Nazoranai

Keiji Haino is a Japanese guitarist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist active since the 1970s across rock, free improvisation and noise, best known for his long-running band Fushitsusha, formed in 1978. His intensely cathartic sound blends noise, psychedelia and Japanese traditional inflection into massively amplified guitar exploration. Within this atlas he intersects the drone axis directly: Black: Implication Flooding (1998) is a live collaboration album with Boris, and a 2006 meeting with Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley (via Oren Ambarchi) grew into the trio Nazoranai.

Thrones is the long-running solo project of American bassist Joe Preston, begun in 1994 and given to bass-heavy doom, avant-garde noise rock and experimental drone. Preston is a scene hub in his own right — a former member of Earth and the Melvins and a guest on Sunn O)))'s recordings — and Thrones channels that low-end lineage into one-man records like the Southern Lord compilation Day Late, Dollar Short (2005). The music pairs crushing riffs and heavily processed vocals with an eclectic, unpredictable sensibility.

Ghostmass (大鬼眾) is a Beijing improvisation collective formed in 2021 from a shared passion for drone, doom, and extreme metal, filtered through harsh noise and free improvisation. Reviewer Michael Scharf (Outside Noise) describes their 2024 album 'Ghost Meditation' as evolving from chaotic noise toward a more structured, doom-metal-inspired sound, with anguished throat-singing-style vocals over grating feedback and power electronics. The lineup draws members from Beijing noise-rock scene acts Carsick Cars and Soviet Pop.

Circle is a Finnish experimental rock institution formed in Pori in 1991, built around bassist/vocalist Jussi Lehtisalo, the band's only constant presence and de facto leader. Their restless, ever-mutating music fuses motorik krautrock repetition with heavy metal riffing, ambient, prog and psychedelia, a sound they half-jokingly branded the New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal. Absurdly prolific across dozens of albums, they release most of their work through Lehtisalo's own Ektro Records, and their 2017 album Terminal appeared internationally on Southern Lord.

Kill Cityplay in the dock

BandcampSpotifyTidal

compare profiles →

Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. are a Japanese psychedelic collective founded in 1995 by guitarist Kawabata Makoto as an outlet for a rotating cast of players, releasing their self-titled debut on PSF Records in 1997. Extraordinarily prolific, with well over 100 albums, they fuse acid-rock jams, krautrock motorik, raga drones and harsh noise into cosmic long-form freak-outs. The touring lineup has long centered on Kawabata with Higashi Hiroshi, Tsuyama Atsushi and, at points, guitarist Mitsuru Tabata.

Khlyst is an American experimental drone/doom project formed in New York in 2006, built around guitarist James Plotkin (Khanate, OLD, Phantomsmasher), Norwegian vocalist Runhild Gammelsæter (Thorr's Hammer), and drummer Tim Wyskida (Khanate, Blind Idiot God). Their sole album, the dually-titled "Chaos Is My Name" / "Kaos er mitt navn," was released by Hydra Head Records in October 2006. Across eight Roman-numeral-titled pieces it alternates Gammelsæter's shrieked, free-form vocals with eerie ambient guitar and percussion soundscapes.

Ufomammut are an Italian power trio formed in 1999 in Tortona, dealing in a signature strain of psychedelic sludge that spans doom, stoner, sludge and drone metal. Their music favors lengthy songs built on repeated heavy riffs, droning vocals and a heavy use of synths and sound effects, staged live with synchronized psychedelic visuals by founders Poia and Urlo's Malleus art collective. Their most recent studio albums — including Fenice (2022) and Hidden (2024) — appear on Neurosis's Neurot Recordings.

Zonal are the British duo of Justin Broadrick (Godflesh) and Kevin Martin (The Bug), a reactivation of their 1990s Techno Animal partnership trading in cavernous bass, cacophonous dub and ear-splitting drone. Their debut album Wrecked was released on Relapse Records on 25 October 2019, with Philadelphia poet-vocalist Moor Mother featured across its first six tracks. The record was mastered by Stefan Betke (Pole) and pairs industrial hip-hop menace with drone-metal weight.

System Error (ft. Moor Mother)play in the dock

Bandcamp

compare profiles →

Zhertvoprinosheniya (Жертвоприношения, 'Sacrifices') is a St. Petersburg experimental funeral-doom/black metal project that explicitly reconstructs the late Sergey Kuryokhin's improvisatory 'Pop-Mechanics' performance-art tradition. 'Некромеханика' (2020) centers the self-built Soviet-era 'utyugon' synthesizer alongside trombone, radio noise and electronics for a drone-heavy, ritualistic funeral atmosphere rather than conventional riffing. It reads as a direct lineage act carrying Russian avant-garde/noise performance art into black/doom metal territory.

Runhild Gammelsæter is a Norwegian vocalist who is also a professional biologist holding a Ph.D. in cell physiology. She first drew notice fronting the American doom band Thorr's Hammer, which she joined at 17 alongside Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, and later co-formed the duo/trio Khlyst with James Plotkin. Her 2008 solo debut Amplicon (Utech Records) is built almost entirely from her own voice, warped with effects, with each track founded on a scientific, largely biologic theme conceived as a soundtrack to the cycle of the universe. Her voice ranges from the death-metal growls of her Thorr's Hammer work to unnerving, art-inflected experimental singing.