夢遊病者 (Sleepwalker)

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.

Frozen Lakes On Marsplay in the dock

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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.

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).

Golden Cat Pagoda (金猫塔) is a one-man experimental black metal project founded by an artist known as 张 in early 2020, originally based in Shanghai and now working from Vancouver. The project fuses modern black metal's raw hostility with free jazz, ambience, and avant-garde structures, drawing lyrical and conceptual material from folktales of China's Sichuan-Chongqing (Chuan Yu) region. Its 2021 debut album 'Entropy' (熵) was released through the Chinese label Pest Productions and was followed by 'Mí Mí' (弥弥) in 2022, described as incorporating traditional Chinese drumming into hypnotic atmospheric passages.

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.'

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.

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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.

Gallows' Forest is the solo Hungarian project of JesterOfDestiny, active since 2018 and built around black metal fused with electronic programming and sampled/traditional instrumentation. Across the self-titled debut, Cerulean, and Cosmic Leviathan, Bandcamp credits confirm real didgeridoo, jaw harp, and a sampled koto performance by guest Sachiko Yoshihara layered into the black-metal base, alongside a stated focus on 'the exploration of electronic soundscapes.' The project also released a 2019 split with fellow atlas act Q'uq'umatz, Waxaklahun Ubah Kan.

Thy Catafalque is a Hungarian avant-garde/experimental metal project formed in Makó in 1998, essentially the solo vehicle of multi-instrumentalist Tamás Kátai. Its music fuses atmospheric instrumental writing, Hungarian folk melodies and electronics with a post-black-metal core, ranging from fragile ambient passages to harsh metal. Signed to Season of Mist since 2011, the project is known for shape-shifting albums that draw on folklore, rock and electronic textures.

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.