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‘The Blackgaze genre refers mostly to modern Black Metal with soft, dreamy riffs (more than usual BM at least), frequent changes of tempo (rapid black metal vs. what you’d call post-rock), and often also the use of clean vocals. It’s mostly an European/ Australian counterpart of the Cascadian black metal scene. Blackgaze takes from Alt Rock and from Black Metal to create a new genre that falls under Rock/Indie. It is possible to say this because it no longer has any of the traits that make it metal anymore. The riffs aren’t derived from death, thrash or heavy metal. Remove the distortion and what you get is ambient music. If anything, it’s more similar to Crust Punk than it is to Metal. The style emerged around the turn of the 21st century and became increasingly popular during the latter part of the aughts.’ — collaged
‘I used to have sudden visions, memories of a place that is not the one we know. To make you understand, it’s exactly like you were remembering a nice moment of your life, with all the precise emotions you could feel with it, but the difference is that in my case these ‘memories’ had nothing to do with what we can see in the real world. In these visions I [saw] different colours, [heard] different sounds, and I had a way to perceive what was around me as a whole, not through the enclosed five senses we are [accustomed] to here.
‘[It was as] if my soul and what surrounded me was making a single entity. And this place was so indescribably beautiful and perfect. Nobody can imagine the beauty and the serenity of it, like an immense heavenly garden with pearly, shiny streams and emerald green fields. Everything being static and moving at the same time; like water waves, all bathed in pearly colours and [occupied] by benevolent entities. I can’t explain these visions—I just know that [my experiences] were real, so real that I thought everybody had the same ones.’ — Neige
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Alcest ‘Percées De Lumière’ (live)
‘Alcest is a French shoegazing band/musical project (formerly a black metal band) born in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, France. It is a solo project of Neige. As a child, Neige had dreams about a “Fairy Land”, “a place with colours, forms and sounds that do not exist here.” The music of Alcest is highly influenced by these dream experiences. Starting out playing raw black metal, Alcest soon evolved into black metal with strong post-rock and shoegaze influences. The band’s name Alcest doesn’t have any meaning, Neige just chose it for its noble ethereal sounding and wouldn’t imagine any other name in its pronunciation (“Al-sest”) to fit better with this music.’ — collaged
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Les Discrets ‘Song for Mountains’
‘Les Discrets was formed in 2003 as a musical side-project beside Phest of which Fursy Teyssier was a member as a way for Fursy, who is also an illustrator, to express concepts similar to those found within his art. Fellow French musicians Winterhalter and Audrey Hadorn soon joined the line-up. Les Discrets signed a five album contract with German record label Prophecy Productions in April 2009. The band released a split EP with Alcest in December of the same year, and went on to release their first full-length album, Septembre et Ses Dernières Pensées, in March 2010. According to the German Sonic Seducer magazine, the album features dark romantic music that cannot be attributed to any single genre. On July 18, 2010, Fursy posted an update on the official site stating that composition for a second album has been completed and that the studio has already been booked for its recording.’ — Wiki
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Soliness ‘Longing For … ‘
‘Soliness ist eine Band aus Saarbrücken die sich im Shoegaze, Post-Rock, Post-Black Metal wieder findet. Leider ist über die band nicht viel in Erfahrung zu bringen. Jedoch sind die bekannten Songs – vor allem auf der The World Comes To An End In The End Of A Journey Compilation – mehr als grandios. In meinen Augen spielen Soliness ganz oben im Shoegaze Bereich mit. — empyre-forum.de
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Mortisalgia ‘Trees of Stone’ (live)
‘Mortisalgia is a Depressive Post-Black Metal project from the Bay Area formed by drummer Angelo Enea. Later Angelo called and recruited Nick Woodman (Kingdom Scorned) to handle Guitars and Michael Rohwer (Kingdom Scorned) for Guitars and Vocals, Aaron Ekert (Septicaemia) for bass, as well as Kendric DiStefano (Logistic Slaughter) for Vocal duties. The band consists of Depressive and Atmospheric Black Metal with elements of Shoegaze for an incredibly dark, melancholic, and despair-filled listening experience.’ — collaged
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Sun Devoured Earth ‘Melancholy’
‘Gloomy dream pop with a hint of post-punk, post-rock, shoegaze and black metal. Handmade Birds, Parasitecrisis, Rigorism Productions. Members: Vadim.’ — last.fm
