Red Ankh
formed 1988 · last active 2025
Red Ankh is the one-man digital/chiptune metal project of singer-songwriter and producer Shyft, running since 2004 (Denver, Colorado, formerly Minneapolis). Shyft builds each record from vocals, vocal synthesis, chiptune and physical-modeling synths, and sample libraries, cycling through black, death, power, symphonic, thrash, and folk metal alongside chiptune, gabber, gothic, industrial, dance, and trance elements -- a self-described 'industrial folk prog metal core' aimed at 'breaking down genre boundaries.' Early records (Blue, later remastered as Blue Two) were largely instrumental chiptune-metal before later albums like Red (2024) expanded the vocal and stylistic range.
SCORE PROFILE
Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.
WHY THOSE SCORES
- Death 3 — Project's own bio lists death metal explicitly among the styles the music cycles through.
- Black 3 — Project's own bio lists black metal explicitly among the styles the music cycles through.
- Technical 4 — Metal-Archives genre tag is 'Progressive Metal, Experimental Electronic/Industrial,' reflecting genre-hopping, structurally unconventional songwriting.
- Glitch 4 — Bio lists gabber and industrial among the blended styles -- both genres built on aggressive electronic distortion/edit techniques.
- Folk 3 — Project bio explicitly describes the sound as an 'industrial folk prog metal core,' and folk is separately listed among the blended genres.
- 8-bit 7 — Core album Blue (2008, remastered as Blue Two in 2011) is a dedicated chiptune-metal record confirmed on Metal-Archives, Bandcamp, and YouTube (e.g. 'Orion {Metal/Chiptune}').
MEMBERS
- Shyftall instruments, vocals, vocal synthesis, production
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
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