Gallows' Forest

10:13 is the solo, largely instrumental black-metal vehicle of Southern California multi-instrumentalist Neil Carter, self-released through his own Unclebaby Records since 2019. Debut album "Result of an Iron Age" splices black-metal riffing with acoustic sylvan guitar, out-of-tune harmonica, organ and trip-hop-tinged samples into what one reviewer called "a piece broken down rather than a collection woven together," drawing comparisons to Arcturus' more deranged moments. Carter cites Camper Van Beethoven, Philip Glass and Gentle Giant alongside black-metal names like Xasthur and Darkspace as touchstones, and brought in prog-rock keyboardist Derek Sherinian and guitarist Mario Romero as guests.

MRTVI ('dead' in Serbian) is the solo experimental black metal project of UK/Serbia-based musician Damjan Stefanović, active since the mid-2010s. Albums pair dissonant, blast-beat-driven black metal with ambient textures, Eastern-scaled acoustic-guitar interludes and tribal-percussion breaks. Stefanović performs every instrument himself.

Perceived Entiretyplay in the dock

Bandcamp

compare profiles →

Nebelkrähe were a black metal band from Munich, active 2007 to their split-up in January 2025. Built on a driving, melodic black-metal core, later records (Ephemer, 2023; a full 2024 re-recording of the 2009 debut Entfremdet) folded in cello, accordion, harmonica and hackbrett (hammered dulcimer) as recurring folk-instrumentation color, with Empyrium's Markus Stock guesting on the Ephemer track 'Kranichträume.' Reviewers describe the late-period sound as 'modern' and varied black metal that stays grounded in the genre while using its acoustic guests sparingly rather than as a wholesale folk-metal turn.

Kranichträumeplay in the dock

Bandcamp

compare profiles →

Mêlée des Aurores is a Québec City atmospheric/dissonant black metal project formed in 2002 by members also of Chasse-Galerie. After a hiatus, returned in 2023 with 'Aube cannibale,' critics placed 'somewhere between Blut Aus Nord, Portal and Deathspell Omega.'

Kostnatění is a one-man experimental black metal project from Minneapolis led by multi-instrumentalist Dillon Lyons, who threads Turkish/Anatolian and North African folk melody, industrial harshness (in the Mysticum/Anaal Nathrakh vein) and psychedelic synth into a technical black-metal frame while explicitly rejecting occult themes for a secular reading of existential dread. Signed to Willowtip Records in 2023, the project has grown steadily more adventurous across releases such as Hrůza zvítězí, Přílišnost (Excess) and Úpal. It is one of the more distinctive world-music-inflected voices in current US black metal.

Furia is a Polish black metal band formed in Katowice in 2003, fronted by Michał "Nihil" Kuźniak, considered one of the most influential and boundary-pushing acts in the Polish scene. The band's self-described "Nekrofolk" style fuses raw black metal with Polish folk, psychedelia and post-punk, drawing on the industrial/forested landscape of Silesia; Nihil and bassist Kamil "Sars" Staszałek also play together in MasseMord. Furia performed at Primavera Sound in 2014 and was nominated for Polityka's Passport award in 2023 for the album Huta Luna.

Thorne was a short-lived experimental/atmospheric black metal band from Río Gallegos, Argentina, that recorded one demo (Until Their Ruins Be Our Trench, 2013) and one full-length, Ekpyrosis & Restitutio in Pristinum Status, released as a limited cassette in 2017 by Brotherhood of Light Recordings. The album mixes Spanish-language black metal with lengthy instrumental passages and a lute-song arrangement of Renaissance composer John Dowland's 'Grief'. The band split up after this release.

Q'uq'umatz is an anonymous one-person avant-garde metal project based in the Reno, Nevada area, named for the Mayan feathered-serpent creator deity of the Popol Vuh. Since its 2016 debut Tepeu, the project has fused black metal and progressive rock with krautrock and Native American folk textures, layering acoustic instruments over heavier passages. The artist deliberately withholds their identity.

Well of Sacrificeplay in the dock

BandcampSpotify

compare profiles →

Urarv is the avant-black-metal vehicle of Björn 'Aldrahn' Dencker, founding vocalist of Dødheimsgard, conceived in 2003 during a stay in a mental institution and originally aimed at 'true Norwegian folkish black metal' before mutating into something stranger. Across Aurum (2017), Argentum (2018), and Substratum — recorded 2013, finished 2021/22 — it channels Ved Buens Ende-style dissonant terror and folkloric black-metal mutation through Aldrahn's singular howled vocal delivery, positioned by the band itself as parallel to, not part of, the black metal mainstream.

Red Circleplay in the dock

Bandcamp

compare profiles →

Thy Catafalque is a Hungarian avant-garde/experimental metal project formed in Makó in 1998, essentially the solo vehicle of multi-instrumentalist Tamás Kátai. Its music fuses atmospheric instrumental writing, Hungarian folk melodies and electronics with a post-black-metal core, ranging from fragile ambient passages to harsh metal. Signed to Season of Mist since 2011, the project is known for shape-shifting albums that draw on folklore, rock and electronic textures.