Schammasch
Switzerland · formed 2009 · last active 2024
Schammasch are a Basel, Switzerland avant-garde black metal band formed in 2009, named for the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash. Beginning in black/death territory, they grew increasingly experimental, peaking with the triple-album Triangle (2016) whose final disc is pure ambient, and Hearts of No Light (2019), which folds clean/post-punk vocals and ritualistic dark-ambient into their black-metal core. Occultism, spirituality and surrealism thread their long-form, atmosphere-first releases on Prosthetic Records.
SCORE PROFILE
Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.
WHY THOSE SCORES
- Black 7 — Core identity is avant-garde black metal — winding tremolo/blast black-metal passages across the catalog (Wikipedia; Angry Metal Guy).
- Technical 4 — Sprawling multi-disc, multi-movement avant-garde compositions demand considerable structural complexity (Wikipedia).
- Drone 3 — Ritualistic sustained ambient/drone passages frame the black-metal material (Angry Metal Guy).
- Ambient 5 — Triangle (2016) devoted an entire disc to ambient soundscapes and Hearts of No Light closes with a long ritualistic dark-ambient outro (Angry Metal Guy; Invisible Oranges).
MEMBERS
- C.S.R.vocals, guitars
- B.A.W.drums
- M.A.guitars
- J.B.guitars· also in Ritual Cairn
- P.D.bass
CONNECTIONS
- Alcestpath →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork) and Alcest's "Écailles De Lune" (2010, Layout). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- Blut aus Nordpath →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Blut aus Nord's "777 - Cosmosophy" (2012, Artwork) and Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- Carnival in Coalpath →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork) and Carnival in Coal's "Collection Prestige" (2005, Photography By [Pictures]). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- Igorrrpath →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork) and Igorrr's "Savage Sinusoid" (2017, Artwork). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- Kostnatěnípath →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork) and Kostnatění's "Přílišnost (Excess)" (2025, Cover, Design). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- Lychgatepath →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork) and Lychgate's "Precipice" (2025, Design [Wheel Symbol By]). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- Nightmarersatellitepath →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork) and Nightmarer's "Cacophony of Terror" (2018, Artwork, Layout). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- Porta Nigrapath →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork) and Porta Nigra's "Kaiserschnitt" (2015, Artwork [Cover Artwork]). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- The Bodypath →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork) and The Body's "xoroAHbin" (2015, Artwork). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- Ulver (electronic era)path →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Ulver (electronic era)'s "The Norwegian National Opera" (2011, Design) and Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- Vampilliapath →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork) and Vampillia's "xoroAHbin" (2015, Artwork). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- Wormfoodpath →
Both bands' cover art/design work was done by Metastazis (Valnoir's Paris design studio, Discogs artist id 1844235): Wormfood's "France" (2005, Artwork) and Schammasch's "Sic Lvceat Lvx" (2015, Cover, Artwork). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) — Metastazis is not an atlas band so there is no anchor band. source ↗
- Gnaw Their Tonguespath →
Shared label roster: Prosthetic Records, per MusicBrainz. source ↗
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- UnaffiliatedEI 9TitaanBlackAmbientTechnical
Titaan is the one-man occult black metal project of Italian musician Lalartu, based in Trieste, built around a conceptual exploration of ancient Mesopotamian mythology across Kadingir (2016) and ITIMA (2020). The project fuses aggressive second-wave black metal with dark ambient textures and ritualistic vocal chanting, aiming for a 'cinematic' rather than song-based listening experience. Releases are issued via the Italian label ATMF.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13Grave GnosisBlackAmbientDrone
Grave Gnosis is a ritualistic occult black metal band from St. Petersburg, Florida, formed in 2015, rooted in Theistic Satanism, framing its recording sessions as literal ritual and trance work.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13Echo ZeroBlackAmbientTechnical
Echo Zero is a Kraków project that debuted in 2026 with "E0," a concept album about an antenna recovered from the Arctic Ocean floor — "the first rung of Jacob's Ladder" — released on Pest Productions. No Clean Singing folded the band into Poland's long tradition of weird black metal, praising its mind-warping ambient stretches, groove-heavy riffs, prowling bass, and "constantly-mutating" multi-tongued vocal performance that never lets the strangeness dull the aggression. The project is led by IHS (Patryk Rzeszutek, aka Faustyna IHS Moreau), also the mainman of atlas act Biesy.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13Jute GyteBlackAmbientTechnical
Jute Gyte is the prolific solo project of Adam Kalmbach, based in Springfield, Missouri, best known for pioneering microtonal black metal on guitars retuned to 24-tone equal temperament, so that unfamiliar intervals create shimmering, dislocating interference patterns. Kalmbach fuses the black-metal template with classical serialism, dark ambient and industrial textures, and releases a parallel stream of purely electronic/ambient 'synth music in a variety of tunings.' Records himself, doesn't tour, and runs the project as an avowedly antifascist enterprise that channels sales to mutual-aid causes.
