Post-Metal

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    Kardashev - Alunea (2025)

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    Showing their breakthrough release “Liminal Rite”, was not a fluke, North American outfit Kardashev returns with the brilliant “Alunea”. Perfectly blending genres and creating totally unique aural experiences, this outfit delivers eight tracks of crushing melancholy. Taking their “Deathgaze” genre to new heights, the band showcases extra maturity and polish in one of our early candidates for album of the year.

    Opening with the dreamy “A Precipice. A Door.”, the band embarks on a very ethereal journey that is perfectly flanked by completely crushing Deathcore onslaughts. Mark Garrett’s vocals are some of the most exhilarating in Metal music, as they go from dreamy cleans to insane growls and harsh shrieks, creating an extremely contrasting and yet satisfying experience, through tracks like “Reunion”, “Seed of the Night” and “Speak Silence”.

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    Karg - Marodeur (2025)

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    V. Wahntraum (aka J.J) has been on a roll as of recently, not only with his exploits in Harakiri for the Sky, but also with this upcoming crushing Karg release titled “Marodeur”. With eight tracks and over 54 minutes of piercing music, this Post-Black Metal release is full of visceral rawness. Masterfully crafting highly melancholic music, this release is both punishing and demoralizing, creating a very bleak and yet lush atmosphere.

    Opening with the enigmatic “ Schnee ist das Blut der Geister”, which also features guest vocals from Perchta and solemn piano elements from Michael Eder, the band sets a very emotional mood. There are certain similarities to Harakiri for the Sky, due to the vocals and some of the guitar melodies, however, this band takes it further into darker and bleaker territories with more solemn and direct songs like “Findling”, “Yūgen”, and our favorite “Annapurna” and its very dramatic atmospherics and cathartic moments.

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    Last Leaf Down - Weight of Silence (2025)

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    Perfect for a gloomy cloudy evening, today we have Last Leaf Down and their latest opus “Weight of Silence”. Masterfully blending Post-Rock with Shoegaze elements, this Swiss outfit delivers ten tracks of highly emotional and melancholic music. With a mixture of elements from bands like EF, Tides from Nebula and Mono, this release is top notch from start to finish.

    Opening with the solemn and yet dreamy “Silence”, the band sets a very ethereal atmosphere filled with soaring guitars and moody vocals. The melancholic rollercoaster continues with excellent songs like “Cold Heart”, “Reach the Sun”, and “Illusion” that weave back and from cathartic moments to solemn slower passages, keeping this very ethereal and bleak. We particularly love the influence of bands like Katatonia and Slowdive that the band incorporates into their music.

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    Harakiri for the Sky - Scorched Earth (2025)

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    This Austrian outfit has been constantly growing into their melancholic sound with each release, and so has the fan base and reach. With “Scorched Earth”, Harakiri for the Sky reaches a new plateau as their sound is polished, their delivery is impeccable and they still manage to throw in a few curve balls to longtime fans. If you are looking for polished Post Black Metal, this is certainly one of the best releases of 2025.

    Opening with “Heal Me”, we get a very playful melodic mixture of synths, crunchy riffs, and a solid duet between Tim Yatras and J.J. The band’s melancholic capabilities quickly take center stage with the lush “Keep Me Longing” and its nearly 11-minute duration. We particularly enjoyed the powerful riffing that creates very crafty melodies alongside that sense of restlessness that the band always creates with their music. Another perfect example of this is the epic “Without You I’m Just A Sad Song”, another long piece that is full of tempo changes and very cathartic moments, particularly the clean passages.

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    Unreqvited - Pathway to the Moon (2025)

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    As one of the most anticipated releases of 2025, Unreqvited finally returns with the highly melancholic and head turning “Pathway to the Moon”. Perfectly expanding on their Post-Black Metal/Shoegaze style with some more dreamy and ethereal elements, this release delivers over 40 minutes of some of the most engaging and goosebump-inducing music we have heard in quite a while. If you are a fan of the ban or the genre, you will certainly not be disappointed.

    Opening with the ethereal “Overture I: Disintegrate”, we get a very moody start with dreamy clean vocals and lush piano arrangements. This nicely transitions into the fierce “The Antimatter”, which showcases the band’s duality as it quickly escalates into a brutal onslaught of harsh Black Metal frostiness, flanked by lush atmospherics and a very melodic vibe. This song masterfully transitions into more restrained territories, fully unleashing clean vocals alongside dramatic arrangements. Surprisingly enough, this track gave us some later Dimmu Borgir vibes at times.

