Multi-instrumentalist Scott Conner goes by the stage name Malefic and is the sole musician behind the black metal project known as Xasthur. Working in solitude from his Alhambra, CA, home since 1997, Conner has produced an extremely prolific body of work. To date, the Xasthur catalog includes 3 demos, 8 full-length albums, 16 EPs and/or splits, and one compilation album.

Xasthur has only made one official video in its history. You can check it out here below. The haunting track, “Walker of Dissonant Worlds,” appears on the excellent 2004 release To Violate the Oblivious.

Leviathan is a one-man black metal project from Oakland, CA. The man behind the band is Wrest (real name Jef Whitehead). Whitehead was a teenage troublemaker who became an international skateboarding star, even being featured on the cover of the classic video game Skate or Die 2, despite being kicked out of one group home after another. He would also gain quite a reputation as a graphic artist throughout the skating community. That is a skill that he has parlayed into a career as an highly sought after tattoo artist and has allowed him to keep Leviathan going since 1998.

On February 17th, Leviathan will release its eight full-length studio album, Scar Sighted. Since anything that Leviathan does is highly influential in the black metal world and the band happens to be one of my all time biggest influences, so you can expect a full run down of the new disc right here at GoD.

Meanwhile, check out the killer track “Summoning Lupine” from Leviathan’s compilation album Howl Mockery At The Cross here below.

Panopticon is a one-man black metal project out of Louisville, Kentucky. Multi-instrumentalist Austin Lunn is the man behind the music and prefers to remain in the shadows while his art does the talking for him. And speak it does… in volumes. Panopticon’s fourth album, 2012’s Kentucky, is probably the most groundbreaking and important black metal album that America has ever produced. The album’s deft fusion of Appalachian folk music to traditional black metal is both jarring and breathtaking.

Never one to rely upon black metal’s tired Satanic cliches, Lunn describes Panopticon as “Anarcho Pagan Black Metal.” However, recent releases have seen him veering away from politics toward a more introspective and contemplative point of view. The most recent Panopticon record, Roads to the North, continues to expand upon this subject matter.

Here from Roads to the North is the stunning track “Where Mountains Pierce The Sky.”

Brothers Nathan and Aaron Weaver formed Wolves In The Throne Room in 2003 in Olympia, Washington. The band has always eschewed the traditional aesthetics of the black metal genre. Preferring a DIY approach, they generally tour with their own PA and try to avoid traditional concert venues. Torchlight is usually the only illumination and flash photography is never permitted. Going even a step further, the brothers frown upon moshing, stating that they want their show to be more of a meditative experience. Their music has been described as “eco-metal” and “astral black metal.”

“Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog” is the opening track of Wolves In The Throne Room’s third album Black Cascade. Check it out here, below.

Blut Aus Nord is a black metal band from France, but also so much more. Guitarist/vocalist Vindsval started out as a one-man project in 1994 under the moniker of Vlad. The name was soon changed to Blut Aus Nord, which translates to “blood from the north.” Musically, the project started out as fairly straight black metal, but quickly evolved to incorporate elements of industrial, ambient, avant garde and symphonic black metal.