Vmthanaachth
United States · last active 2017
An anonymous Dallas/Fort Worth project that splices black-metal roots into avant-chamber, modern-classical, and jazz-fusion territory, pulling as much from Gubaidulina and Shostakovich as from extreme metal. No Clean Singing calls it 'otherworldly noisey chaos wrapped in layer upon layer of stark dissonance,' built from string arrangements, spoken poetry, and choral passages rather than riffs. Its splits and full-lengths weave a recurring sci-fi/horror concept universe across releases.
SCORE PROFILE
Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.
WHY THOSE SCORES
- Jazzy 6 — Bandcamp/press coverage tags the project 'jazz fusion' and Stereogum calls it 'Zappa-esque.'
- Barbershop 2 — Latest release described as incorporating choral vocal elements alongside string arrangements (No Clean Singing feature).
- Death 3 — Project self-admits death metal influence within its atonal/drone sensibility (No Clean Singing feature).
- Black 4 — Bandcamp/aggregator tags include 'raw black metal' and 'black metal' alongside its avant-chamber material.
- Technical 7 — Genre tags span avant-chamber, contemporary classical, and technical metal, with chamber-music arrangement elements noted across sources.
- Theatrical 3 — Releases are framed as connected sci-fi/horror narrative episodes within a shared conceptual universe.
- Drone 5 — No Clean Singing describes an 'eerie atonal/drone sensibility' running through the project's modern-classical-influenced material.
- Ambient 3 — Described as offering a 'strange modern classical music influenced experience' with atmospheric, texture-forward passages (No Clean Singing).
CONNECTIONS
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- Dissonant blackEI 26Obscuring VeilJazzyTechnicalBlack
Obscuring Veil is an international avant-garde black metal project assembled in 2018 around Matron Thorn (also of Ævangelist) on guitars/vocals, with Maurice 'Mories' De Jong (Gnaw Their Tongues, De Magia Veterum) on keyboards/synths, H.V. Lyngdal (Wormlust) on bass/piano, Jarle Byberg (Urgehal) on drums, and Kabukimono on voices, releasing through I, Voidhanger Records. Their 2019 debut Fleshvoid to Naught was described by reviewers as black metal 'played by free jazz musicians,' a dissonant, ghostlike plunge into psychedelic murk.
- UnaffiliatedEI 14Hoplites (Ὁπλίτης)TechnicalJazzyBlack
One-man project of linguist Liu Zhenyang (born in Ningbo, China; studying in Paris), Hoplites fuses dissonant black and death metal with mathcore and zeuhl-style repetition, topped with squealing saxophone. All song and album titles are rendered in Greek despite lyrical content addressing Chinese social themes. The project debuted with an EP in 2021, released three full-lengths in 2023, and put the project on an open-ended hiatus in mid-2024 as Zhenyang shifted focus to a new project, Dgra.
- UnaffiliatedEI 9VirusTechnicalJazzyBlack
Norwegian avant-garde metal band formed in Oslo in 2000 by Carl-Michael Eide (Czral), who considered it a continuation of his earlier band Ved Buens Ende. Their angular, dissonant sound folds jazz and death-metal elements into an idiosyncratic avant-rock framework across albums like 'Carheart' (2003) and 'The Black Flux' (2008, Season of Mist). The band disbanded in 2018.
- UnaffiliatedEI 29YureiTechnicalJazzyDrone
Yurei is the solo avant-garde metal alias of Oslo musician Bjeima, who writes, performs, and produces every element himself. Bjeima crafts icy, jazz-inflected, dissonant music that draws on the Ved Buens Ende/Virus lineage of Norwegian avant-garde black metal while resisting straightforward genre classification. Debut album 'Working Class Demon' (2010) was released on Adversum Records, followed by 'Night Vision' (2012).
- UnaffiliatedEI 20Ex EyeTechnicalJazzyBlack
Ex Eye are an instrumental NYC quartet formed in 2016, led by experimental saxophonist Colin Stetson with Greg Fox (Liturgy) on drums, Shahzad Ismaily (Secret Chiefs 3, Ceramic Dog) on synth and Toby Summerfield on guitar. Grown out of Stetson's Gorecki-reimagining sessions, they fuse black metal's hypnotic repetition and blast beats with free-jazz saxophone and drone, releasing a self-titled debut on Relapse Records in 2017. It is one of the more successful jazz-metal syntheses of its era.
- UnaffiliatedEI 24SpintriaJazzyDroneTechnical
Spintria is a free-jazz-inflected black/drone metal unit from Nashville, Tennessee, built around guitarist Ryan Clackner, keyboardist Edward Longo and drummer Josh Byrd, joined by guest saxophonist Colin Fisher. Their two full-lengths — a 2021 self-titled debut and 2022's Bacchanalia — stretch black-metal drone into side-long, saxophone-scorched free-improv freakouts that deliberately blur the line between written and improvised music. It's a small, DIY discography, but a genuinely strange one, closer to a free-jazz collective that occasionally detonates blast beats than a conventional metal band.
- UnaffiliatedEI 12MalconfortTechnicalJazzyBlack
Malconfort is a London trio named after a Deathspell Omega song, and on their 2024 debut Humanism (Transcending Obscurity Records) they take black metal apart from the inside. Guitarist/synthesist Fas, vocalist Nuun, and drummer/vocalist/synth player Kopczak build songs around dubbed-out basslines and jazz- and electronic-indebted drumming, with jutting, non-cyclical song structures. Harsh vocals appear sparingly, interlaced with whispers, barely audible crooning, laughter and spoken-word asides, drawing critical comparisons to Virus, Oranssi Pazuzu, and Mick Harris's Scorn.
- UnaffiliatedEI 9EpistasisTechnicalJazzyBlack
Epistasis is a New York-based experimental black metal quartet distinguished by Amy Mills' vocals and trumpet, splicing modern-classical dissonance (cited influences: Bartok, Ligeti, Part) and avant-jazz color into abrasive, atmospheric black metal. Their 2014 Crucial Blast album 'Light Through Dead Glass' was engineered by Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Swans) and drew press comparisons to Ved Buens Ende and Virus for its dissonant, jagged songwriting. Drummer Alex Cohen also plays in Pyrrhon and Malignancy, and Mills has guested on trumpet for Castevet and Psalm Zero — none of which are in the current atlas.
- Dissonant tech-deathEI 12Ephel DuathJazzyTechnicalBlack
Ephel Duath was an Italian avant-garde metal band from Padua, active 1998-2014 and led throughout by guitarist Davide Tiso. Their sound is 'an unorthodox combination of hardcore punk and jazz fusion,' recruiting players from jazz, blues, funk and progressive backgrounds. Later lineups featured vocalist Karyn Crisis and drummer Marco Minnemann, and the band released through Code666, Earache and Agonia Records.
- UnaffiliatedEI 9KexelürTechnicalBlackJazzy
Kexelür is a Santiago, Chile trio formed around 2021 playing atmospheric, dissonant, and psychedelic black metal built around free improvisation. Their releases are billed as largely improvised live sessions, with reviewers noting 'jazz fusion inspired soloing/leads' layered over the black metal foundation. The band communicates only through single-letter pseudonyms (Λ., V., J.), with Λ. also running the solo project Fatalys (not in the E.M.M.A. atlas).