Mamaleek

United States · formed 2008 · last active 2025

Mamaleek are an anonymous project of brothers recording in San Francisco (and, per their own Bandcamp bio, Beirut), active since 2008 and currently signed to The Flenser. They build a black metal foundation of tremolo riffing and harsh vocals, then layer in saxophone, industrial noise, blues, and Middle Eastern melodic phrasing. Their 2020 record Come and See reworks African-American spirituals into a meditation on American housing history, and the band deliberately withholds biographical detail to keep focus on the music.

YouTube

SCORE PROFILE

JazzyBalkanHardcoreSurfBarbershopDeathBlackTechnicalGlitchTheatricalFolkDoomDroneShoegazeAmbient8-bit
Jazzy5
Balkan0
Hardcore0
Surf0
Barbershop0
Death1
Black6
Technical2
Glitch3
Theatrical0
Folk3
Doom1
Drone1
Shoegaze4
Ambient2
8-bit0

Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.

WHY THOSE SCORES

  • Jazzy 5Critics repeatedly cite dirge-like saxophone, loungey keyboard, and 'blackened jazz rock' passages across their catalog (Bandcamp Daily, Everything Is Noise).
  • Glitch 3Noise/industrial textures — 'skronk and harsh bellows of noise music' plus mechanistic percussion and dense sampling (Bandcamp Daily feature).
  • Folk 3Pronounced Middle Eastern melodic inclinations and traditional Arabic vocal technique, plus reworkings of American slave-era spirituals (Wikipedia/Noisey, Everything Is Noise).
  • Shoegaze 4Widely described by critics as evolving from 'black metal shoegaze' toward blackened jazz/trip-hop/world fusion (multiple reviews via search, cross-checked against Bandcamp/Wikipedia).

CONNECTIONS

label
  • Kayo Dotpath →

    The Flenser artist (Come and See, 2020, the band's third full-length for the label) — anchored at Kayo Dot, the label's longest-tenured atlas act with five releases. source ↗

FURTHER LISTENING

Nearest score profiles in the atlas.

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  • UnaffiliatedEI 16
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  • Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 15
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  • Norwegian avant-blackEI 20
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  • Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 13
    The Sprawlcosm
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  • Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 19
    Fleurety
    BlackJazzyFolk

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  • UnaffiliatedEI 17
    Thy Catafalque
    BlackFolk

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  • UnaffiliatedEI 9
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    BlackFolk

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