Quest for Blood
Quest for Blood is a Tokyo black-metal project that grew out of the band Magane (two albums, 1999 and 2003), and in 2005 began collaborating with Yukihiro Isso, heir to a 16th-century lineage of Japanese Noh-flute players. Their 2008 joint album on Ektro Records (Finland) threads Isso's nohkan, shinobue and tsunobue lines through shrieked/howled black-metal vocals and free-jazz-inflected keyboard work, landing somewhere between extreme metal, free improvisation, and classical Noh theater music. Reviewers single out the flute as no gimmick — a genuinely 'hyperkinetic' voice sitting dead-center in the compositions rather than an ornamental one.
SCORE PROFILE
Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.
WHY THOSE SCORES
- Jazzy 6 — Metal Archives review describes 'jazzy keyboard accompaniment' and a 'session flautist's dense improvisational noodling,' with the band's own label bio calling the sound a hybrid of extreme metal, free jazz, and Noh music.
- Black 6 — Metal Archives review frames the album as black metal 'pushing out against the confines of the genre,' built on shrieks/howls and fast, dense pacing; the act's roots are the black metal band Magane.
- Technical 5 — Reviews (Scaruffi bio, Metal Archives) describe the songwriting as fast, dense, and 'hyperkinetic' with the flute threaded through evolving arrangements rather than sitting as decoration.
- Folk 5 — Yukihiro Isso's nohkan, shinobue and tsunobue — instruments from a Noh-flute performance lineage dating to the 16th century — are woven through every track, per the Zero Dimensional Records Bandcamp page and Ektro Records' own bio.
MEMBERS
- Yukihiro IssoNoh flute (nohkan, shinobue, tsunobue) — collaborator
- Yomitutimember, Quest for Blood
- Kuniwomember, Quest for Blood
- Yudamember, Quest for Blood
- Itukimemember, Quest for Blood
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- UnaffiliatedEI 18Neon ScaffoldJazzyBlackTechnical
Neon Scaffold is a Russian avant-garde/blackened metal project from Sergiyev Posad, Moscow Oblast, formed in 2018 by musicians drawn from Cage of Creation, Zatemno, and Licho. Their sound mixes jazz-inflected walking bass and saxophone with dissonant, folk-rooted black metal riffing; their 2025 album Noir (Pest Productions) followed a 2020 split, Konflikt, with Polish band Gruzja.
- Norwegian avant-blackEI 16In Lingua MortuaJazzyBlackTechnical
In Lingua Mortua is a Norwegian project founded in 1999 by Lars Fredrik Frøislie, fusing 1970s progressive rock with black metal via Mellotron, Hammond organ and harmonica. Its 2010 album Salon des Refusés is frequently cited as a forerunner of the 'blackjazz' sound, featuring guest saxophone and bass clarinet from Jørgen Munkeby of Shining (Norway).
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 19FleuretyBlackJazzyTechnical
Formed in 1991 by Alexander Nordgaren and Svein Egil Hatlevik, Fleurety began as a conventional Norwegian black metal band before radically expanding its palette: Min Tid Skal Komme (1995) folded in atonal harmonics and folk elements, and Department of Apocalyptic Affairs (2000) - produced by Ulver's Kristoffer Rygg - spans metal, jazz, trip-hop and electronica. Both records leaned heavily on the Norwegian avant-garde scene for guest performers, pulling in Mayhem's Hellhammer and Maniac, Ulver's Rygg (as vocalist "G. Playa") and Tore Ylwizaker on programming, Arcturus/Winds' Steinar "Sverd" Johnsen, and Borknagar's Knut Magne Valle; a later 2009 EP brought in Mayhem's Hellhammer and Necrobutcher again alongside Thorr's Hammer vocalist Runhild Gammelsæter.
- UnaffiliatedEI 23LugubrumBlackJazzyFolk
Lugubrum are a Belgian avant-garde/experimental black metal band from Lovendegem/Ghent, active since 1992, known for their self-mythologized 'Boersk Blek Metle' (farmer black metal) persona. Longtime member Midgaars weaves banjo, mandolin, and (formerly) alto saxophone into raw black metal. Their extensive discography runs from De Vette Cuecken and Al Ghemist through to 2021's Bruyne Kroon.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 13VainaBlackTechnicalFolk
Vaina is an active Finnish avant-garde black metal project (formed by siblings in 2014) whose records braid raw black-metal riffing and shrieked/growled vocals with flute, horns, strings, choral and clean singing, and dense ambient/noise passages — critics have compared the effect to Dead Can Dance colliding with black metal. Sung entirely in Finnish, releases run from the 2017 EP Viisikärki through 2024's Unio Mystica (Aesthetic Death, UK).
- Norwegian avant-blackEI 19IhsahnBlackTechnicalJazzy
Vegard Sverre Tveitan, known as Ihsahn, is the Norwegian guitarist/vocalist of the seminal black metal band Emperor (not currently an E.M.M.A. node) who since 2006 has built an acclaimed solo catalogue blending black metal with progressive rock, industrial and free-jazz textures - most notably via saxophonist Jorgen Munkeby of Shining (Norway). He co-founded the avant-garde project Peccatum with his wife Heidi 'Ihriel' Solberg Tveitan, guested on Arcturus's 'The Sham Mirrors,' and hosted Ulver/Arcturus/Borknagar vocalist Kristoffer Rygg on his own debut. His Hardingrock side project fuses traditional Norwegian Hardanger-fiddle folk music with metal.
- UnaffiliatedEI 28夢遊病者 (Sleepwalker)BlackJazzyFolk
夢遊病者 (Sleepwalker) is a self-described 'multinational experimental black metal enigma' whose three members — credited only as PBV, NN, and KJM — are based in Osaka, Tver, and New York, composing remotely online before convening in person to record. Active since 2015 and released mainly through Oakland's Sentient Ruin Laboratories, their sound fuses raw psychedelic black metal with krautrock, free jazz, ritual folk instrumentation, and noise-rock deconstruction.
- Norwegian avant-blackEI 20SolefaldBlackTechnicalJazzy
Solefald is a Norwegian avant-garde metal duo formed in 1995 by Cornelius Jakhelln and Lars Are 'Lazare' Nedland. They build on a black-metal foundation while folding in clean vocals, piano, jazz guitar, classical passages, punk, electronic components and folk rhythms, self-described as 'Red Music With Black Edges.'
- UnaffiliatedEI 18Alkuharmonian KantajaBlackTechnicalJazzy
Alkuharmonian Kantaja are an avant-garde black metal quartet from Oulu, Finland, founded in 2020 by J. Usurper with S. Redeemer (drums) and Swiss-based D. Harbinger (keys). Their I, Voidhanger-released debut Shadowy Peripherals (2021) draws critical comparisons to 1990s Norwegian avant-prog black metal acts like Ved Buens Ende, splicing jazz, folk, and classical fragments into spitfire riffing and clean-toned synth melancholy.
- UnaffiliatedEI 22SalqiuBlackJazzyTechnical
Solo avant-garde black metal project of Portuguese multi-instrumentalist Nuno Lourenço, formed 2016 and now based in Pernambuco, Brazil. Fuses raw second-wave black metal with classical guitar duets, folk woodwinds (flute, clarinet, violin), and unexpected full jazz interludes (saxophone, trumpet, bass, tambourine); the 2022 album Pariah is a Greek-mythology concept work centered on the Fates and features bouzouki throughout its 'Greek Suite,' deliberately left unmixed as an aesthetic choice.