Ophis

Ophis formed in Austria in 2004, with Karin Park handling vocals, keyboards, and guitars while Martin Schirenc played drums. Their music pulls from black metal and doom, though it doesn't settle neatly into either category. The 2010 album 'A Waltz Perverse' gave them a clearer identity, with songs like 'Among The Falling Stones' and 'Beneath Sardonic Skies' showing how they could build atmosphere without losing weight.

That album's title track, 'A Waltz Perverse,' became something of a calling card for the band. It moves at a deliberate, almost swaying pace, with Park's vocals floating over dense guitar work. Later records like 'Mouth of the Abyss' and 'The Dismal Shadow' kept exploring that same murky territory, where melody and heaviness don't cancel each other out.

Ophis has never been a prolific band, putting out albums every few years without much fanfare outside of dedicated metal circles. They've maintained the same core duo since the beginning, which might explain the consistency in their sound. There's no grand narrative of breakthrough or reinvention here, just a steady output of slow, dark music that knows what it wants to be.