Examples: Nuclear Death, Reverend Kriss Hades, Abruptum, Prophecy of Doom, Zaraza, G.I.S.M., Biolich, Bhaobhan Sidhe, Mordor.

Basically metal that is very strange, unusual and fucked-up without going into any of the fruity avant-garde (like any Mike Patton crap or any Devin Townsend crap or any Gorguts/Carbonized/Cadaver/Arcturus/Virus/etc stuff) that bands brought up in "strange/weird metal"-threads usually go into.

Would artists such as Paul Chain or Furze count here? Anyways, good thread idea, I've been looking for more and more groups or musicians that may fall into this category.

Actually I just forgot to add Paul Chain. Fits and was supposed to be part of the examples.

Bakbakwalanooksiwae/Antikriist split: Definitely some of the most alien and whacked out stuff I've heard. Basically some twisted amalgam of black metal, noise, spoken-word and psychedelia.

Brainstorm - Brainstorm: Lo-fi, avant-garde death metal from Ukraine. No this shit isn't Edge of Sanity. More like if Kenneth Anger attempting death metal but with zero understanding of the genre's fundamentals.

Gruesome Malady - Infected with Virulent Seed: Chaotic as fuck goregrind that's bursting at the seams with Malignancy-esque pinch harmonics and with song structures so erratic as to make Demilich tame by comparison.

Exmortes - Lord of Temptation: More raw, noisy black metal where the incompetence elevates this to a unique listen.

Scalare is an example more like "traditional" outsider, fun band imo.

Maybe Skeleton of God? Fucked up death metal

Edit:

oh, and:

Dripping - Disintegration of Thought Patterns During a Synthetic Mind Traveling Bliss

Encenathrakh - s/t

Windham Hell for sure, never heard everything like it before and after it

Traumatic Voyage also is a total oddball, weird death metal from a weird man

And is always worth remembering Disharmonic Orchestra, wich are the masters of total mindfuckery

Catasexual Urge Motivation (Japan) - probably a familiar name around here, though I feel is a great example. Two brothers utilizing a drum machine and other various electronics alongside rotten sounding guitars to create songs about serial murder, deranged mental illness, taboo sexuality, and total death. Their album Encyclopedia of Serial Murders is an underground classic, though I highly recommend checking out the Nekronicle compilations that were released recently by Bizarre Leprous Productions.

Multiplex (Japan) - Old-school grinding death metal from Japan that utilizes synth/electronics throughout some of their releases to create a weird atmosphere without going too far into the artsy fartsy direction. Their album World is highly underrated, and I'd love to see it reissued at some point.

Hardware (Mexico) - Another obscure grinding death metal band from days of yore, also utilizing electronics and synths in their compositions to create a twisted atmosphere. Released a demo and an EP in the early 90s, both definitely worth checking out.



Good call! I've got a CD copy of South Facing Epitaph that I put on every now and again, VERY underrated album.

I'm thinking of Drug Honckey, a punishing, very bleak doomy industrialized project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP4KPxTtfa4

and Mekigah, a proggy, hauting conceptual kaleidoscope:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MsIBsr7i-s

Oksennus, irritating death metal, lol

Ah, how could I forget them? One of my favorites of recent times!

I suppose Chaos Echoes would apply here? Very unique voice within the realm of metal, you can hear various industrial and krautrock influences in their songs, but they don't appear as "here is a [genre X] part", it's still very much black/death metal. Shame they're not continuing with the band, as their last two records were phenomenal. I look forward to hearing whatever the guys that were in that band do next.

Mudlin of the Well/Kayo Dot? Try Bath/Leaving Your Body Map.

Your description is pretty vague, especially considering that extreme metal in general is pretty weird to most people. You just get used to such strange music over time.

Since you didn't specify the genre, I have something to add. Tristania's (yeah, I am propagating them again) World of Glass is a pretty creepy gothic metal album (just listen to The Shining Path or Crushed Dreams). Ashes is perhaps even stranger and creepier (check out Circus, this stuff is strange to me even now).

The Nephilim was a side project of Fields of the Nephilim's frontman. Their Zoon album is a pretty weird combination of industrial, death metal and gothic rock influences. Check this album out, perhaps you'll enjoy this.

