Kekal

Nirrti is a solo psychedelic black metal project based in Orlová, Czechia, signed to Depressive Illusions Records. The project's music has been described as eerie, dissonant, and 'progressive black metal played through the lens of psychedelics and jazz,' aiming to convey darkness, uncertainty, and glimpses of other dimensions rather than adhering to traditional black metal norms. Releases include 'Psychonautix' (2022), 'Palindromos' (2023), and 'Cyberpsychosis' (2024), the latter continuing the project's cyber/psychedelic conceptual throughline.

Tabernacle ov Thee Flesh is a Brazilian avant-garde/experimental black metal project from Joinville, released via Ultra Gash Records, featuring Naboth E. Coli (vocals, keyboards), L. Borgia Rossetti (guitar, also of Esmectatons and Os Legais) and Leal Barroso (drums, also of Esmectatons and Zombie Cookbook). Their sole album Versículos de Autoflagelo (2021) comprises 25 short tracks forming one continuous suite steeped in free improvisation, jazz and noise traditions.

Dola are a Polish avant-garde black metal trio formed in Poznań in 2018 and now based in Toruń. Their sound couples a dissonant, aggressive black-metal backbone with ritual ambient, sludge/post-metal heaviness and pronounced jazz elements, the latter carried by Maras's trumpet. Recent album 'Tabernakulum' (2024, Piranha Music) swings between brutal dissonance and the atmospheric avant-garde passages that define the band.

Xenoch is a solo New York City black-metal project stacking bardo-metal dissonance against chamber music, modern classical, and free-jazz textures. 2023's 'poison lotus corpse pearl' pairs blackened death riffing with classical and free-jazz Bandcamp tags across five sprawling 'sign' movements, while 2026's 'Shedding Broken Shells like Feathers' pushes further into electroacoustic, glitch, and xenharmonic/microtonal territory. Dense, philosophical liner notes about the 'abolition of the temporal dimension' frame the project as bedroom avant-garde black metal rather than a full band.

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Ætheria Conscientia is a progressive black metal quintet from Nantes, France, formed in 2016, known for using saxophone as a core instrumental voice rather than an occasional flourish. Across three albums — 'Tales From Hydhradh' (2018), 'Corrupted Pillars of Vanity' (2021), and 'The Blossoming' (2024) — the band pursues a continuing science-fiction concept about humanity fleeing a ruined Earth, blending black metal with progressive rock, jazz, ambient, and psychedelic textures. Critics place them at the crossroads of Oranssi Pazuzu, Mastodon, and Enslaved.

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Endolith are an extreme progressive metal three-piece from Tromso, Norway, formed 2010 and signed to local label Rob Mules Records. Their concept album 'Chicxulub - The Fossil Record' (2019) refracts the dinosaur-extinction narrative through Meshuggah/Strapping Young Lad-style djent grooves, Gojira-esque crush, Devin Townsend-scale orchestral synth walls, black-metal (Emperor-tinged) tremolo bursts, and electronic programming, arriving at what one reviewer called 'a truly unforgettable trip.'

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Malconfort is a London trio named after a Deathspell Omega song, and on their 2024 debut Humanism (Transcending Obscurity Records) they take black metal apart from the inside. Guitarist/synthesist Fas, vocalist Nuun, and drummer/vocalist/synth player Kopczak build songs around dubbed-out basslines and jazz- and electronic-indebted drumming, with jutting, non-cyclical song structures. Harsh vocals appear sparingly, interlaced with whispers, barely audible crooning, laughter and spoken-word asides, drawing critical comparisons to Virus, Oranssi Pazuzu, and Mick Harris's Scorn.

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Ploughshare is a Canberra, Australia black/death metal trio-turned-collective that folds industrial electronics, noise rock, and jazz-inflected bass work into long, dissonant compositions. Their 2024 album Second Wound (Brilliant Emperor/I, Voidhanger) was praised for pushing further into warped electronic textures and technical death metal complexity while retaining the project's blast-driven black/death core.

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).

Ephel Duath was an Italian avant-garde metal band from Padua, active 1998-2014 and led throughout by guitarist Davide Tiso. Their sound is 'an unorthodox combination of hardcore punk and jazz fusion,' recruiting players from jazz, blues, funk and progressive backgrounds. Later lineups featured vocalist Karyn Crisis and drummer Marco Minnemann, and the band released through Code666, Earache and Agonia Records.