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Amesoeurs ‘Gas in Veins’
‘Amesoeurs was a French post-punk/black metal band formed in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, France in Summer 2004 by guitarist/vocalist Neige of Alcest fame, and by bassist/singer Audrey Sylvain and guitarist Fursy Teyssier (Phest, Les Discrets) with the purpose of creating a music that reflects the dark side of the industrial era and modern civilization. Neige and Audrey Sylvain are also known for their input as session/live musicians in La sale Famine de Valfunde’s band Peste Noire. The band split up after releasing their first full-length album, due to an inability to agree upon the future of the band. They performed one live show back in 2005. The meaning of the word Amesoeurs is “soulsisters” or “soulmates” in English.’ — collaged
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Lantlôs ‘I Collect The Stars’ (live)
‘Lantlôs was founded in 2005/2006 in Rheda, Germany by Herbst and Angrrau. Some rough demos were recorded and later released on the extremely limited Îsern Himel demo tape by the band itself in 2008. Because both Herbst and Angrrau were not satisfied with the sound and Îsern Himel was always meant to be a demo, they started to record the debut in their homestudio in september 2007. Alboîn joined as a session singer, so the first line-up was complete. Lantlôs, released by ATMF, saw its daylight in september 2008 in combination with a perfect artwork by Fursy Teyssier. In the meanwhile, Angrrau and Alboîn left Lantlôs. The debut was rereleased on LP via Deviant Records and on tape via Karge Welten in 2009.’ — lantlos.com
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Fleurety ‘I Saw Claws’
‘Fleurety is a Norwegian avant-garde metal band. The band was formed in 1991 by Svein Egil Hatlevik and Alexander Nordgaren. Initially Nordgaren was the lead vocalist, but his performance on early recordings (especially “A Darker Shade of Evil”) permanently damaged his vocal chords; so Svein Egil Hatlevik took over lead vocals from 1994 onwards. The band released their first demo Black Snow in 1993. After that came the 7” EP A Darker Shade of Evil in 1994, released via the English label Aesthetic Death Records. Both of these were in a fairly traditional Norwegian black metal style, although with very high-pitched screaming vocals, giving the band a characteristic sound.’ — collaged
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Líam ‘Debris’
‘Líam is an instrumental post-rock band from Germany, found as an One-Man-Project in early 2007 by M. Siegenhort. He recorded the two first EPs My journey to the sky and Two years and a fragment within less than one year. He had the strong desire to present the material live and therefore searched for session-musicians. He found J. Wulfheide, L. Jahns and C. Holler. But instead of rehearsing the existing material the four guys composed new songs. In 2008 their first full length CD Silhouettes Lay Waste To The Living was recorded. In late 2008 P. Dombrink joined the band to play keys on the new album which was recorded in spring 2009.’ — collaged
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Agalloch ‘Falling Snow’ (live)
‘For sixteen years the Pacific Northwest group Agalloch has defined what it means to combine influences from a variety of musical genres into one brooding, colossal, and cinematic sound that provides the soundtrack to existential themes concerning man, nature, loss, and death. It has been said that Agalloch is to heavy metal what Ingmar Bergman is to cinema. Agalloch has earned a reputation for explosive and emotional live performances. They have sold out tours across Europe and the US and have played a variety of major festivals including: Roadburn, Inferno, and Scion among others. The band takes special care constructing the environment of each and every show with wood, incense, and imagery taken directly from their home in the Northwest. Such care makes an Agalloch show more than just a typical heavy metal concert.’ — agalloch.com
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Void of Reveries ‘The Ghost That Sleeps Within Me’
‘Atmospheric Romantic Post-Black Metal from Canada. Formed in 2010 by sole member Inoxia. Inspired by Lucid Dreams, Broken Hearts, Lonliness, Moon Worship, Beautiful Nightscapes and Ghost Stories.’ — The Boston Phoenix
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Woods of Desolation ‘Somehow’
‘Woods of Desolation was formed by D. in New South Wales, Australia in 2005 as a means of much deeper personal expression/unburdening through music. Utilising the help of P. Knight on vocals (and occasionally bass) located in the UK 2005- early 2007 saw the recording of 2 demos and 2 split releases released in very limited numbers via different underground labels. These early releases explored more the idea of raw improvisation and experimenting with various different self-recording techniques to achieve the final result. Band founder and heart of the band; D. is now focused on working towards an exclusive conceptual EP featuring guest drums performed by Vlad of Drudkh/ Old Silver Key.’ — ruinprod