I wouldn't say those examples are really along the lines of what OP is asking for, as those bands still existed in a bigger scene/label environment. Unique + isolation from music scenes/consumer trends seem to be more key here. Tristania was part of that symphonic gothic metal boom from the mid/late 90s, and had a record deal with Napalm Records. Fields of the Nephilim/associate projects are some of the biggest names in goth rock, so that association wouldn't make them an "outsider" entity.

I could also be way off, lol. @droneriot, correct me if I'm wrong!

wormsblood - black and white art for man and beast is the answer here.

Eh....I dunno man. Tristania is night and day compared to something like Nuclear Death and Encenathrakh in terms of sheer WTF-ery. Have you checked out the bands the OP listed?

Some more recs:

Sect Pig - Slaved Destroyed: This is essentially Von's brand of bestial black metal taken to its logical conclusion. Equally parts barbaric and psychedelic.

Tetragrammacide - Typhonian Wormholes: More chaotic war metal/grind/noise hybrid. A complete racket, and a lot more out there than your average Archgoats and Revenges.

Intense Hammer Rage - Avagoyamugs: Filthy, deranged goregrind with frequent stop-start time changes. Released by Razorback Records of all labels!

Digging my favourite furrow, I must point to Pan.Thy.Monium's marvellously out-of-this-world Dawn of Dreams (but classic as they are, I guess you know this album)
Phlebotomized is another baroque Doom band worth mentioning...

That's what I was talking about. I checked out Nuclear Death, they just sound like typical grindcore, where's the weirdness? All this stuff doesn't really surprise me after having listened to brutal death and pornogrind.

You have recommended some goregrind, war black metal (to me this genre sounds like blackened grindcore, but I am not an expert) and brutal death metal. What's exactly weird about this kind of stuff? After listening to a few grindcore and brutal death records I just don't feel anything from this music, it just sounds childish, but not surprising or weird in any way.

If this is indeed the stuff that the author needs, then he should check out bands like Gutalax. But again, I don't see the creepiness and weirdness in this music. It may be brutal, chaotic, heavy, but not creepy or weird. The songwriting is what makes something weird, creepy and interesting to me. Perhaps I am an outlier here.

Then again, all weirdness wears out after a few listens. So perhaps the author should rephrase this question, asking for brutal/chaotic metal, and not weird one.

I would still describe stuff like Burzum's Filosofem or even Hlidskjalf (which is not even metal) as weirder and creepier than grindcore, since Varg actually tried to create a mystical atmosphere in his albums. If there's no atmosphere, how's it weird?

What about Stalaggh? This is not metal, but it's as weird as it gets. Perhaps something like this exists in the metal realm?

SATAN'S ALMIGHTY PENIS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLL0G3NLqRU


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1DvDvK0z48

PaganFlames.com

I must disagree. There's lots of riffage on their first three records that, in a way, anticipates the atonal, arrhythmic stylings of bands like Portal over a decade before The End Mills was released. Not to mention the way the drums seem to lead the composition in a lot of places on the first two records. They get even weirder as you go further along in their discography, eschewing a good bit of the extreme sound in favor of more atmospheric, brooding songs that are reminiscent of stuff like Skullflower. These approaches to extreme metal, and their isolation from a bigger scene and desire to "fit in" by playing thrash metal or the new death metal style that blossomed in the late 80s/early 90s makes them a perfect candidate for this thread.

So it's all about how "mainstream" the music is? Well, I believe there are approximately the same amount of people listening to gothic rock and to brutal death, so I can't say gothic rock (at least outside the big bands, even Fields are not that popular actually) is poppier. It was very easy for me to get into brutal death and pornogrind, but I still can't listen to a lot of gothic rock. Black metal is much weirder to me than grindcore and the related genres, since most black metal artists try to create a creepy atmosphere which is difficult to listen to.


I see what you mean. You must really listen to something in order to actually feel its weirdness and atmosphere if you are past the phase when you still haven't heard the heaviest/most extreme metal genres. But weird to me is not necessarily synonymous with chaotic or arrhythmic, as I said, pornogrind was less weird to me than Tristania when I found out about them. If you really want to get that "weird" feel, you should listen to genres that are entirely different from what you are listening to at the moment. Otherwise it's not a problem of weirdness, but more about being arrhythmic/chaotic/brutal.

Very valid points! I suppose I was misleading about how mainstream the music may or may not be. I suppose what makes me think an artist is an “outsider” entity may be that it seems they popped up out of nowhere, have the bare essentials of being metal/extreme in their sound, yet the music they create has characteristics that are unique and maybe not so easily digestible to where that specific type of composition wouldn’t be a desired sound to imitate.

