Nightly Gale

Umbra Nihil is a Finnish doom metal project built around multi-instrumentalist Vilpir (Ville Vierimaa), pairing slow, expansive doom weight with 70s progressive rock and Zeuhl-inflected passages, flute textures, and Lovecraft/weird-fiction-derived ritual concepts — The Borderland Rituals draws on William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland. The band shares lead guitarist Master Warjomaa with atlas act Aarni, tying it directly into the same oddball Finnish doom orbit. Largely dormant since 2008 due to lack of motivation from its songwriters.

Welcome to the Borderlandplay in the dock

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A Burlington, Vermont project that began as epic doom metal (lyrics about cartoons and archaeology) before pivoting into what it now calls 'Doom Cabaret' — metal-influenced piano ballads that the band itself likens to 'Voltaire after listening to Candlemass and bingewatching old cartoons.' The Johnsonian Demos blends doom/thrash/power metal roots with free improvisation and dark ambient textures, landing somewhere between symphonic doom and cabaret songcraft.

Grandmother Is Dead is a Czech one-man project from Prague, active since 1996, built entirely around Josef Pernikl playing and recording all instruments in his home studio as a hobby release he doesn't sell for profit. Its self-described 'Scenic Doom' style pairs doom metal with ambient, industrial and theatrical passages, and each album pursues a grim historical theme — its first release in 1997 was inspired by the Sobibor concentration camp, followed by The Camp (2006) and the atomic-bomb-themed Trust Christ Today (2009) — often layered with recorded witness testimony. Pernikl has also played guitar in the thrash band Lobotomia.

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.'

Beneath the Sod is the solo funeral/industrial doom project of Irish musician Ray Keenaghan (Wreck of the Hesperus), formed 2017. Releases include Circling the Drain (2017, Fort Evil Fruit), the split cassette Transmorphic Eye (2018, with Crypticum), and a self-titled 2021 EP on Cursed Monk Records described as harsh, synth-laced industrial doom metal with guest vocals from Richard Carson.

Om is an American stoner/doom drone band formed in San Francisco in 2003 by bassist-vocalist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius, previously the rhythm section of Sleep. The band is known for droning, bass-driven, meditative songs steeped in spirituality and mysticism, a marked departure from Sleep's Black Sabbath-rooted sound. After Hakius departed in 2008, Emil Amos (of Grails) joined on drums, and the group's acclaimed fifth album Advaitic Songs was released by Drag City in 2012.

Ecuadorian experimental collective from Guayaquil ('Psychedelic-Noise-Arkestra') led by multi-instrumentalist José Francisco Ycaza (aka Esquizoide 0nírico), billed 'Arkestra Director' in the Sun Ra tradition. Their 2019 album Nodvs Gordivs (Pensador Records) is a long-form concept piece weaving Castro, Alexander the Great and the Sabazios cult into a psychedelic doom/sludge/krautrock ritual built from extended pieces of noise, orchestral texture and heavy riffing.

Five the Hierophant is a London instrumental quartet formed in 2014 that fuses doom metal with free jazz into what they call 'doom jazz.' Their sound layers improvised saxophone, heavy droning riffs and psychedelic/ambient atmospheres, drawing on the darkness and intensity of black metal without vocals; unconventional instruments such as music saw, zither and assorted percussion widen the palette. Albums including Through Aureate Void (2021) are released through the Norwegian label Dark Essence Records.

A French gothic-doom outfit built around Emmanuel Lévy's deep, 'conjuring' French-language vocals, symphonic keyboards, and an atmosphere reviewers liken to Type O Negative crossed with Ange's chanson-prog — plus stray psych-rock detours. Their own scene ties (a member also drums for Öxxö Xööx, another was a live member of Carnival in Coal) place them squarely in the French avant-metal underground rather than mainstream gothic metal.

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Sigihl is a drone/doom/avant-garde metal act from the Silesian Voivodeship, Poland, formed in 2012, describing themselves as 'drone jazz from the hellyard.' Their sole full release, Trauermärsche (and a tango upon the world's grave) (2014, Arachnophobia Records), fuses sludge, doom, drone and black metal with saxophone, funereal atmosphere, and tango-inflected song titles.