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An Autumn for Crippled Children ‘Formlessness’
‘An Autumn for Crippled Children is a post-black metal or blackgaze band from The Netherlands formed in 2008. The band consists of 3 people playing also in other bands, which are kept secret. The name of the band is an altered song title from UK gothic band Ebony Lake. Their debut Lost was released in May 2010 and their second album Everything was released September 1st, 2011. New 2012 album Only the Ocean Know has now been released.’ — last.fm
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p.s. Hey. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. I’m sorry to hear about your aesthetic falling out with 1D, and I hope they come to their senses straight away. I think the eternal life option with a time machine app would do the trick. Why haven’t scientists figured that shit out yet? I’m cool with growing older so far, but all bets are off from here on out. I wondered if your water fear was going to go all doozied out on you when you saw that post. But, hey, that’s friends are for too? ** David Ehrenstein, You think ‘A.I.’ is the best Spielberg? Hm. Yeah, maybe. I also have a soft spot for ‘Close Encounters’. ** Scunnard, Oh, awesome. Sure, I’d be into seeing the proposal. I am pretty reclused out by my writing at the moment, but a proposal, etc. seems like it would be a nice little walk in the park, so, yeah, if you feel like it and don’t mind, etc. Greece, wow, where? Athens? I wonder if it’s as crazy in person as it is on this side of the news. ** Pascal, Hi! Sure, about the novel reading, yeah, great, but I do have to give you a pretty big warning that I’m really neglecting a lot of everything right now so I can get this novel draft done, so I wouldn’t be able to start reading it for a while, I’m pretty sure. But, yeah. If you end up deciding to self-publish it, at least there’s never been a better time ‘cos, at least in the States, self-publishing, especially online, is kind of stigma-free, and, as I’ve mentioned here before, I’m reading as many self-publshed eBooks these days as I’m reading anything else. It’s way gray and damp here too. Umbrella ever at the ready, and all that. ** Wolf, Hi, Wolfy! Well, yeah, the underwater city thing blew my mind into post-making-ville, which is the sign among signs that I’ve got a dropped jaw. Ten days left, yikes and whoa and so cool! I’m … not better but hanging in there. I’m still writing my head off, and, as long as that’s happening, I can deal. We definitely should do some Skyping before you head there. Whenever you like, basically. I’m just here doing the painful writing thing mostly right now. ** Gary gray, Hey. Straight hustling, ha ha, me? Sure, why not? Personal submarine would be sweet. I’ve never even gone scuba diving? Have you? ** Steevee, Thanks, Steve. That looks fascinating. Thanks a lot. What a curious character/artist he is. Dang, too bad about the Andrew miss. Time for another lunch, right? ** Kevin Killian, Kevin! Thank you, thank you! I don’t know those two books at all. That title ‘Lake Overturn’ is awfully nice, isn’t it? I’ll check for them. Ah, and thanks for putting the Crown of Killian on the Jottings of James. You good? Miss you, my friend. ** Chris Cochrane, The conquering hero returns! Hi, Chris! The Brazil possibility is totally crazed. Oh my God, the jet lag, but whatev’. That would be unbelievable. Yeah, I’ve been happy/sad to get the announcements for all your gigs that I’m missing. Are they going to your satisfaction? The LA stint is counting down very nicely indeed. Much love to you, Chris. ** Un Cœur Blanc, Hi! You caring so much about your work and even how it looks is completely understandable and sensible to me. And the being scared part too. I’m like that about my work in both respects, and your works and mine are only separated by a genre. So, of course, that doesn’t seem strange to me whatsoever. Unless I’m strange, which, course, I am, ha ha. I’m sorry to hear you’re sad. I’m really, really sad too, if the international company helps. ** Sypha, I think I remember seeing Lovecraft book cover illustrations that showed sunken, underwater stuff. Oh, great about your new story becoming visible. I will read that when the p.s. is no longer imparing my eyes and fingers. Everyone, great news! A new short story called ‘The Yellow Notebook’ by the eminent author and d.l. about blog Sypha aka Mr. James Champagne is newly available for your reading ultra-pleasure right here at the Thomas Ligotti forums, and please lend it our eyes then, if you will, pass along any thoughts to its great and humble author. Thank you! ** Okay. With that, I give or re-give you the latest entry in my Halloween countdown posting fest and/or a solid chance to see what the whole Blackgaze fuss is all about. Try it, please. See you tomorrow.
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