Fair enough. I would concede that its hard to articulate what constitutes "outsider" metal since tastes are subjective. That and the fact that everyone has different definitions on what it means to be "atmospheric" and "weird". I suppose what makes bands like Nuclear Death and Encenathrakh "outsider" to me is their total disregard for songwriting conventions. No choruses, no polished production values, nothing that would conceivably deemed to be in good taste. Having been exposed to gothic metal and heavy metal before, that shit seems positively alien to me. To further add, Nuclear Death are definitely atmospheric, but only in a loose "I'm going to hump cadaver on bath salts" kind of atmospheric.

the bleakest ambient Funeral doom ventures in the same kind of sick places of human psyche:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvAaZ1_UTw4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OJSqpWtbOI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMly9NwwSzk


and talking about sick, fucked-up doom, Hybernaculo is a good contender
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbHWkjdypyc
But nothing beats Funereal luxuria, pure insanity made "music". Compulsive improvisations often leading to weirdness, this is the result:
https://www.soundclick.com/bands3/defau ... dID=600419

Now that's what I would call weird.

Another band I think fits, another favorite of mine: Cauldron Black Ram. They sound like if you drowned Agathocles in cough syrup and made them watch low budget pirate films. Another great project from the collective that brought you StarGazer, Mournful Congregation, Misery's Omen, etc. Those guys have a knack for cultivating familiar yet truly original sounds that are rarely imitated (well).

Well, maybe I should have said a few more words about the nature of my examples. They are all bands that you can sum up by noticing that the number subgenres named in their genre is higher than the number of chords in their riffs. Started with Hellhammer really, playing two chord riffs like the simplest Ramones songs yet somehow they manage to be black/thrash/death/doom metal. It's something I find incredibly fascinating, that something can be completely minimalist, yet at the same time not really fit anywhere. Check out Mordor's genre on the site here, it's almost a Tolstoy novel, yet they just slowly strum two chords most of the time. The bands don't try to flash anyone with how avant-garde they are, yet at the same time, simple and minimalist as they are, they simply do not really fit into any specific norms.

I love this thread! Ain't like sheer obscurity in Death Metal.

Maybe Appalling Spawn/Lykathea Aflame fit in the frame? As Appalling Spawn, they played a lot Progressive/Brutal Death Metal with strong Grindcore influence. Czech bands are all about the obscurity.

Maybe Mithras as well, although not really obscure but they really engage in the atmospheric and experimental departments.

And Maybe Geryon would fit the description, too?

Dwarr's Animals is some weird, "hoogey boogie land" kind of outside 80's HM.

Gnaw Their Tongues is an obvious rec, as do much of Mories' (the guy behing GTT) other projects.

Grausamkeit were very strange though not officially avant-garde. Def an outsider vibe though.

Thergothon - Stream From The Heavens CD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRJAkNSCn_Y

As Exmortes was mentioned: all Apator related stuff. Completely weird stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wckQjVaIa48

Black Hole - Land Of Mystery LP: Italian madness, totally out of the mind, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29y--E95l3s Attention: the first song is the lamest one. With song2 the glory begins.

Alchemist - Spiritech: Weird heavy stuff from Australia. Their best record by far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrbJkTq ... CfkLV4qjfq

Babylon Sad - weird Swiss stuff that I got at the same time as Pyogenesis' first selftitles Osmose debut. Like it more than Pyogenesis. Also have a look at their countrymates Equimanthon (Under The Seasons MCD) and Damnatory (Doctia Ignorantia MCD)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIczFczglxA

Last one: Catacomb from France and their In The Maze Of Kadath 7". Killer stuff. Great compilation CD is available.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zaolPzkCVs

Satan's Massacre is my personal favorite in outsider weirdness. "Curse of the Two Blind People" has its main riff derived from the opening riff to "Death Kiss"/"A Dangerous Meeting", but composed minimally with only a vocalist and a guitar. No rhythm section at all.

The Mezmerist is practically the textbook definition of "outsider metal": just one weird dude making music as he sees fit (Albeit with the help of Bill Ward of Black Sabbath!)

The hilariously cartoonish vocals are a definite highlight for me.

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Th ... rist/83930

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAe6Fry9BVk