Ufych Sormeer - Crazy MAC (2006)

Any metal album titled Crazy Middle-Ages Cyborgs (provided words like "raw," "brutal," or "nu-" come nowhere near the description) is almost a guaranteed purchase for me. I was already familiar with Ufych Sormeer from their first album (which I picked up mostly because the band name was an Elric reference), but that was fairly straightforward symphonic black metal. Now they've gone someplace completely different and hard to pin down. Helloween on LSD? Whatever it is, it's over the top, but it works for me. Read the review linked below, but ideally you'll hear them yourself at the band's MySpace page.

Lordsofmetal review

Ufych Sormeer official
Ufych Sormeer's MySpace

Buy Crazy MAC @ The End Records

Asterius - A Moment of Singularity (2003)

This album sounds like nothing else, and as soon as I heard it four years ago it gained a permanent spot in my top ten. Asterius' roots are in symphonic black metal, but there's much more going on than that. Encyclopaedia Metallum calls them "gothic/symphonic blackish metal," and the band has called its own style Bizarre Space Metal. Either one will do. With titles like "Continuum," "Multiverse" and "Gemini North" there's no question they belong here.

http://www.myspace.com/momentofsingularity
http://www.asterius.net/

Buy it. $10.99