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Khlyst is an American experimental drone/doom project formed in New York in 2006, built around guitarist James Plotkin (Khanate, OLD, Phantomsmasher), Norwegian vocalist Runhild Gammelsæter (Thorr's Hammer), and drummer Tim Wyskida (Khanate, Blind Idiot God). Their sole album, the dually-titled "Chaos Is My Name" / "Kaos er mitt navn," was released by Hydra Head Records in October 2006. Across eight Roman-numeral-titled pieces it alternates Gammelsæter's shrieked, free-form vocals with eerie ambient guitar and percussion soundscapes.

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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The Body are an American experimental-metal duo — guitarist/vocalist Chip King and drummer/programmer Lee Buford — formed in 1999 in Providence, Rhode Island. They fuse crushing doom and sludge with harsh noise, power electronics, programmed beats, samples and gospel/choral arrangements into a bleak, overwhelming sound, and rank among the most prolific collaborators in heavy music (Full of Hell, Thou, Uniform, BIG|BRAVE and many more). Chip King's piercing shriek and Buford's electronic production make them a cornerstone of modern experimental metal.

Overmars was a French post-metal band active from 2001 to 2011, formed in Lyon around vocalist Xavier Théret, guitarists Antoine Simon and Pierrick Marin, bassist Marion Leclerc, drummer Benjamin Pic, and keyboardist Tiphaine Coudert. Their 2005 debut Affliction, Endocrine... Vertigo (Candlelight Records) fused doom, industrial, gothic rock, death and black metal into an oppressive, droning, oftentimes sludgy whole, while 2007's Born Again stretched that approach into a single 40-minute piece that NME later named among its 'Twenty Heaviest (Metal) Records of All Time.'

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Ghostmass (大鬼眾) is a Beijing improvisation collective formed in 2021 from a shared passion for drone, doom, and extreme metal, filtered through harsh noise and free improvisation. Reviewer Michael Scharf (Outside Noise) describes their 2024 album 'Ghost Meditation' as evolving from chaotic noise toward a more structured, doom-metal-inspired sound, with anguished throat-singing-style vocals over grating feedback and power electronics. The lineup draws members from Beijing noise-rock scene acts Carsick Cars and Soviet Pop.

Beneath the Sod is the solo funeral/industrial doom project of Irish musician Ray Keenaghan (Wreck of the Hesperus), formed 2017. Releases include Circling the Drain (2017, Fort Evil Fruit), the split cassette Transmorphic Eye (2018, with Crypticum), and a self-titled 2021 EP on Cursed Monk Records described as harsh, synth-laced industrial doom metal with guest vocals from Richard Carson.

Thralldom is the long-running studio project of Ryan Lipynsky (aka Killusion, also of Unearthly Trance) and Jared Turinsky (aka Jaldagar), formed on Long Island, NY in 1997. Deliberately never a live band, Thralldom trades in a blackened dark metal that folds in noise, drone, and industrial texture - 2006's 'A Shaman Steering the Vessel of Vastness' was reviewed for its 'lo-fi drone and dread' and 'doom-laden ambience,' built from what its label describes as 'an amalgam of half-tuned radio channels, machine noises, and shamanistic repetition.' The project returned in 2016 after a decade away with 'Time Will Bend Into Horror,' balancing that same experimentalism against tighter riff-craft.

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Solo vehicle of German musician Leonhard von Stein (Eichstätt, Bavaria), prolific 2013-2016 across Stonehill and Cosmic Gates Records (Rise of the Behemoth, Of Silence and Tears, The Taste of Mankind, Buried in Blood, Tropfen, Sun EP, Lightforger). German-language reviews (metal.de) place the project 'at the intersection of black metal, drone, doom, psychedelic, electro and jazz' — instrumental 'headphone cinema' of guitar noise-cascades, jazzy rhythms, melancholic piano/strings, sitar, electronic beats and extensively explored drones, plus a heavily processed EBM/electro mode on other releases.

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Bethlehem are a German black/doom band formed in Grevenbroich in 1991 by Jürgen Bartsch and Klaus Matton. Their 1994 debut Dark Metal gave an entire subgenre its name, welding black metal's tremolo and shriek to doom's crawl plus violin, piano and keyboard for a uniquely desolate, avant-garde atmosphere. Later records pushed further into Suicidal/Depressive Black Metal territory and, briefly, electronic Neue Deutsche Härte.

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James Plotkin is an American guitarist, bassist and producer who has been a fixture of extreme and experimental music since the late 1980s, moving from grindcore into drone metal, industrial, noise and dark ambient. He co-founded the extreme-doom band Khanate in 2000 with fellow OLD member Alan Dubin, and played guitar and guitar-synth in Mick Harris's project Scorn from 1994 to 1997. Beyond his own bands he is one of the scene's busiest producers and mastering engineers, his name appearing on countless works of underground extreme music.