Shoegazer Metal : Search & Destroy

Skot to thread.

I think Katatonia were the first band to openly embrace the shoegaze aesthetic. Renske wears a Slowdive shirt in the Discouraged Ones band photo (1997).

Also, the washes of guitar buzz used by Norwegian black metallers like Burzum and Forgotten Woods were somewhat similar, but the influence was never acknowledged. Probably came up with the sound by themselves.

Alcest is making thousands of metalheads aware of the stuff, just read the message boards at last.fm. In the next couple of years, a big metalgaze wave is likely to come out of the "depressive black metal" scene.

A few of the black metal fans on the Southern Lord board are moaning how Alcest have betrayed black metal to make "nigel music". I should imagine the BM boards are worse.

...Katatonia were the first *metal* band to... etc

With black metal and metal fans moaning about a shoegazer influence, if it does take off, I would bet a lot of the original shoegazers will hate it every bit as much.

Good lord, frankly I couldn't love it more. Moaners on either side can take a hike.

Actually the BM acquaintances of mine will relate newer Alcest to Ulver, Agalloch or post-rock, not MBV. Extreme metal has been so isolated from other kinds of music that kids in the scene simply don't know what shoegaze is.

made out of babies

love that new alcest album. and that angelic process album. and the new caina album. and, yeah, there is lots of black metal that fits the bill. and i think bands like isis count. mono bore me to tears though. a lot of that godpeed crescendo-rock stuff does though.

discouraged ones is, needless to say, one of the best rock albums i own. or have heard. if i had a top twenty rock album list, it would be on there.

i'm at work. i'll think of more good stuff later.

i actually meant battle of mice, same people as made out of babies, i think

like i said on the metal thread, the new alcest is STRAIGHT-UP shoegaze. there is very little metal on it at all. if you didn't know the dude was a metal dude, you certainly couldn't guess from that album.

I was going to say Caina as well.

Having heard only "Le Secret" and the MySpace samples of the new Alcest (my copy is on the way and don't want to spoil the fun), I can definitely hear black metal in the drumming and guitars.

The fast beat 3 minutes into the Printemps Emeraude sample - I don't think a britpop band would play that. It wouldn't be out of place in a Darkthrone tune and yet it sounds so uplifting here, I love what this guy is doing.

Maybe there will be a britpop band who goes in a black metal direction.

I always kinda hoped Mogwai would do an album a bit like this.

Meanwhile, I shall tentatively suggest Oceansize as perhaps verging upon both genres, they being Britain's best currently-operating band. :p

Mogwai need corpsepaint

Italian Shoegazer Metal:

Vanessa Van Basten
http://www.myspace.com/vanessavanbasten

MORGAN BELLINI: guitars, synth, sampler, sequencer, mic, software, fx, harmonica, glockenspiel, percussions
STEFANO PARODI: bass, synth
--------------
ROBY: live drums
BERNA: other drums, synth
CLAUDIO PARODI: eq feedback on 'Good morning VVB!'

Influences The God Machine, Godflesh, Jesu, Swans, Klaus Schulze, Angelo Badalamenti, Sunn O))), Killing Joke, David Lynch, Katatonia, Low, Burzum, Wire, Kyuss, Girls against boys, Helmet, William Burroughs, EM Cioran, David Cronenberg, Andrej Tarkowskij, HP Lovecraft.

I can't stop listening to the new Alcest album, it's easily the best metalgaze album of the year, perhaps my favourite CD overall.

Angelic Process and Caina are incredible as well. Not surprisingly, Profound Lore is resposible for all three discs...they are on some kind of roll.

And I can't wait for the new Ulver this fall!

from Chile, Mar de Grises have an unusual set of influences

Mar de Grises
http://www.myspace.com/mardegrises2

The music of MAR de GRISES invites to a desolate trip through the endless movement of our lives. Bitter feelings and the diverse forms in which the man expresses them are intermingled with the most various musical elements to create an intense sonorous film, where moving emotions emerge from overwhelming atmospheres.

This is somewhat of a surprise, the up-and-coming Finnish doom label Firebox signing a Chilean band with an original take on doom metal. Mar De Grises ("sea of gray") has produced an extraordinary debut album in The Tatterdemalion Express, mixing elements of doomdeath, ambient, funeral doom, and even progressive into a seemless and unique sound. The songs are long (averaging around eight minutes each), sometimes complex but never overly ambitious. This is one of the best doom albums in the last several years."
- BNR Metal Archive

*gazes at shoes* I don't know, I'm just seeing fabric and rubber, not metal.

I like it when it's more metal than shoegaze (unlike Jesu, who at this point are more shoegaze than metal) but would humbly submit The Goslings as the be all end all of this.

Also - does Velvet Cacoon count?

