Genre story · Metal
Post-Black Metal
Black metal's guitar attack stretched into longer forms, gentler melodies and different ideas about emotional weight.
Post-black metal became a common critical description for music that took methods associated with Black Metal into more expansive or unusual structures. Agalloch's recordings in the late 1990s and early 2000s joined extreme-metal techniques with folk and acoustic material. Alcest later made harsh vocals and tremolo guitar coexist with melodic passages, while other bands moved toward Post-Rock and Post-Metal. The label gained traction after musicians had already begun making recordings that did not sit comfortably inside the earlier categories.
The contrast matters
Rapid guitar figures and harsh drumming may appear next to long clean passages or delicate singing. Songs can be organized around repetition and gradual transitions rather than repeated conventional riffs. Some recordings retain a strong extreme-metal attack; others barely use it. The phrase post-black metal describes an approach, not a guarantee that every album will contain recognizable black metal sections.
Blackgaze and the broader name
Blackgaze is one identifiable crossover within a broader post-black vocabulary, though the categories overlap. A band can draw on post-metal without adopting every part of that genre. Specific recordings, not just shared adjectives, should determine connections.
Essential recordings
- 2002AgallochThe MantleA long-form mixture of metal, folk and acoustic material.
- 2010AlcestÉcailles de luneHarsh and gentle passages in a carefully developed form.
- 2013DeafheavenSunbatherAn especially visible later interpretation.