The Crawling Chaos

Venowl are a Chicago extreme doom/noise trio recording under the symbols ][, ::, and //, blending blackened noise, sludge, and harsh feedback into long-form, punishing tracks. Their 2012 debut 'Patterns of Failure' was remastered by James Plotkin, and their 2014 split with microtonal-guitar act Jute Gyte brought in guest violinist Troy Schafer for extended-technique, avant-classical passages over a 27-minute track.

Moroghor was the solo studio vehicle of Massachusetts musician David Lanciani (aka Dimaension X), active 2007-2010 and built around a fictitious three-person lineup of invented characters (Ndethatl, Ygorathla, Zatholal). The 2009 debut '...and Space as Chaos' billed itself as 'Psychedelic Xperimental Black Metal From Beyond,' while its same-year companion 'Darkness...' pivoted to minimal drone/doom the artist himself pitched as sitting alongside Sunn O))), Nortt, and Nadja. Lanciani has continued working similar minimal blackened-drone territory under other names since the project went on hold.

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Lochrian Poem is the solo project of Romanian multi-instrumentalist Andrei 'Solomonar' Oltean (Sibiu), billed as experimental atmospheric doom metal. Debut LP Snow (2019) is a short, bleak meditation on the grey, static urban-decay landscapes of Sibiu's Guşteriţa suburb, built on droning, dissonant doom guitar (Bandcamp tags it 'phasing') under a heavily atmospheric mix, with tracks stretching past sixteen minutes.

Five the Hierophant is a London instrumental quartet formed in 2014 that fuses doom metal with free jazz into what they call 'doom jazz.' Their sound layers improvised saxophone, heavy droning riffs and psychedelic/ambient atmospheres, drawing on the darkness and intensity of black metal without vocals; unconventional instruments such as music saw, zither and assorted percussion widen the palette. Albums including Through Aureate Void (2021) are released through the Norwegian label Dark Essence Records.

A Finnish outfit, founded by bassists Mika A. A. Hyytinen and Topi Aarnio, built around the gimmick-that-works of having no guitarists at all — two bass players (4-to-12-string, baritone-tuned) carry all the riffing, joined by keyboards/samples and dual male/female vocals from Kari Husa and Anna Pienimäki. Their sole full-length, 2009's On Rituals and Correspondence in Constructed Realities (Season of Mist), moves from doom-metal roots into a cavernous, drone-heavy hybrid of gothic, black, and alt-rock with electro-folk and Baroque touches.

Zatvor is a long-running experimental doom/sludge/drone project from Kursk, Russia, active since 1996. Their 2018 release 'Ключ земли' is a single 49-minute piece blending guitars, drums, flute, and saxophone with noise and electronic textures over a drone/doom foundation, mixed and mastered by James Plotkin.

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.

Sigihl is a drone/doom/avant-garde metal act from the Silesian Voivodeship, Poland, formed in 2012, describing themselves as 'drone jazz from the hellyard.' Their sole full release, Trauermärsche (and a tango upon the world's grave) (2014, Arachnophobia Records), fuses sludge, doom, drone and black metal with saxophone, funereal atmosphere, and tango-inflected song titles.

Mare Erythraeum is a Hungarian solo project (credited only to 'Z') that began in 2009 as disharmonic, industrial-tinged black metal before drifting into pure dark ambient/drone. Its sole full-length, Ophitae (2018, NGC Prod), collects three side-long instrumental pieces actually recorded back in 2010 and reissued nearly a decade later as '49 minutes of ethereal, floating space dark ambient about the order of the serpent.' The project is currently on hold.

Sghor is a solo Polish dark-ambient/black-metal project that began recording in 2004 under the name "Allen" before rebranding as Sghor in 2006 and shifting toward longer-form ambient composition. Across a large, steadily-released Bandcamp catalog (Depressive Black Ambient, Never Ending Dysphoria, Le Grand Mystère, the multi-part Lux Dei series, Ahrimanic Resignation, and more), the project favors long, hypnotic, drone-like tracks — often 4 to 16 minutes — that foreground funereal, occult-tinged atmosphere over riffing, with black metal, doom, and funeral-doom genre tags layered onto a predominantly dark-ambient core.