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Xenoch is a solo New York City black-metal project stacking bardo-metal dissonance against chamber music, modern classical, and free-jazz textures. 2023's 'poison lotus corpse pearl' pairs blackened death riffing with classical and free-jazz Bandcamp tags across five sprawling 'sign' movements, while 2026's 'Shedding Broken Shells like Feathers' pushes further into electroacoustic, glitch, and xenharmonic/microtonal territory. Dense, philosophical liner notes about the 'abolition of the temporal dimension' frame the project as bedroom avant-garde black metal rather than a full band.

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Biesy is a Kraków trio formed in 2014 around guitarist/bassist PR, joined by vocalist Stawrogin (also of Odraza, Totenmesse) and drummer MP (also of Outre), taking their concept from Dostoevsky's Demons and the alienation of urban life. Their 2017 debut Noc Lekkich Obyczajów (Third Eye Temple) delivers dissonant, disjointed black/death riffing compared to Ulcerate, Deathspell Omega, Immolation and Gorguts. The 2020 follow-up Transsatanizm (Godz ov War Productions) pushed further into avant-garde territory, layering industrial synths and looping electro beats over blackened riffs, described by reviewers as 'avangardish, industrial-infused post-rock/post-black.'

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Kekal is an Indonesian avant-garde/experimental act formed in Jakarta in 1995, one of the first Southeast Asian extreme-metal bands to reach an international audience. Beginning in black/death metal, they transformed across their discography into a genre-collapsing project spanning progressive metal, jazz fusion, trip-hop, electronic/IDM, ambient and post-rock — the 2003 breakthrough 1000 Thoughts of Violence being the pivot. Since August 2009 the band has operated as a 'memberless' collective, with former members and volunteer contributors assembling new albums.

If Nothing Is (stylized/credited as INI on Metal Archives) is a Trondheim, Norway avant-garde metal project fronted by vocalist Boeddelen, guitarists Håkon Grytvik and Mats Stenberg, drummer Vegard Myrdal Berg, and bassist/main composer Lars Emil Måløy — also the bassist of Dødheimsgard. Emerging from the ashes of an earlier band called Revocation around 2008, the group self-released its sprawling, ten-track debut "If Nothing Is" digitally in 2015, later remixed, remastered and issued physically by Dark Essence Records in 2021 with a guest synth/sample contribution from Dødheimsgard's Vicotnik. The record moves through thrash, speed, death and black metal within long-form, technically demanding compositions compared to early Atheist and Cynic.

Mysterious, anonymous Polish avant-black-death act on Godz Ov War Productions whose debut Carmina Inferorum (2026) foregrounds trumpet and saxophone over guitars, layering demonic spoken word and industrial/electronic textures into a dissonant black/death frame; reviewers reached for Voivod, Gorguts, Imperial Triumphant, Igorrr, Dødheimsgard, Oranssi Pazuzu and Krallice as touchstones, "but with extra madness."

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Nirrti is a solo psychedelic black metal project based in Orlová, Czechia, signed to Depressive Illusions Records. The project's music has been described as eerie, dissonant, and 'progressive black metal played through the lens of psychedelics and jazz,' aiming to convey darkness, uncertainty, and glimpses of other dimensions rather than adhering to traditional black metal norms. Releases include 'Psychonautix' (2022), 'Palindromos' (2023), and 'Cyberpsychosis' (2024), the latter continuing the project's cyber/psychedelic conceptual throughline.

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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Atrorum is a two-person avant-garde/progressive black metal project from Munich, Germany, formed in 1998 by vatroS (guitars, bass, clean vocals, programming) and umbrA (vocals, keyboards, programming). Across three albums on Apathia Records — most notably 2015's Structurae — the band folds symphonic black and death metal into gothic organ, choir, cabaret, funeral-doom, jazz, and industrial-electronic passages, alternating harsh and clean vocals delivered in French, German, and English.

Tabernacle ov Thee Flesh is a Brazilian avant-garde/experimental black metal project from Joinville, released via Ultra Gash Records, featuring Naboth E. Coli (vocals, keyboards), L. Borgia Rossetti (guitar, also of Esmectatons and Os Legais) and Leal Barroso (drums, also of Esmectatons and Zombie Cookbook). Their sole album Versículos de Autoflagelo (2021) comprises 25 short tracks forming one continuous suite steeped in free improvisation, jazz and noise traditions.

Plebeian Grandstand is a French extreme-metal band formed in Toulouse in 2005, evolving from blackened mathcore into a dissonant hybrid of avant-black metal, chaotic hardcore, noise and experimental electronica. Their promo material frames the sound as 'avant-Black Metal, chaotic Hardcore, blown-out Jazz, corrosive Noise, experimental Electronica and death Industrial.' Releases include 'False Highs, True Lows' (2016) and 'Rien ne suffit' (2021), with a lineup that includes a dedicated modular synthesist.