Oranssi Pazuzu

Mord'A'Stigmata is a Polish avant-garde black/post-black metal group formed in Bochnia in 2004, built around blending blackened riffing with electronic textures and, on later records, baritone saxophone and goth-rock atmosphere. Signed to Pagan Records since 2013's Ansia, the band has moved steadily from raw black metal toward hypnotic, atmosphere-first songwriting across albums like Dreams of Quiet Places (2019) and Like Ants and Snakes (2022).

DSKNT is a shadowy Swiss black/death metal project from Sion, Valais, formed in 2013 as the 'audial subdivision' of the DSKNT Industry recording studio and led by the presumed one-person mastermind Asknt. Since December 2016 vocals have been handled by Antiversum's singer, and the band's two albums for Sentient Ruin Laboratories — PhSPHR Entropy (2017) and Vacuum γ-Noise Transition (2021) — fuse dissonant, complex riffing with harsh noise and a slow, hypnotic drumming approach built around themes of cosmic void and entropy.

Lychgate is a London-based avant-garde black/doom metal band formed around 2011-2012, built on a foundation of pipe/church organ used as the compositional backbone of every track. Their influences span late-19th/early-20th-century art music, Rock in Opposition and musique concrete. They record for Debemur Morti Productions, with a discography running from the 2013 self-titled debut through 2025's 'Precipice.'

Void is a UK avant-garde/fringe metal project active since 1999, built around founding member and guitarist/vocalist Matt Jarman. Press consistently bills the band as 'avant-garde metal pioneers,' fusing black, death and industrial metal with noise, electronica and post-metal songwriting, citing touchstones from Dødheimsgard and Emperor to Aphex Twin and Venetian Snares. The current lineup grew directly out of Dødheimsgard's 2019 'Void Dancers' tour, and features musicians who also play in Dødheimsgard and Doedsmaghird. Their fourth album, Jadjow (2023, Brucia Records), was co-written by that touring lineup.

Hex Arcana is an international avant-garde/black metal project based in Tampere, Finland, led by American multi-instrumentalist Matron Thorn (also of Ævangelist and Præternatura) with vocalist Frater A.A. and Erethe Arashiel on vocals/artwork. The project operated 2018-2020 as Devil Worshipper before adopting the Hex Arcana name, fusing dissonant black metal with industrial textures, doom, and occult theatrics for I, Voidhanger Records. The 2022 album 'Eternally Yours' was mixed and mastered by Jeremie Bezier of Emptiness.

Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in Oslo in 1984, and one of the founding architects of the Norwegian black metal scene whose cold, abrasive sound shaped the entire genre. Their debut full-length De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994) — completed amid the deaths of vocalist Dead and guitarist/founder Euronymous — remains a defining record, and its signature song "Freezing Moon" a black metal touchstone. The long-running lineup pairs founding bassist Necrobutcher and drummer Hellhammer with Hungarian vocalist Attila Csihar, whose otherworldly, ritualistic delivery also anchors the drone-metal group Sunn O))).

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Parisian avant-garde post-black metal project led by AK (also of Merrimack and Vorkreist, both off-atlas), pairing abrasive tremolo-driven black metal with electro/industrial samples and symphonic passages. The discography runs as two philosophical concept trilogies — the first drawing on neurologist Henri Laborit, the second (starting with 'Johannes,' 2021) on Soren Kierkegaard, continuing through 'Wilhelm' (2025). Released on Agonia Records.

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Hail Spirit Noir is a Greek band from Thessaloniki (formed 2010) that welds 1970s psychedelic and progressive rock — vintage organ, synth and mellotron textures — onto a modern second-wave black metal frame. Founded by Haris and Theoharis, both veterans of the prog outfit Rex Mundi and the avant/symphonic project Transcending Bizarre?, the band cultivates an occult, horror-tinged atmosphere across concept albums, drifting further into synth-forward territory on Eden in Reverse. Frequently filed alongside Oranssi Pazuzu and Arcturus as psychedelic/avant-garde black metal.

Gnaw Their Tongues is the solo project of Dutch composer Maurice de Jong (a.k.a. Mories), established in 2004 and originally conceived under the name Dimlit Hate Cellar. The music fuses noise, dark ambient, black metal, drone, and industrial into oppressive, orchestral-sounding walls of dread, with the project name drawn from the Book of Revelation 16:10-11. De Jong is prolific to the point of running several parallel aliases (De Magia Veterum, Aderlating, Cloak of Altering, Seirom), and Gnaw Their Tongues alone accounts for over seventy releases across labels including Crucial Blast, Consouling Sounds, and Candlelight.

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Cloak of Altering is the avant-garde black metal solo alias of Dutch multi-instrumentalist Maurice "Mories" de Jong, begun in 2011 as a continuation of his earlier black metal band Ophiuchus and run alongside his other projects Gnaw Their Tongues, De Magia Veterum, Aderlating and Seirom. Where De Magia Veterum is his straight black-metal outlet, Cloak of Altering fuses 'mutated symphonic black metal' with breakcore-derived electronics and industrial noise, inviting comparisons to Blut Aus Nord and An Axis of Perdition. Albums such as Plague Beasts (2014) and Manifestation (2015), released via Crucial Blast, circle cosmic and occult themes across sprawling, drone-heavy tracks.