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.
SCORE PROFILE
Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.
WHY THOSE SCORES
- Jazzy 5 — Critics repeatedly cite dirge-like saxophone, loungey keyboard, and 'blackened jazz rock' passages across their catalog (Bandcamp Daily, Everything Is Noise).
- Glitch 3 — Noise/industrial textures — 'skronk and harsh bellows of noise music' plus mechanistic percussion and dense sampling (Bandcamp Daily feature).
- Folk 3 — Pronounced Middle Eastern melodic inclinations and traditional Arabic vocal technique, plus reworkings of American slave-era spirituals (Wikipedia/Noisey, Everything Is Noise).
- Shoegaze 4 — Widely 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
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 11Ved Buens Ende.....BlackJazzy
Ved Buens Ende..... is a Norwegian avant-garde black metal band, active 1993–1997 with later reunions, whose sole album Written in Waters (1995) is a touchstone of experimental black metal. It blends aggressive black-metal blasts and harsh vocals with quiet, jazz-influenced instrumental passages, atonality, dissonance, prominent bass and eerie clean crooning. Its members are central figures of the Norwegian avant-black scene, overlapping with Dødheimsgard, Ulver, Aura Noir and Virus.
- UnaffiliatedEI 24Cicada the BurrowerBlackShoegazeJazzy
Cicada the Burrower is the solo project of Madison, Wisconsin songwriter Cameron Davis, active since 2011/2012 and self-released through her own Blue Bedroom Records. Davis fuses progressive/post-black metal with blackgaze, chiptune, trip-hop and ambient electronics, using albums like Corpseflower (2021) and Blight Witch Regalia (2023) to process her gender transition. Reviewers have likened its blurred, synth-laced blackgaze passages to Sadness while noting jazzy horns, trip-hop beats and lo-fi electronic production woven through the harsh vocals.
- UnaffiliatedEI 16KekalBlackJazzyGlitch
Kekal is an Indonesian avant-garde/experimental act formed in Jakarta in 1995, one of the first Southeast Asian extreme-metal bands to reach an international audience. Beginning in black/death metal, they transformed across their discography into a genre-collapsing project spanning progressive metal, jazz fusion, trip-hop, electronic/IDM, ambient and post-rock — the 2003 breakthrough 1000 Thoughts of Violence being the pivot. Since August 2009 the band has operated as a 'memberless' collective, with former members and volunteer contributors assembling new albums.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 15NostalghiaBlackShoegazeJazzy
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).
- Norwegian avant-blackEI 20SolefaldBlackJazzyFolk
Solefald is a Norwegian avant-garde metal duo formed in 1995 by Cornelius Jakhelln and Lars Are 'Lazare' Nedland. They build on a black-metal foundation while folding in clean vocals, piano, jazz guitar, classical passages, punk, electronic components and folk rhythms, self-described as 'Red Music With Black Edges.'
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 13The SprawlcosmBlackGlitchFolk
The Sprawlcosm was a Vienna, Austria act active 1999-2005 (performing as Sprawl until 2001) that fused black metal's blast beats and shrieked vocals with industrial/EBM electronics, oriental-tinged scales, and jazz-adjacent touches. Their sole full-length, Cybionic Black Art (Silverhead Records, Dec 2000), juxtaposed programmed industrial textures and harsh black metal aggression with acoustic guitar and symphonic keyboard passages.
- UnaffiliatedEI 14Tabernacle ov Thee FleshBlackJazzyGlitch
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.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 19FleuretyBlackJazzyFolk
Formed in 1991 by Alexander Nordgaren and Svein Egil Hatlevik, Fleurety began as a conventional Norwegian black metal band before radically expanding its palette: Min Tid Skal Komme (1995) folded in atonal harmonics and folk elements, and Department of Apocalyptic Affairs (2000) - produced by Ulver's Kristoffer Rygg - spans metal, jazz, trip-hop and electronica. Both records leaned heavily on the Norwegian avant-garde scene for guest performers, pulling in Mayhem's Hellhammer and Maniac, Ulver's Rygg (as vocalist "G. Playa") and Tore Ylwizaker on programming, Arcturus/Winds' Steinar "Sverd" Johnsen, and Borknagar's Knut Magne Valle; a later 2009 EP brought in Mayhem's Hellhammer and Necrobutcher again alongside Thorr's Hammer vocalist Runhild Gammelsæter.
- UnaffiliatedEI 17Thy CatafalqueBlackFolk
Thy Catafalque is a Hungarian avant-garde/experimental metal project formed in Makó in 1998, essentially the solo vehicle of multi-instrumentalist Tamás Kátai. Its music fuses atmospheric instrumental writing, Hungarian folk melodies and electronics with a post-black-metal core, ranging from fragile ambient passages to harsh metal. Signed to Season of Mist since 2011, the project is known for shape-shifting albums that draw on folklore, rock and electronic textures.
- UnaffiliatedEI 9In the Woods...BlackFolk
In the Woods... are a Norwegian avant-garde/progressive metal band from Kristiansand, formed in 1992 from the early Green Carnation lineup. Their debut 'Heart of the Ages' helped shape pagan black metal before the band evolved toward atmospheric, progressive and doom-leaning territory across 'Omnio' and later records, with clean and female vocals broadening the palette. After disbanding in 2000 they reformed in 2014 and continue releasing through Debemur Morti Productions.