Old Nick

Midoran is the solo dark-fantasy project of French multi-instrumentalist Athal'Zacker, part of the Cercle Mortuaire collective alongside acts like Degenerescence and Mortuaire. Its prolific catalog alternates between raw, melodic black metal and synthesizer-driven dungeon synth passages, built around an ongoing fantasy narrative (Zolaria, Merozia, the Athal'Zackar mythos) in a vein reminiscent of Nuit Noire or Trha. Releases favor world-building atmosphere and lore over technical ambition.

A Magical Night in Forgotten Realmsplay in the dock

Bandcamp

compare profiles →

Gelassenheit is the solo avant-garde/atmospheric black metal project of Uncumber (Mave/Abe Goren), based in Brooklyn/New York and active since 2020. The self-titled album blends symphonic black metal, avant-garde metal, dungeon synth, depressive black metal, and coldwave into a synth-heavy sound built around explicitly Christian-anarchist ('Red and Anarchist Black Metal') themes of communal living, care for the poor, and anti-fascism, framed by the artist as 'using Christianity as a tool for advocacy and unique aesthetic cultivation' rather than evangelism. Uncumber is a trans woman and has described the project in interviews as unblack, RABM-aligned black metal.

Dead Raven Choir is the long-running solo/rotating-cast vehicle of Polish musician Smolken (also of Wolfmangler), begun in 1996 in Kraków as a black-metal project setting A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh poems to "virulent" riffing before evolving into a sprawling, deliberately lo-fi hybrid of raw black metal, acoustic folk metal, dark ambient and neofolk. Its extensive, ramshackle discography (15+ studio albums, numerous CD-Rs) trades polish for degraded, intentionally harsh production, closer to outsider/neofolk territory than conventional metal, which the project itself has framed as its point.

Edasi is a solo project of M. Kleis from Tallinn, Estonia, self-described as 'experiments in the field of black metal/drone/ritual ambient/noise/psychedelia' and reviewed as 'outsider black metal.' The catalogue spans lo-fi black-noise pieces (Horror Mirror) to the 2009 EP Pikse litaania, which reworks Estonian folk-choral composer Veljo Tormis and medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen into extended, droning, chant-like sound-collage pieces -- described by Boomkat as re-interpreting those composers' work 'through the outsider black metal' of Kleis's own sound.

Midnight Odyssey is the one-man cosmic/atmospheric black metal outlet of Brisbane's Dis Pater, running concept albums soaked in mythology since 2007. Its sprawling Biolume trilogy (2019-2023) folds synth-driven ambient drone, neoclassical arrangement, and doom-metal pacing around a core of raw, lo-fi black metal. The project regularly spins off pure ambient/ kosmische material and symphonic re-recordings alongside the metal proper, making atmosphere as central to its identity as riffs.

Portuguese experimental/atmospheric black metal project from Porto, self-styled 'Underwater Black Metal', built around Francisco Braga (aka Bragadast) and Artur Leão (aka Einsichtmar). Their 2022 album εἴδωλον weaves mythological narrative through drone-laden passages, tribal instrumentation (didgeridoo, berimbau, hangpan), and abrupt shifts between raging black metal and gentle ambient interludes.

Holdlajtorja is a Hungarian project from Zalaegerszeg formed in 2018 by figures from the country's black metal underground - guitarist/songwriter Inmar (also of Vorkuta), vocalist Kryptagonist (also of Leiru and SIR), and Vorgrov (also of Marblebog and Asattarn). Named for a Lovecraftian vision from At the Mountains of Madness and sung in Hungarian, the band trades blast-beat orthodoxy for slow-unfurling, dark-ambient soundscapes laced with unusual string instruments and 'oriental' melodic passages. Their 2024 debut full-length Arcana et Tenebrae (Sun & Moon Records) was described by reviewers as 'Dark Ambient Avant Garde Music with Black Metal's constant intervention.'

Eidosplay in the dock

Bandcamp

compare profiles →

KZOHH is a Ukrainian 'pestilent black metal ritual' project from Kharkiv, active since 2014, drawing members from Khors, Ygg, Reusmarkt, Ulvegr and Elderblood. Known for atmospheric, drone-like passages punctuated by blasting tremolo sections, and for ceremonial live shows featuring black masks, hooded robes and incense smoke.

Massebegravelserplay in the dock

Bandcamp

compare profiles →

Isa was a solo Dutch black metal project from Arnhem, active only in 2008, releasing a single limited CD-R, Eindeloos, before disbanding. The record pairs raw, repetitive tremolo riffing with minimal, ambient-tinged guitar textures across three long, depressive tracks dealing with loneliness and isolation. It is a minor, self-contained entry in the Dutch DSBM/atmospheric underground with no documented links to other scene names.

Avant-garde black metal project from San Francisco founded in 2009 by Roberto 'Otrebor' Martinelli, built entirely around distorted hammered dulcimer and drums with no guitar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botanist_(band)). NPR spotlighted Botanist as pairing an unheard-of lead instrument with dynamic, hypnotic songwriting, and lyrics center on environmental collapse and nature's reclamation of Earth under the mythic figure of 'The Botanist.' The band has expanded from a solo recording project into a full lineup for later albums, releasing through The Flenser, Totalrust Music and Prophecy Productions.