Moroghor

Polish occult doom/drone trio from Lodz built entirely around improvised 'automatism' -- the band records without prior composition or rehearsal, chasing psychedelic-rock, doom, and drone textures under an Austin Osman Spare-derived chaos-magick concept. Three full-lengths deep as of 2022, most released through Italy's I, Voidhanger Records.

The Crawling Chaos is a Moscow noise/sludge act formed in 2013 ('filth & stench since 2013'), blending doom, black metal and drone into an abrasive, atmosphere-heavy sound thickened by saxophone and noise/synth layers. They've released a self-titled full-length (2015), Гильотины поют о любви (2016), the EP Стерилизация преданных слуг, and the 2024 split Организованное безумие (Organized Madness) with fellow atlas act Neon Scaffold.

Project Nefast is a black metal project from Utrecht/Amsterdam, Netherlands, releasing through Tartarus Records, known for an absurdist, nihilism-inflected take on black metal built from 'noise, drone and repetition' rather than straightforward riffing. Key releases include Discomfort (2015), Dogma (2016), Sex Money Power (2017/2018) and NEE (2018); the band has performed at Roadburn Festival. Active as 'Nefast' 2013-2017, renamed 'Project Nefast' 2017 onward.

Venowl are a Chicago extreme doom/noise trio recording under the symbols ][, ::, and //, blending blackened noise, sludge, and harsh feedback into long-form, punishing tracks. Their 2012 debut 'Patterns of Failure' was remastered by James Plotkin, and their 2014 split with microtonal-guitar act Jute Gyte brought in guest violinist Troy Schafer for extended-technique, avant-classical passages over a 27-minute track.

Ulveblod is the solo black metal project of Vitriol, formerly guitarist of Dutch black metal band Nihill, launched after the death of Nihill co-founder/vocalist Michiel Eikenaar. The debut full-length 'Omnia Mors Aequat' (Fantoom/Consouling Sounds, April 2020) trades conventional song structure for extended, corrosive drones: reverb-drenched shrieks and 'demonic, sizzling guitars' sit on a single idea for minutes at a stretch (one closing track runs 21 minutes) until, per one review, 'static morphs into beautiful pulses.' The result sits at the abrasive, noise-soaked edge of black metal, with doom-paced riffs breaking through the wall of distortion.

Chiva was a Swiss atmospheric doom/black metal and darkwave project from Sion, Valais, formed in 1996 as a parallel/solo outlet for the person behind the band Sadness, described in its own liner notes as 'a desire to realise my personal work through a different and majestic music.' The sole release, the CD 'Oracle morte' (1996, Witchhunt Records/SPV), features four tracks exploring sadness, loneliness, winter and majesty, with additional vocals from Robert Frost on 'Fire And Ice.'

A Finnish outfit, founded by bassists Mika A. A. Hyytinen and Topi Aarnio, built around the gimmick-that-works of having no guitarists at all — two bass players (4-to-12-string, baritone-tuned) carry all the riffing, joined by keyboards/samples and dual male/female vocals from Kari Husa and Anna Pienimäki. Their sole full-length, 2009's On Rituals and Correspondence in Constructed Realities (Season of Mist), moves from doom-metal roots into a cavernous, drone-heavy hybrid of gothic, black, and alt-rock with electro-folk and Baroque touches.

One-person black/doom project from Seattle helmed by J.B., active since 2020, exploring prehistoric mysticism and psilocybin-tinged, entheogenic themes across the demo MMXX (2020) and a 2023 split with fellow Balor's Eye Productions act Graal. J.B. also drums in Graal, making the split a genuine bandmate connection rather than a mere label pairing.

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Astru is the solo Hungarian black metal vehicle of Mazarine, credited on Bandcamp for "all that sounds," active and prolifically releasing since the early 2010s. La Pionnier Aveugle (NGC Prod, Aug. 12, 2022) is tagged industrial black metal, dark ambient, and doom metal, described by the label as the project's "most dramatic and emotional" album, built on "melancholy, brooding, cogitation, longing, and tears" rather than aggression. Void (2019) leans into raw black metal and harsh noise, while the 2017 split with fellow NGC Prod act Nagaarum, ...a mizantrópia és elidegenedés újabb értelmezései..., is billed as "funeral metal industrial." Across a large catalog (16+ Bandcamp releases), Astru consistently pairs lo-fi black metal with dark-ambient, funeral-doom, and industrial textures rather than a single fixed sound.

Thralldom is the long-running studio project of Ryan Lipynsky (aka Killusion, also of Unearthly Trance) and Jared Turinsky (aka Jaldagar), formed on Long Island, NY in 1997. Deliberately never a live band, Thralldom trades in a blackened dark metal that folds in noise, drone, and industrial texture - 2006's 'A Shaman Steering the Vessel of Vastness' was reviewed for its 'lo-fi drone and dread' and 'doom-laden ambience,' built from what its label describes as 'an amalgam of half-tuned radio channels, machine noises, and shamanistic repetition.' The project returned in 2016 after a decade away with 'Time Will Bend Into Horror,' balancing that same experimentalism against tighter riff-craft.

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