- UnaffiliatedEI 14ScarcityBlackAmbientTechnical
Experimental/atmospheric black metal duo from Brooklyn, New York, formed by multi-instrumentalist Brendon Randall-Myers (conductor of the Glenn Branca Ensemble) and vocalist Doug Moore (Pyrrhon). Their 2022 debut 'Aveilut,' released on The Flenser, is a single 45-minute composition built on post-Branca microtonal guitar and cinematic, orchestral scope, written as a requiem for pandemic-era grief. Critics place it alongside Jute Gyte and Krallice; it was engineered by Colin Marston.
- UnaffiliatedEI 14Sea MosquitoBlackAmbientDrone
London's Sea Mosquito wrap raw black metal in ambient synth haze and echo-drenched production, favoring atmospheric wash over riff-forward songwriting - tremolo guitar and drums function as background texture behind cascading, almost lead-like drumming. Their 2025 album Majestas (I, Voidhanger Records) explores religious ecstasy across cultures, with harsh vocals occasionally giving way to spoken passages in English and Arabic. They sit closer to psychedelic/atmospheric black metal than to the death-metal-adjacent avant-garde acts on this chart, but the noise-and-texture-first approach is exactly the kind of unorthodox BM the label built its name on.
- UnaffiliatedEI 10Omega CentauriBlackAmbient
Omega Centauri is a UK-based atmospheric black metal project built around multi-instrumentalist Tom Vallely, blending glacial tremolo-riff black metal with dark ambient textures, doom-paced passages, and cinematic post-rock swells. Recorded piecemeal between 2006 and 2011, debut Universum Infinitum favors slow-burn atmosphere and philosophical/theological themes over aggression. The project sits in the same cold-and-spacious atmospheric black metal lineage as labelmates on Duplicate Records.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13Hail Spirit NoirBlackAmbientTechnical
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.
- UnaffiliatedEI 7Ôros KaùBlackTechnicalDrone
Ôros Kaù is the solo black/death metal outlet of Belgian multi-instrumentalist CZLT (also of Sol Kia and Neptunian Maximalism), built from a self-described 'inner existential crisis' and steeped in occult Hermetic imagery. Across Imperii Templum Aries (2020) and Thanatos (2023) the project folds drone and psychedelic passages — including a Pink Floyd cover — into otherwise violent, blast-driven black metal. Vocals are handled by fellow Belgian musician Déhà, tying the project into Brussels' small experimental extreme-metal circle.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 4De Magia VeterumsatelliteBlackTechnical
De Magia Veterum is the guitar-driven black metal outlet of Dutch multi-instrumentalist Maurice "Mories" de Jong, founded in 2003 as a dedicated counterpart to his more electronic/drone-leaning project Gnaw Their Tongues. Across five studio albums released between 2005 and 2017 (Spikes Through Eyes, Migdal Bavel, The Divine Antithesis, The Deification, Naked Swords into the Wombs of the Enemy) the project pursues dissonant, atonal black metal steeped in esoteric and biblical imagery. De Jong self-releases the project through his own label Transcendental Creations and hosts it on the shared Gnaw Their Tongues Bandcamp alongside his other aliases Aderlating, Cloak of Altering and Seirom.