Pyrithe
Pyrithe are a Pittsburgh, US experimental sludge/post-metal band whose 2022 Gilead Media debut Monuments to Impermanence smears sludge and doom across noise, ambient, post-rock, hardcore and black-metal extremes. The trio treat the studio as a junk-shop orchestra, folding a Finnish kantele, coconuts, egg-shakers and literal trash into their whirlwind, avant-garde compositions. It is a savage, absurdist 'strange symphony' that stays coherent despite trying to do everything at once.
SCORE PROFILE
Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.
WHY THOSE SCORES
- Hardcore 5 — Whirlwind compositions carry hardcore/grind intensity alongside the sludge base (Angry Metal Guy and Everything Is Noise reviews; Gilead Media tags).
- Death 3 — Extreme-metal vocals and abrasive riffing pull toward death/black extremity, reinforced by guest vocals from Pyrrhon's Doug Moore (Invisible Oranges; Gilead Media).
- Black 4 — Reviews and the label tag black metal among the genre-bending elements woven through the record (Gilead Media Bandcamp tags).
- Technical 6 — Sprawling, genre-collapsing avant-garde arrangements that 'do it all' yet avoid clutter — dense, shifting compositions (Angry Metal Guy review).
- Folk 4 — Incorporates a kantele (Nordic folk zither) plus coconuts, egg-shakers and literal trash as tuned/found instrumentation (RYM/reviews of Monuments to Impermanence).
- Doom 6 — Foundation is heavy, crushing sludge/doom riffing described as among the 'nastiest' in recent memory (multiple reviews; Gilead Media tags).
- Ambient 4 — Balances the heaviness with ambient, post-rock and noise/art-rock atmospheres and interludes (reviews; Gilead Media tags).
MEMBERS
- Zakk 'Wiz' Westonbass, contrabass, synths, vocals
- John Kerrdrums, guitars, synths, vocals (multi-instrumentalist)
- Zach Millerguitars, synths
CONNECTIONS
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- Post-metalEI 17NeurosisDoomHardcoreTechnical
Neurosis is an American post-metal band formed in December 1985 in Oakland, California, founding a genre by fusing hardcore punk roots with heavy, atmospheric, slow-building song structures on landmark albums such as Through Silver in Blood (1996) and Times of Grace (1999). The band runs its own label, Neurot Recordings, and maintains the experimental ambient alter ego Tribes of Neurot, which comprises the same members. Co-founder Scott Kelly was expelled in 2019 after the band learned of his domestic abuse, which he publicly admitted in August 2022 before retiring from music. In 2024 Aaron Turner (Isis, Sumac) joined on guitar and vocals, and the band surprise-released the album An Undying Love for a Burning World in March 2026.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 16ArriverTechnicalDoomHardcore
Long-running unsigned Chicago 'pan-metal' quartet whose four albums (Vanlandingham and Zone 2006, Tsushima 2012, Emeritus 2016, Azimuth 2023) each pursue long-form, genre-hopping narrative songwriting — magisterial doom/prog riffage alongside jazzy slow-builds, kraut-trance rhythms, shoegaze-tinted codas, Americana melodicism and post-hardcore intensity, often within a single track. Metal Archives lists their genre as 'Various' for good reason.
- UnaffiliatedEI 9GrayceonTechnicalDoomFolk
Grayceon are a San Francisco progressive-metal trio formed in 2005, built around Jackie Perez Gratz's electric cello and vocals alongside Max Doyle's guitar and Zack Farwell's drums, releasing through Vendlus and later Profound Lore on records such as All We Destroy (2011). The cello-forward lineup fuses thrash and doom heaviness with chamber-folk melody. Perez Gratz also plays in Giant Squid, with whom Grayceon shared a 2007 split, and has collaborated widely across the Bay Area scene, including with Neurosis.
