Remmirath

Hail Spirit Noir is a Greek band from Thessaloniki (formed 2010) that welds 1970s psychedelic and progressive rock — vintage organ, synth and mellotron textures — onto a modern second-wave black metal frame. Founded by Haris and Theoharis, both veterans of the prog outfit Rex Mundi and the avant/symphonic project Transcending Bizarre?, the band cultivates an occult, horror-tinged atmosphere across concept albums, drifting further into synth-forward territory on Eden in Reverse. Frequently filed alongside Oranssi Pazuzu and Arcturus as psychedelic/avant-garde black metal.

The Sprawlcosm was a Vienna, Austria act active 1999-2005 (performing as Sprawl until 2001) that fused black metal's blast beats and shrieked vocals with industrial/EBM electronics, oriental-tinged scales, and jazz-adjacent touches. Their sole full-length, Cybionic Black Art (Silverhead Records, Dec 2000), juxtaposed programmed industrial textures and harsh black metal aggression with acoustic guitar and symphonic keyboard passages.

Norwegian avant-garde project (1998-2006) from Notodden founded by Ihsahn (Emperor), his wife Ihriel and her brother Lord PZ, on their own Mnemosyne Productions. It began as symphonic avant-garde extreme metal and drifted toward classical-tinged avant-garde rock full of twisted synths, electronics, operatic female vocals and Ihsahn's shrieks. Lost in Reverie (2004) is regarded as a landmark of the genre-transcending Norwegian avant-garde.

Jumalhämärä ('Twilight of the Gods') is an experimental black metal band from Lahti, Finland, active since 1996 and currently signed to Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions. Their sound folds droning sustained tones, Gregorian-chant choirs, and folk-tinged interludes into a black metal chassis, most audible on the 18-minute Songless Shores EP where bell tones give way to psychedelic drift.

Resignaatio (full album)play in the dock

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Book of Sand is the solo black metal project of Minneapolis musician dcrf, active since 2009 and aligned with the anarchist/antifascist 'red and black metal' (RABM) scene. Each release deliberately shifts genre — a Javanese gamelan/black-metal fusion, an Appalachian-folk-inflected record, an avant-garde jazz excursion, and the surf-rock-tinged 'garage goth' EP 'Postmodern Witchcraft' (2018) — unified by leftist lyrical themes.

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.'

Thorne was a short-lived experimental/atmospheric black metal band from Río Gallegos, Argentina, that recorded one demo (Until Their Ruins Be Our Trench, 2013) and one full-length, Ekpyrosis & Restitutio in Pristinum Status, released as a limited cassette in 2017 by Brotherhood of Light Recordings. The album mixes Spanish-language black metal with lengthy instrumental passages and a lute-song arrangement of Renaissance composer John Dowland's 'Grief'. The band split up after this release.

10:13 is the solo, largely instrumental black-metal vehicle of Southern California multi-instrumentalist Neil Carter, self-released through his own Unclebaby Records since 2019. Debut album "Result of an Iron Age" splices black-metal riffing with acoustic sylvan guitar, out-of-tune harmonica, organ and trip-hop-tinged samples into what one reviewer called "a piece broken down rather than a collection woven together," drawing comparisons to Arcturus' more deranged moments. Carter cites Camper Van Beethoven, Philip Glass and Gentle Giant alongside black-metal names like Xasthur and Darkspace as touchstones, and brought in prog-rock keyboardist Derek Sherinian and guitarist Mario Romero as guests.

Holdlajtorja is a Hungarian project from Zalaegerszeg formed in 2018 by figures from the country's black metal underground - guitarist/songwriter Inmar (also of Vorkuta), vocalist Kryptagonist (also of Leiru and SIR), and Vorgrov (also of Marblebog and Asattarn). Named for a Lovecraftian vision from At the Mountains of Madness and sung in Hungarian, the band trades blast-beat orthodoxy for slow-unfurling, dark-ambient soundscapes laced with unusual string instruments and 'oriental' melodic passages. Their 2024 debut full-length Arcana et Tenebrae (Sun & Moon Records) was described by reviewers as 'Dark Ambient Avant Garde Music with Black Metal's constant intervention.'

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Runhild Gammelsæter is a Norwegian vocalist who is also a professional biologist holding a Ph.D. in cell physiology. She first drew notice fronting the American doom band Thorr's Hammer, which she joined at 17 alongside Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, and later co-formed the duo/trio Khlyst with James Plotkin. Her 2008 solo debut Amplicon (Utech Records) is built almost entirely from her own voice, warped with effects, with each track founded on a scientific, largely biologic theme conceived as a soundtrack to the cycle of the universe. Her voice ranges from the death-metal growls of her Thorr's Hammer work to unnerving, art-inflected experimental singing.