2019 into a broader fusion of black metal, sludge, drone, noise and ambient textures. Oun writes, performs, records, mixes and masters all material himself. Releases include "Inhumane Intentions" (2024), "Solace in Virtue's Absence" and "Mantra of Psychological Violence."

Echo Chamber of Woundsplay in the dock

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Chiva was a Swiss atmospheric doom/black metal and darkwave project from Sion, Valais, formed in 1996 as a parallel/solo outlet for the person behind the band Sadness, described in its own liner notes as 'a desire to realise my personal work through a different and majestic music.' The sole release, the CD 'Oracle morte' (1996, Witchhunt Records/SPV), features four tracks exploring sadness, loneliness, winter and majesty, with additional vocals from Robert Frost on 'Fire And Ice.'

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).

Locrian are an American experimental trio formed in late 2005 in Chicago by André Foisy and Terence Hannum, with drummer Steven Hess joining permanently in 2010. AllMusic characterizes their sound as an eclectic mixture of black metal, electronics, drone and noise rock, shot through with ambient and industrial textures and dystopic, apocalyptic imagery. In 2012 they made the collaborative album Bless Them That Curse You with Mamiffer, released on Profound Lore alongside Sige and Utech.

Grave Gnosis is a ritualistic occult black metal band from St. Petersburg, Florida, formed in 2015, rooted in Theistic Satanism, framing its recording sessions as literal ritual and trance work.

Ghostmass (大鬼眾) is a Beijing improvisation collective formed in 2021 from a shared passion for drone, doom, and extreme metal, filtered through harsh noise and free improvisation. Reviewer Michael Scharf (Outside Noise) describes their 2024 album 'Ghost Meditation' as evolving from chaotic noise toward a more structured, doom-metal-inspired sound, with anguished throat-singing-style vocals over grating feedback and power electronics. The lineup draws members from Beijing noise-rock scene acts Carsick Cars and Soviet Pop.

The Canyon Observer are a Slovenian quintet formed in 2011 whose experimental post-metal fuses black metal, noise, doom and sludge with delicate atmospheric passages into something 'chaotic, deranged and powerfully disorienting'. Across the FVCK (2015) and NØLL (2018) LPs on Kapa Records they alternate crushing heaviness with hallucinatory atmosphere, staged live amid fog and strobes. Their experimentalism lives largely in noise and genre-collapse rather than any single exotic ingredient.