Laster

Elagabalus is a Baltimore, Maryland avant-garde black metal duo formed in 2014 by Dustin Swanson (bass, vocals, synth) and Ben Price (drums, vocals, guitar). Across Damnatio Memoriae (2015), Antiquarian Black MIDI (2017), and Dark Money (2018), the project layers synthesizers over black-metal instrumentation, drawing press comparisons to Neurosis, My Bloody Valentine, Godflesh, and Nirvana. Dark Money is tagged 'doomgaze/shoegaze' on Bandcamp and explores themes of financial corruption and power through a cinematic, synth-heavy sound.

A one-person Saudi Arabian project that has released an extraordinarily prolific run of blackgaze/atmospheric-black-metal albums since 2024, pairing raw black metal with synth textures and long-form ambient passages. Track and album titles swing between clinical/medical imagery and Arabic-language poetry, giving the catalog a disorienting, diaristic quality. Entirely self-released on Bandcamp under Creative Commons licensing.

Nostalghia is the one-man atmospheric/post-black metal project of Alex Becerra, based in Mexico City. Moved toward a more avant-garde, blackgaze-inflected post-black metal sound on The Last Path and Duelo (both 2023).

Al-Kamar is a Japanese blackgaze/depressive black metal project, essentially the solo work of a musician known as Tsukisima, begun in 2010 as a doujin circle arranging Touhou Project music before evolving into an atmospheric post-black/shoegaze sound that incorporates Vocaloid/voice-synthesis vocals. Live performances feature supporting musicians; the self-titled 2022 album marked a deliberate return to black metal roots.

Dëgénéréscence is a French black metal project, active since 2019, centered on the musician known as Infämie, who handles vocals and all instruments. The project is affiliated with the Cërcle Mortüaire collective (alongside Feuille Morte, Mortuaire, Olatom Amespïrïa and others) and released albums such as Hélas ! Je n'étais pas fait pour cette haine... (2020) and ...Ainsi ! Nous dansâmes aux limbes détestées... (2022) through Drakkar Productions. Its sound is catalogued as depressive/atmospheric black metal shading into blackgaze, pairing raw riffing with piano-led, ambience-forward passages.

London's Sea Mosquito wrap raw black metal in ambient synth haze and echo-drenched production, favoring atmospheric wash over riff-forward songwriting - tremolo guitar and drums function as background texture behind cascading, almost lead-like drumming. Their 2025 album Majestas (I, Voidhanger Records) explores religious ecstasy across cultures, with harsh vocals occasionally giving way to spoken passages in English and Arabic. They sit closer to psychedelic/atmospheric black metal than to the death-metal-adjacent avant-garde acts on this chart, but the noise-and-texture-first approach is exactly the kind of unorthodox BM the label built its name on.

Organs Dissolved in Lacquerplay in the dock

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Lengsel are a Norwegian progressive/avant-garde 'unblack' metal band formed in 1995, whose 2000 debut Solace won a following for its atmospheric, experimental take on black metal. The band is tightly bound to Extol: guitarist Tor Magne Glidje joined Extol in 1999 (first on bass, later guitar) and, over time, all three Lengsel members became members of Extol. The overlap left Lengsel a largely studio-bound project.

Post-black metal duo from Saint Petersburg, Russia, active as Swampborn since 2011. Guitarist Pathrone and vocalist Sur released their debut full-length Beyond Ratio via Hypnotic Dirge Records in 2022, weaving brass, violin, cello and accordion into a black-metal core across a concept narrative about existential horror and urban decay.

Alfa Obscura is a one-man Norwegian black metal/avant-garde project based in Oslo, run since around 2010 by Bjeima (Bjørge Eide Martinsen), who writes, performs, and produces all instruments and vocals. Musically it is rooted in cold, dissonant '90s Norwegian black metal tradition pushed into more avant-garde territory across the albums 'Plutonian Shores' (2011) and 'Sisyfos Speil' (2023), the latter drawing critical comparisons to Ved Buens Ende, Virus, and Manes. Bjeima is also a session/touring bassist for the Norwegian avant-garde black metal band Virus, appearing on their album 'The Agent That Shapes The Desert' (2011) and 'Oblivion Clock' EP (2012).

Ragnarökkur is an atmospheric black metal project whose Bandcamp lists Iceland as its home (Metal Archives instead tags it Finland/Iceland, suggesting a split/international lineup), built around the core pairing of Matron Thorn (strings and synthetics) and Nefarious (drums and percussion), with Palmi and Stefan on voice and guest female vocals from Kabukimono. Its sole release to date, the 2021 demo Fjöldagröf Goðanna, sets furious, technically dense atmospheric black metal against Icelandic-language song titles drawn from Norse mythology (the name itself is an Icelandic form of Ragnarök), with orchestral synth layering thickening the atmosphere. Beyond that one five-track demo there is no further discography or biographical material available.