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    Anomalie - Riverchild (2024)

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    Delivering waves of crafty Post-Black Metal, today we have Austria’s Anomalie and their latest effort “Riverchild”. Keeping things simple, catchy, and polished, this release unleashes nine tracks and over 50 minutes of intense music filled with melody. Far from your traditional Post-Black/Progressive Black Metal outfit, this one-man band is hard to describe as it explores different aural palettes with a hefty foundation of Black Metal elements.

    Opening with “Mothers of Stars”, an hypnotic offering filled with crafty vocal arrangements and incisive guitars, there are certain familiar elements from the band’s previous offerings with additional polish and refinements. Slowly building up in pace, “An Unforgiving Tale”, “Perpetual Twilight”, and the funky “Heart to Beat” give a more progressive feeling, similar to Enslaved’s current period, where clean vocals deliver engaging atmospheres while the harsh ones provide contrast as the music sets different moods and tempos.

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    Einst - Einst (2024)

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    Oozing waves of melancholy and misery, this self-titled debut release from Austria’s Einst is definitely one of the best Atmospheric Black Metal/Post-Black Metal releases of 2024. Featuring six tracks and over 42 minutes of music, the band delivers very well crafted and masterful music that has vibes of outfits like Heretoir, Harakiri For the Sky, NONE, and yet has its own DNA to keep them apart. With tons of releases in these genres, it is hard to find a good one that is not just a copy of others, luckily, Naturmacht Productions has unearthed a diamond in the rough.

    Opening with the bleakness of “Mere Reflections of Your Former Self” gets the listener warmed up as this track slowly progresses from atmospheric to raw savagery thanks to a crafty build-up and hellish screams. The band mastermind is Patrick Stoiber, who handles everything but the drums, and he is masterful in creating lush progression filled with darkness alongside some more crushing cathartic moments. Perfect examples of this have to be “Zu Oft Verlebt, Zu Wenig Wirklich Gelebt” and the disarming “Couldn't You Have Done Better” and its depressing piano opening.

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    Immortal Bird - Sin Querencia (2024)

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    Creating a very unique style of aural abuse, today we have Sludge/Post Metal and Crust outfit Immortal Bird and their third full-length release “Sin Querencia”. Featuring eight tracks and nearly 36 minutes of musical madness, this release is heavy, contrived, chaotic, and downright insanely good. There is some brilliance to creating such dissonance and yet feeling cohesive and devastating enough to captivate the listener, and this release delivers that in heaps.

    Opening with “Bioluminescent Toxins” we get a fairly straightforward piece with piercing riffs, crafty drums and a slow progression that feels very traditional for Sludge. However, Rae Amitay’s vocals quickly shift the mood, ranging from hellish harsh screams to sultry cleans, creating very interesting and contrasting sections. Blistering brutality follows with the piercing “Plastered Sainthood”, the trippy “Consanguinity”, and the Djenty “Propagandized”, with the band showcasing raw brutality and tons of weird and crafty ideas.

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    Agrypnie - Erg (2024)

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    As one of the most underrated Post-Black Metal bands, Agrypnie has been one of our favorite bands for quite a while thanks to their ‘heavier’ take on the genre. With “Erg”, Torsten and company continue to polish the band’s sound, making it tighter and equally explosive and melodic as before. Having had a wide variety of musicians participate through the history of the band and in the live setting, this outfit features familiar elements from like Heretoir, Harakiri for the Sky, Anomalie, and Theotoxin, but always creating its own unique brand of madness and atmosphere.

    Opening with the piercing “Aus rauchlosem Feuer”, we quickly get that duality of melodic and slower interludes with fierce guitars and Torsten’s signature snarl. There are always surprises around the corner, like the dramatic choir arrangements of “Meer ohne Wasser”, or the more solemn and moody nature of “Sturm”. Then, quickly transitioning to instrumental songs, like “Blut” part I, and then back to oozing melancholy with part II. This is certainly one of the specialties of this band.

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    Vestige - Janis (2024)

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    Just when you think you have heard it all, a band like Vestige drops a release like “Janis”. Creating a very unique amalgamation of Post-Metal, Shoegaze, Alternative Metal and a hefty dose of melancholy, this release delivers nearly one hour of captivating music. With influences from bands like Alcest, SOM, Mountaineer, Cult of Luna, Deafheaven, just to name a few, this release is full of emotional swings and dreamy interludes that will captivate any fan of unique and atmospheric music.

    Setting a playful and engaging mood, “Différent” nicely leads into the dream-like opener of “Deviens la Nuit”, which quickly brings crushing riffs alongside dreamy vocals giving that Mountaineer meets Cult of Luna vibe as the harsh vocals come in. A good dosage of Alcest-like shoegaziness comes front and center with “Démence de l' me” and “Océan”, further cementing a very ethereal atmosphere alongside dramatic tempo changes.

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