Staurophagia

Blut aus Nord is a French avant-garde black metal project from Mondeville, formed 1994 by Vindsval, evolving toward dissonant, industrialized and 'black hole metal' territory on The Work Which Transforms God (2003) and MoRT (2006). Later work such as Hallucinogen (2019) shifts into shoegaze-y, melodic and psychedelic territory. The band explicitly rejects black-metal orthodoxy in favor of an atmospheric 'artistic concept.'

One-man experimental black metal/noise/dark-ambient project from Arlington, Virginia, active since the mid-2000s, self-releasing a run of CDs before signing to Flingco Sound System for Oneiromantical War (2008) and Myrmidon (2009). The project layers dense, guitar-driven noise with buried vocals and programmed drums, veering between thrash-punk combustion and extended dark-ambient passages; reviewers note closing tracks that build from acoustic beginnings into twenty-minute noise excursions.

Locrian are an American experimental trio formed in late 2005 in Chicago by André Foisy and Terence Hannum, with drummer Steven Hess joining permanently in 2010. AllMusic characterizes their sound as an eclectic mixture of black metal, electronics, drone and noise rock, shot through with ambient and industrial textures and dystopic, apocalyptic imagery. In 2012 they made the collaborative album Bless Them That Curse You with Mamiffer, released on Profound Lore alongside Sige and Utech.

Kyomdarak is a Japanese atmospheric/experimental black metal project from Gifu Prefecture, active since 2007 with a large self-released Bandcamp catalog (kyomdarak.bandcamp.com). Its sound favors drum-machine-driven rhythmic patterns, warbling synth atmospherics, and low-key drones layered under raw black-metal riffing rather than blast-beat aggression. Albums include "mugen" (2016), "Night and Sleep," and "A new ecosystem" (2024).

Caged Bastard is the solo project of Tunisian multi-instrumentalist Muhammad Oun (Bizerte, Tunisia), formed in 2018 as a blackened hardcore/grindcore act before evolving since 2019 into a broader fusion of black metal, sludge, drone, noise and ambient textures. Oun writes, performs, records, mixes and masters all material himself. Releases include "Inhumane Intentions" (2024), "Solace in Virtue's Absence" and "Mantra of Psychological Violence."

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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.

Dargar is a Los Angeles-based experimental black metal studio project by Pete Majors (vocals/guitars, also of Harassor) and James Brown III, aka Horus (programming/mixing/editing; the solo USBM artist behind the Rising Beast label/archive). The project's name is an inside joke referencing Marc Singer's 'Dar' (The Beastmaster) and Sam Elliott's 'Gar' (Mask). Songs were built by having Horus program drum-machine beats in GarageBand, Majors improvise guitar/vocals over them, then Horus sample and loop those fragments into finished compositions — yielding a lo-fi, glitchy, ambient-tinged black metal sound. The debut was recorded in 2006 and released on cassette in 2012 (100 copies); a second collection, The Shores of Space, followed in 2017.

Solo raw black metal project of Ottawa multi-instrumentalist Jessica Kinney, running since 2016 across roughly eight releases including full-lengths and splits. The sound layers harsh, noise-caked black metal against warped, decayed ambient passages, earning press comparisons to Sutekh Hexen, Gnaw, and dark-ambient artist The Caretaker. Albums build a recurring retro-futuristic, dystopian mythos described by Vice as 'Metropolis meets Victorian death cult.'

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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.

Havohej ('Jehovah' backwards) is the long-running solo black metal/noise project of Paul Ledney (Profanatica, ex-Incantation), formed in New York in 1993 after Profanatica's initial breakup. Debut 'Dethrone the Son of God' (Candlelight Records, 1993) re-worked unreleased Profanatica material into raw satanic black metal with grindcore and ambient touches, and reissues plus later albums like 'Kembatinan Premaster' (2009) and 'Table of Uncreation' (2019) have pushed further into industrial black noise and ritual ambient territory via Hells Headbangers.