- UnaffiliatedEI 27DeddomTechnicalHardcoreAmbient
Deddom is the solo vehicle of Andrii, a one-man 'orchestra' from Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine active since 2018, who plays every instrument himself: guitars, bass, drums, saxophone, piano, harmonica, jaw harp, synths and field recordings. His Bandcamp catalogue is tagged across free jazz, grindcore, noise, drone, ambient and math, and reviewers have described his long-form, aging-themed pieces as spanning 'black metal, free jazz, ambient, and more.'
- UnaffiliatedEI 13The Canyon ObserverDoomHardcoreTechnical
The Canyon Observer are a Slovenian quintet formed in 2011 whose experimental post-metal fuses black metal, noise, doom and sludge with delicate atmospheric passages into something 'chaotic, deranged and powerfully disorienting'. Across the FVCK (2015) and NØLL (2018) LPs on Kapa Records they alternate crushing heaviness with hallucinatory atmosphere, staged live amid fog and strobes. Their experimentalism lives largely in noise and genre-collapse rather than any single exotic ingredient.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13ThanatoSchizOTechnicalDoomAmbient
A Portuguese progressive death/doom act from Vila Real, active 1997-2011 (as Thanatos until 2001), that pushed from straightforward death metal into an increasingly atmospheric, doom-tinged and progressive direction across five albums. Dual male/female vocals (Guilhermino Martins and Patrícia Rodrigues) traded off over jazzy detours, Middle-Eastern-flavored guitar-and-keyboard passages, and dreamlike, trance-inducing keyboard textures, drawing comparisons to Porcupine Tree and Lacuna Coil before disbanding in 2011.
- UnaffiliatedEI 9In the Woods...TechnicalDoomBlack
In the Woods... are a Norwegian avant-garde/progressive metal band from Kristiansand, formed in 1992 from the early Green Carnation lineup. Their debut 'Heart of the Ages' helped shape pagan black metal before the band evolved toward atmospheric, progressive and doom-leaning territory across 'Omnio' and later records, with clean and female vocals broadening the palette. After disbanding in 2000 they reformed in 2014 and continue releasing through Debemur Morti Productions.
- Kayo Dot-verseEI 17maudlin of the WellTechnicalDoomHardcore
maudlin of the Well (stylized lowercase, often abbreviated motW) was an avant-garde metal band from Boston formed in 1996 around the songwriting core of Toby Driver, guitarist Greg Massi and lyricist Jason Byron. Across the 1999 debut My Fruit PsychoBells... A Seed Combustible and the 2001 companion albums Bath and Leaving Your Body Map, they braided death and doom metal with jazz horns, clean female and male vocals, chamber textures and ambient passages. The group dissolved in 2002 and Driver reconstituted the project as Kayo Dot; motW later reunited to record the fan-funded Part the Second (2009).
- Estradasphere / MimicryEI 12Deserts of TraunTechnicalHardcoreDeath
The Deserts of Traun (stylized TRAUN) is an experimental, multi-genre metal project from Santa Barbara, California, founded and largely composed by drummer Dave Murray, formerly of Estradasphere. Its self-titled 2003 debut features Murray on numerous instruments alongside contributions from Estradasphere guitarist Jason Schimmel and others, blending metal, jazz, progressive rock and soundtrack styles. Murray later carried the project's polyrhythmic-metal sensibility into High Castle Teleorkestra.
- Dissonant tech-deathEI 12Celtic FrostDoomBlackHardcore
Celtic Frost were a hugely influential Swiss extreme-metal band formed in 1984 by Tom Gabriel Fischer (Tom G. Warrior) and Martin Eric Ain out of the ashes of Hellhammer. Across landmark records — Morbid Tales, To Mega Therion and especially the wildly eclectic Into the Pandemonium (1987), which laced metal with orchestral, operatic, industrial and gothic elements — they became a foundational avant-garde/proto-black/proto-death act, closing their career with the doom-drenched Monotheist (2006). Warrior carried the sound forward into the later band Triptykon; the group is a genuine, distinct pioneer, not a redundancy with any atlas node.