Imperial Triumphant

Mysterious, anonymous Polish avant-black-death act on Godz Ov War Productions whose debut Carmina Inferorum (2026) foregrounds trumpet and saxophone over guitars, layering demonic spoken word and industrial/electronic textures into a dissonant black/death frame; reviewers reached for Voivod, Gorguts, Imperial Triumphant, Igorrr, Dødheimsgard, Oranssi Pazuzu and Krallice as touchstones, "but with extra madness."

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Back to R'lyeh is a Madrid progressive/avant-garde metal band formed in 2011, building Lovecraftian Cthulhu Mythos concept albums out of genre-hopping riffs that swing from black and death metal aggression into funk, jazz-tinged chords, and theatrical, multi-voiced vocal performances. Critics have compared their unpredictable, vocally chaotic style to Mr Bungle, Sigh, and System of a Down.

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One-man project of linguist Liu Zhenyang (born in Ningbo, China; studying in Paris), Hoplites fuses dissonant black and death metal with mathcore and zeuhl-style repetition, topped with squealing saxophone. All song and album titles are rendered in Greek despite lyrical content addressing Chinese social themes. The project debuted with an EP in 2021, released three full-lengths in 2023, and put the project on an open-ended hiatus in mid-2024 as Zhenyang shifted focus to a new project, Dgra.

If Nothing Is (stylized/credited as INI on Metal Archives) is a Trondheim, Norway avant-garde metal project fronted by vocalist Boeddelen, guitarists Håkon Grytvik and Mats Stenberg, drummer Vegard Myrdal Berg, and bassist/main composer Lars Emil Måløy — also the bassist of Dødheimsgard. Emerging from the ashes of an earlier band called Revocation around 2008, the group self-released its sprawling, ten-track debut "If Nothing Is" digitally in 2015, later remixed, remastered and issued physically by Dark Essence Records in 2021 with a guest synth/sample contribution from Dødheimsgard's Vicotnik. The record moves through thrash, speed, death and black metal within long-form, technically demanding compositions compared to early Atheist and Cynic.

Maladie is a German 'plague metal' collective from Ludwigshafen, founded in 2009 by multi-instrumentalist Björn Köppler, whose self-coined genre name plays on the French word for sickness. Signed to Apostasy Records, the band pairs a progressive/melodic black metal core with cinematic orchestration, jazz-inflected saxophone (courtesy of Hauke Peters) and deliberately theatrical, multi-vocalist arrangements across a numbered 'Symptoms' album series. Their sixth full-length, The Dance of Tragedies (2026), was praised for eclectic musicianship even as some reviewers found its genre-toggling and irony overplayed.

Ukakuja is an international extreme-music collective centered on vocalist Lori Bravo (ex-Nuclear Death), fusing dissonant deathgrind, avant-garde grindcore, and free-jazz-adjacent noise into a dense, short-form assault. Debut album Ōmukade (2023, The Centipede Abyss, limited to 35 copies) draws direct comparison to John Zorn's Naked City, pairing Bravo's operatic-to-guttural vocal range with morphing synth textures and a revolving cast of guest screamers. It reads as a spiritual successor to Nuclear Death's chaotic early sound rather than a conventional band.

Venomous Echoes is the solo dissonant black/death metal project of Ohio multi-instrumentalist Ben Vanweelden, threading cosmic-horror and body-dysmorphia narrative concepts through blast-driven black-death chaos punctuated by dark jazz saxophone and synth interludes. Across three full-lengths — most recently Dysmor (I, Voidhanger, 2025) — the project builds sprawling, epic-length tracks that pair Lovecraft/Cronenberg-inflected horror themes with technical, atmospheric extremity. It sits in the current wave of one-person avant-death/black projects released through boutique labels like I, Voidhanger, Jaibaná, and Vargheist.

Atrorum is a two-person avant-garde/progressive black metal project from Munich, Germany, formed in 1998 by vatroS (guitars, bass, clean vocals, programming) and umbrA (vocals, keyboards, programming). Across three albums on Apathia Records — most notably 2015's Structurae — the band folds symphonic black and death metal into gothic organ, choir, cabaret, funeral-doom, jazz, and industrial-electronic passages, alternating harsh and clean vocals delivered in French, German, and English.

Potmos Hetoimos is the long-running one-man progressive sludge/doom project of Baltimore's Matt Matheson, active since 2006. The 2018 album Vox Medusae (Not Music) recast a concept about pornography addiction as a nine-voice Greek drama, weaving saxophone and piano into blackened-hardcore-inflected sludge, with jazz/funk touches. The record was mixed and mastered by Angel Marcloid (Fire-Toolz).

Voidstar Nocturnal is a progressive blackened death metal trio from Heredia, Costa Rica, formed in 2023 by musicians from Corpse Garden, Deiphago and Advent of Bedlank-adjacent scenes, evolving directly out of Corpse Garden. Guitarist Fabian Salas, bassist Kevin Moran, and drummer/synth player Erick Mejía Arguedas, joined by guest vocalist Roy Zumbado Cognuchz (TŴR, Advent of Bedlam), recorded the debut LP "Nexus Teleport Fracture" (Godz ov War Productions, 2026) live over three days at Colin Marston's Menegroth Studios in New York with no edits, triggers, or overdubs. Critics describe a surreal, psychedelic fusion of dissonant death/black metal with electro-industrial synths, post-punk/darkwave atmosphere, and a cosmic sci-fi/occult concept.

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