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Imperial Triumphant is a New York City avant-garde black/death metal band formed in 2005 by vocalist-guitarist Zachary Ezrin, who describes the group as translating the dissonance, grandeur and decadence of Manhattan into sound. Since the mid-2010s the core trio of Ezrin, bassist/keyboardist Steve Blanco and drummer Kenny Grohowski has fused blackened extremity with jazz, brass, chorales and cinematic art-deco menace, performing in gilded golden deity masks. Signed to Century Media in 2019, they built a run of records including Vile Luxury (2018), Alphaville (2020) and Spirit of Ecstasy (2022) with a rotating cast of avant-garde collaborators.

Atomic Ageplay in the dock

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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.

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.

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.

Convergence of Aeonsplay in the dock

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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.

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.

Ævangelist is a US-based avant-garde black/death metal duo formed in 2010 by Matron Thorn and Ascaris, known for folding saxophone and cello into a nightmarish, dissonant sound. In 2016 the pair released the split EP Codex Obscura Nomina with Blut Aus Nord on Debemur Morti Productions.

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.

Chosenplay in the dock

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Obscuring Veil is an international avant-garde black metal project assembled in 2018 around Matron Thorn (also of Ævangelist) on guitars/vocals, with Maurice 'Mories' De Jong (Gnaw Their Tongues, De Magia Veterum) on keyboards/synths, H.V. Lyngdal (Wormlust) on bass/piano, Jarle Byberg (Urgehal) on drums, and Kabukimono on voices, releasing through I, Voidhanger Records. Their 2019 debut Fleshvoid to Naught was described by reviewers as black metal 'played by free jazz musicians,' a dissonant, ghostlike plunge into psychedelic murk.

Fleshvoid to Naught (full album)play in the dock

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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.

sign v: …the night will never sleepplay in the dock

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