| Blackgaze | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Early to mid-2000s, France |
Blackgaze is a fusion genre combining elements ofblack metal andshoegaze.[3] The word is a blend of the names of the two genres, described byThe Guardian as "thebuzz term for a new school of bands taking black metal out of the shadows and melding itsblast beats, dungeonwailing and razorwire guitars with the more reflective melodies ofpost-rock,shoegaze andpost-hardcore."[2] According toExclaim!, blackgaze "marries the harsh, alien instrumentation of black metal with the mellower, dreamy soundscapes of shoegaze."[3]
Influenced byatmospheric black metal bands likeUlver andSummoning, the genre was pioneered by French musicianNeige around 2005 through the projectsAlcest andAmesoeurs and has risen to prominence with the success of American groupDeafheaven.[3]The Guardian named Deafheaven "blackgaze's de facto poster boys, the most likely to open up black metal to an even wider audience",[2] andExclaim! described their second albumSunbather – the most critically acclaimed album of 2013 onMetacritic – as seminal to blackgaze.[3]
Michael Nelson ofStereogum tracks the origins of blackgaze to the early work of French musicianNeige, who pioneered the fusion through projects includingAlcest,Amesoeurs andLantlôs. According to Nelson, Alcest's 2005 EPLe Secret was "the birth of blackgaze"; he noted that it sounded "like aCocteau Twins/Burzum collaborative split" and that "[r]oughly half the time, vocals were delivered in an angelic coo; the other half, they were a raw, distant shriek".[4] Natalie Zina Walschots ofExclaim! also credits Neige with pioneering the style, while noting that American bandDeafheaven has pushed the genre to "greater prominence".[3][5]
Some fans of traditional black metal andheavy metal more generally have criticized the genre for its success among those outside of themetal community,[6] most prominently after the release of Deafheaven's 2013 albumSunbather. However, this reaction was vastly overshadowed by critical acclaim for the album, which became one of the defining releases of blackgaze.[7][8][9] Deafheaven have also managed to gather widespread appeal by way of playing mainstream music festivals, often being one of the sole metal-related acts performing.[10][11]
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