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Lychgate is a London-based avant-garde black/doom metal band formed around 2011-2012, built on a foundation of pipe/church organ used as the compositional backbone of every track. Their influences span late-19th/early-20th-century art music, Rock in Opposition and musique concrete. They record for Debemur Morti Productions, with a discography running from the 2013 self-titled debut through 2025's 'Precipice.'

French duo led by multi-instrumentalist Slo (guitars/drums/vocals/keys) with bassist Camille Giraudeau, playing avant-garde/progressive post-black metal descended from Emperor, Ulver, Borknagar and Ved Buens Ende. After a 12-year gap between albums, 2025's Ruina Draconis (I, Voidhanger) piles on 'extremely layered', ambient-electronic interludes between bursts of blackened violence. Giraudeau's parallel work in Dødheimsgard's touring lineup, Doedsmaghird, Stagnant Waters and Void ties Smohalla directly into the same avant-black/noise diaspora.

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Biesy is a Kraków trio formed in 2014 around guitarist/bassist PR, joined by vocalist Stawrogin (also of Odraza, Totenmesse) and drummer MP (also of Outre), taking their concept from Dostoevsky's Demons and the alienation of urban life. Their 2017 debut Noc Lekkich Obyczajów (Third Eye Temple) delivers dissonant, disjointed black/death riffing compared to Ulcerate, Deathspell Omega, Immolation and Gorguts. The 2020 follow-up Transsatanizm (Godz ov War Productions) pushed further into avant-garde territory, layering industrial synths and looping electro beats over blackened riffs, described by reviewers as 'avangardish, industrial-infused post-rock/post-black.'

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Xenoch is a solo New York City black-metal project stacking bardo-metal dissonance against chamber music, modern classical, and free-jazz textures. 2023's 'poison lotus corpse pearl' pairs blackened death riffing with classical and free-jazz Bandcamp tags across five sprawling 'sign' movements, while 2026's 'Shedding Broken Shells like Feathers' pushes further into electroacoustic, glitch, and xenharmonic/microtonal territory. Dense, philosophical liner notes about the 'abolition of the temporal dimension' frame the project as bedroom avant-garde black metal rather than a full band.

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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.

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.

Void is a UK avant-garde/fringe metal project active since 1999, built around founding member and guitarist/vocalist Matt Jarman. Press consistently bills the band as 'avant-garde metal pioneers,' fusing black, death and industrial metal with noise, electronica and post-metal songwriting, citing touchstones from Dødheimsgard and Emperor to Aphex Twin and Venetian Snares. The current lineup grew directly out of Dødheimsgard's 2019 'Void Dancers' tour, and features musicians who also play in Dødheimsgard and Doedsmaghird. Their fourth album, Jadjow (2023, Brucia Records), was co-written by that touring lineup.

UK avant-garde black metal collective from Northampton (active 2014-2019), fronted by Denigrata Herself and built around dual operatic/harsh vocals, mechanised industrial drum programming, piano and ambient synth textures under a symphonic black-metal core. Their sole full-length, Missa Defunctorum: Requiem Mass in A Minor (2015), self-tags 'ambient, glitch, noir concrête' and drew Blut aus Nord/Anaal Nathrakh comparisons for its atmospheric density.

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Porta Nigra is a German avant-garde black metal band founded in Koblenz in 2010 by Gilles deRais (guitars, bass) and drummer/vocalist O., who recorded the first two albums as a duo before expanding to a full band. Their concept records — Fin de Siècle (2012), Kaiserschnitt (2015), Schöpfungswut (2020) and Weltende (2023), the last inspired by World War I — move between straightforward black metal fury and more psychedelic, spoken-word-laced detours, released through Soulseller Records. Guitarist Gilles deRais has described the project as a way of channeling 'old spirits' through the music.

Blackholepit is a one-off industrial/black-metal side-project by Venezuelan producer Federico Ágreda (Zardonic), released as the free 2008 album 'Portals' on Death To Music Productions. Described by the artist as 'the most metal of all his projects,' it mixes black metal atmospheres with industrial soundscapes, dark ambient textures, and IDM/electronic production across nine tracks including 'Angiel,' 'Blackhole,' and 'Solitude.'

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