The Goslings rule. I suppose they are kinda shoegaze-doom.

Good lord, frankly I couldn't love it more. Moaners on either side can take a hike.

-- Ned Raggett,

What are your faves, Ned?

Destroy: Jesu

(sorry guys, I've heard Silver and Conqueror, and both just sound like a shitty Fragile-era NIN impression to me)

i didn't really like jesu much at first but conqueror really grew on me

in what strange universe does jesu sound like nine inch nails?

Skot sez it so I DON'T HAVE TO.

the three jesu tracks on the jesu/eluvium split are fucking incredible -- the first one especially so -- but i struggle to see in what way any of it is "metal". i could be a wank and say it transcends genres, but really ... it's just kinda shoegazing in excelsis.

i've said it before and i'll say it again: certain metal fans' obsession with genre details is pathetic. the more music that exists, the more boundaries will be blurred. i'm a latecomer to the whole metal thing (see threads passim) and i genuinely have little idea what constitutes doom/stoner/black/whatever metal. all i know is that if it rocks, and doesn't suck, i like it ;)

I would bet a lot of the original shoegazers will hate it every bit as much

i doubt it. it's metallers more than anyone else who seem to get riled by such things. there's a fairly obvious explanation -- metal has traditionally been an "outsiders'" genre, allegiance to which has had tribal overtones, and anything that dilutes that or (in the case of the whole "nigel" smear) makes it "trendy" is going to upset a lot of dudes -- but ... that doesn't mean it ain't fuckin' pathetic :)

i must listen to the new alcest again. i liked it, but it didn't particularly grab me.

Serena-Maneesh, anyone? Their debut album varies from shoegazey rock to incredibly heavy guitar riffing/feedbacking/soloing, and I think some of it could be qualified as 'metal' at a push. It's definitely a different kind of 'shoegazer metal' if accepted into the fold.

fuck "the fold" :)

It was an intentionally dry statement, GF. :P

Maybe I should give this Alcest band a try?

You got shoegaze in my metal! You got metal in my shoegaze!

I like it when it's, well, Jesu. I don't like it when it's, like, well... early Smashing Pumpkins.

Former viking metaller Wyrd from Finland is now doing the Brave Murder Day thing, worth a listen.

Also, Lifelover (from Sweden) and Joyless (with Forgotten Woods members) play a poppy kind of black metal. Btw, Neige does vocals in the comeback Forgotten Woods album, I still haven't heard it but should be good, I love this band.

Alcest album doesn't even have metal vocals. Kate would like it.

Where do I get the Alcest album in the UK? Or how do I get it shipped here?

Do Boris count? Pink is pretty shoegaze metal in places.

I like Jesu's first album A LOT. And the Goslings. This stuff is right up my street.

I will look for Alcest :)

When FMM got Boris's Rainbow, she was all "Yup, here's a shoegaze album for Kate..."

The Alcest album is out in north america on Profoundlore (its on sale as of yesterday) i'm not sure who is doing the euro version.

Shoegazer bands that had metal influences

Loop
Swervedriver (used to get in RAW magazine)
Catherine Wheel went Alt Rock didn't they?
Levitation

anyone else?

Darkspace

Colonel Poo check out Angel Eyes and Angelic Process that I linked to. I think you will like it.

Alcest signed a 5-album deal with http://www.prophecyproductions.de recently. (european sales at that site too)

I bet profoundlore is cheaper.

Profound Lore is $11, but they won't ship outside US+Canada. It's not clear that Prophecy's store will ship to the UK, and Grau, who Prophecy recommend, charge €20 for shipping outside Germany. Bah. I'll just pre-order it from Amazon.

Italian Shoegazer Metal:

Vanessa Van Basten
http://www.myspace.com/vanessavanbasten

I know these guys, they're really good.

http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/mp3/souvenirs_dun_autre_monde.mp3

^alcest mp3 from new album

Angelic Process mp3 http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/mp3/THE_ANGELIC_PROCESS_Million_Year_Summer.mp3

azrael's self/goat sort of belongs in this thread. i think?

The first track on Pelt - Max Meadows, has that feel to it, and I like it a lot more than Jesu or something similar.

