Porta Nigra

Nomicon was a Helsinki act led by vocalist/bassist Tommi Launonen (Ceasar), moving from an early death/thrash sound into symphonic, atmospheric black metal by the 2001 album Halla, drawing comparisons to The Kovenant's Nexus Polaris but 'enriched with more deeply doomy atmospherics.' The band drew on a deep bench of Finnish extreme-metal talent, including guitarist Roope Latvala (later Children of Bodom), rhythm guitarist Miika Niemela (Shape of Despair), female vocalist Tanya Kemppainen (Lullacry), and drummer Yka 'Agathon' (Barathrum). A Metal Archives review characterizes Halla's keyboard-led sound as a 'misanthropic baroque celebration' anchored by 'apocalyptic witch-esque rasps.'

Amthrya is an Italian avant-garde death/black metal band founded by guitarist-drummer Barry Yukimura and fronted by vocalist Kasumi Onryō. Their 2022 concept album Passage (Ad Noctem Records/Drakkar Productions), recorded at Black Church studio in Ghemme, Italy, is built around Japanese mythological horror themes of demons and vengeful spirits, rendered through extended, dissonant, depressive-tinged compositions. Guest vocalist Clode of Tethra appears on the title track.

Shining is a Swedish depressive/suicidal black metal band formed by Niklas Kvarforth in 1996 — a genuinely distinct entity from the atlas's Norwegian blackjazz Shining (shining-norway). Musically it is rooted in DSBM with early doom influences, gradually adopting clean guitars, solos and odd meters as it drifted toward progressive extreme metal, its avant-garde credentials thinner than most atlas nodes. Its most 'experimental' dimension is arguably Kvarforth's notorious confrontational stagecraft (self-mutilation, razor-blade distribution). Personnel overlap with Mayhem and Arcturus is significant.

Titaan is the one-man occult black metal project of Italian musician Lalartu, based in Trieste, built around a conceptual exploration of ancient Mesopotamian mythology across Kadingir (2016) and ITIMA (2020). The project fuses aggressive second-wave black metal with dark ambient textures and ritualistic vocal chanting, aiming for a 'cinematic' rather than song-based listening experience. Releases are issued via the Italian label ATMF.

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Old Man's Child is a Norwegian symphonic/melodic black metal band formed in Oslo in 1993 (out of the earlier death/thrash outfit Requiem), and effectively the vehicle of sole permanent member Galder (Thomas Rune Andersen), who later also joined Dimmu Borgir. Their sound welds tremolo-driven melodic black metal to early-death-metal influence and symphonic keyboard orchestration, with a classic lineup that included drummer Tjodalv and guitarist Jardar. For the third album, Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion (1998), Galder brought in American drummer Gene Hoglan as a session player, recording at Sunlight Studio in Sweden with Tomas Skogsberg.

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Hasard is a French dissonant/avant-garde black metal project by the musician Hazard, an offshoot of his prior orchestral/classical one-man project Les Chants du Hasard. Debut album Malivore (I, Voidhanger Records, 2023) inverts that project's formula, building chaotic, dissonant black metal shot through with classical/orchestral flourishes, piano guest work from John Steven Morgan of Wreche, and comparisons to early Ævangelist, Abyssal and Blut Aus Nord. A follow-up, Abgnose, was released in 2025, also on I, Voidhanger.

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Grave Gnosis is a ritualistic occult black metal band from St. Petersburg, Florida, formed in 2015, rooted in Theistic Satanism, framing its recording sessions as literal ritual and trance work.

Ôros Kaù is the solo black/death metal outlet of Belgian multi-instrumentalist CZLT (also of Sol Kia and Neptunian Maximalism), built from a self-described 'inner existential crisis' and steeped in occult Hermetic imagery. Across Imperii Templum Aries (2020) and Thanatos (2023) the project folds drone and psychedelic passages — including a Pink Floyd cover — into otherwise violent, blast-driven black metal. Vocals are handled by fellow Belgian musician Déhà, tying the project into Brussels' small experimental extreme-metal circle.

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Osculum Serpentis ('Kiss of the Serpent') is a French one-man raw/vampiric black metal project from Paris, formed in 2022 by Maxime Taccardi under the alias Vipera, who handles all guitars, bass, synth, drums, and vocals. In roughly two years the project released a striking run of material — Maleficia (2023), The Curse of the Vampyre (2023), Miseria (2024), Satanā (2024, Giin Productions), Vampyre Lord (2024), and The Streams of Sorrow (2025) — steeped in the primitivist Légions Noires lineage but pushed toward theatrical excess: Vipera deploys 'a multitude of demonic voices' compared to Attila Csihar's ceremonial delivery, layered over dark-ambient, cinematic textures amid the raw riffing. Reviewers have called it 'sheer diabolic Black Metal extravaganza,' an 'epic, even flamboyant' take on vampiric/occult raw black metal.

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Saprovore is the solo industrial black/death metal project of an Italian musician also known for the band Strigiform, released through I, Voidhanger Records. His album 'Numinous Abditory Deflagration' (2026) is described by the artist as exploring 'cosmic emptiness' with a more refined, symphonic-leaning songwriting approach than his debut 'Unuttered Aporetic Omen.' Cited influences include Gnaw Their Tongues, Jute Gyte, Blut Aus Nord, and Thantifaxath (stated influences, not collaborations).