I have a track that I think fits this description obliquely with accordion if anyone wants it :D Am I allowed to say that?

http://www.notnotfun.com/presents/pics/nnf098a.jpg
http://www.notnotfun.com/presents/pics/nnf098b.jpg

The Goslings

Occasion

NNF098—CD ($11)

Hollywood, Florida family/band Max and Leslie Soren have been unleashing their private bouts of punishing ceremonial sludge-gaze for the past half a decade now, and there’s been some total titanic highlights (Between the Dead, Grandeur of Hair, etc). But the grunge swamp graveyard they seem to unearth their moss metal from must be profoundly fertile ground, because each new song-cycle they lay to tape is somehow even more miraculously brutal and shimmering and visionary than the one before it. This phenom holds true for Occasion, The Goslings’ newest and maybe deepest doom/beauty inquest. Eight thundering masterpieces of molten slime riff majesty, nightstalker drums, and soaring-into-the-sun female vox that crush the earth, bleed, and breathe in humid darkness. Ranging from the Slowdive-meets-Skullflower transcendent descent of “Motorcade” through to the quaking basement funeral of “Little Horn,” Occasion is a glorious passage into The Goslings’ hidden holy land. Mastered for optimal audio gravity by James Plotkin, and housed in a swank six-panel wallet-style metallic-ink digipak with artwork by the band.

http://www.notnotfun.com/presents/present.html

Yes i want this.

For some reason, the first thing that came to mind was Mew.

Probably not what you people are looking for though.

Certain Cornelius tracks might fit the bill. He did a MBV-ish remix of a Salon Music track which is quite metal.

I just paid for the Goslings cd, was only $15 total inc shipping to UK. Bargain!

Yeah NNF rules

My friend's got that Pocahaunted shirt they're selling atm. want! but they don't have it in the right size ;_;

search: draugar

If Will Haven were an instrumental band, they would be huge. Personally I love Grady's screaming (especially on the 1st and 3rd record). But they'd have a crazy crossover audience without the vox.

Their minimalist metal is totally mis-categorized. Those hypnotic beats, repetitive baselines, and hugely affected guitar riffs are really something.

basslines, not baselines.

The couple of Draugar tracks I've heard seemed like pretty full-on USBM. What's the shoegaze stuff?

Got my Goslings cd yesterday.
Btw W4lter there's a Pocohaunted lp out.

POCAHAUNTED "PEYOTE ROAD" (WOODSIST012) ----> $15ppd

Debut full- length LP. Edition of 500

The couple of Draugar tracks I've heard seemed like pretty full-on USBM. What's the shoegaze stuff?

Cant say I've heard Draugar.

W4lter did you get a shirt or lp then?

I haven't got around to much buying lately. They're putting a tape out by my fwends band, I might buy some other stuff when I get that.

What band is that?

Bl4nk |2e4lm. They just did a show w/ d4m0 5uzuk1

Speak English, you.

:D

It's all that eucalyptus you people smoke.

I like many bands being described as this, but what is it really meaning? Looking down?

I think so.

>_<

Actually, all of these bands do this.

otm

The new 5ive album gets better with every listen. Anyone else like it?

What exactly is shoegazey about that Goslings album?

Anyone else like it?

Yeah, I do. Not as much as you I suspect, but it's cool. Have you heard anything off the new Jucifer album on Relapse? Thought I didn't care for this band (or for listening to 70-minute albums, as a whole) but this has made me change my tune.

I haven't heard it, no. Worth checking out?

Yessir. There are really nasty doom bits and psych-folk sort of bits and stuff that is almost like Torche with a lady singing and quite a bit that reminds me of The Breeders but with better songs than the new Breeders album (which is the things that stopped me being impressed with Jucifer before)

Last time I listened to Jucifer I thought they sounded more like Veruca Salt.

Destroy: Jesu

(sorry guys, I've heard Silver and Conqueror, and both just sound like a shitty Fragile-era NIN impression to me)

Hah! Can't believe I said this in 2007. I have come around to Jesu in a HUGE way.

There you go.

I do maintain there are parts of Conqueror that sound eerily similar to "The Day the World Went Away" but it's alright, I don't mind it so much now. The first self-titled Jesu record is a gem as well.

Also search from this thread, I love all of these and are pretty new to me (within the last year or so):

Agalloch
Alcest
Katatonia (the little I've heard)
Nadja
Ulver

next you will be liking mastodon..

Goddamnit never!

;-)

Alcest album is so fucking good I don't even know where to begin.

Alcest's new album is bringing back the black metal growls. Not too sure what to think of that, considering how near-pefect the last album was without them.

The early stuff was pretty great, and that was more black metal. I don't know if anything could approach Souvenirs...

I just hope it is better than the Amoseurs thing.

I have been going to sleep to the sound of the alcest album on very quiet recently.

theres a new alcest split ep

The Pyramids with Nadja collab is amazing. It's got Simon Raymonde on it, was produced by James Plotkin and also features the guy who looks like Popeye from that bunch of Belgain art Nazis Das BludClaart or whatever they're called. So much better than the Nadja/Black Boned Angel collab.

The new Jesu EP is the jolliest to date as well.

Broadrick must need to stock up on good vibes because of reforming Godflesh/recording with Greymachine.

interestingly, I think he uses autotune on the Jesu EP as well!