Published: 8 May 2025 / Last Update: 8 May 2025
Post-black metal and blackgaze have grown from controversial experiments into full-blown movements, merging the raw ferocity of black metal with elements of shoegaze, post-rock, prog, and more. What began as a polarizing genre mash-up now stands as one of the most creative and emotionally resonant frontiers in heavy music.
This list is our personal take on essential albums that fans of this sound should experience. While it’s by no means exhaustive, it aims to highlight both key releases for newcomers and deep cuts for seasoned listeners.
For those eager to dive deeper, check out our continually updated Post-black Metal & Blackgaze playlist on Spotify, where we highlight both classic and new releases shaping the genre.
Without further ado, let’s begin!
1-20: Top Picks
(in no particular order)
Deafheaven – Lonely People With Power (2025)
Lonely People With Power finds Deafheaven pulling from every phase of their past — harsh, melodic, atmospheric, and everything in between. It’s probably one of their most complete and emotionally resonant works to date.
Alcest – Les Voyages De L’Âme (2012)
While Écailles de Lune helped define blackgaze, Les Voyages De L’Âme refined it into something even more transcendent. Alcest dialed back the harshness to let shimmering guitars and rich melodies shine, with Neige’s ethereal vocals weaving through bursts of cathartic screams. The result is a dreamlike journey that captures blackgaze’s balance of beauty and brutality.
Lantlôs – .Neon (2010)
Lantlôs’ sophomore record balances the melodic and the raw, layering bleak riffs and distant vocals over shifting, almost hypnotic rhythms. Neige’s presence adds emotional texture, but the real strength lies in how naturally the album bridges black metal’s intensity with post-rock’s sense of space, letting both harshness and melody breathe within the same frame.
An Autumn for Crippled Children – Try Not to Destroy Everything You Love (2013)
This release leans gently into depressive post-black and darkwave, without straying from blackgaze’s core intensity. It’s lo-fi and emotionally heavy, trading polish for pure atmosphere — a haunting outlier in the genre’s evolution.
Heretoir – The Circle (2017)
Expansive and tightly composed, The Circle brings a post-metal scope to blackgaze’s emotional core. It’s heavy, melodic, and cleanly produced, with layered guitars and soaring leads that lean more toward catharsis than chaos. A thoughtful, refined take that favors structure over haze.
MØL – Diorama (2021)
With Diorama, MØL deliver one of the most polished and explosive blackgaze records in recent years. More melodically uplifting than many of their peers, the album moves between radiant highs and crushing heaviness, guided by sharp emotional clarity. A high watermark for the genre’s modern wave.
Trna – Istok (2021)
Like Olhava, Trna is known for pushing atmospheric post-metal into blackened territory with a purely instrumental approach. Istok is one of their most ambitious works, constantly shifting between heavier, melodic surges and extended ambient passages. A dense, immersive listen that rewards patience.
Les Discrets – Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées (2010)
Delicate, melancholic, and steeped in atmosphere, this debut from Les Discrets leans more into post-rock and shoegaze than aggression. Gently distorted guitars and soft, mournful vocals create a world that feels more like memory than metal — a quiet, poetic entry in the blackgaze canon.
White Ward – Love Exchange Failure (2019)
Blending black metal with noir jazz and urban decay, Love Exchange Failure sounds like despair echoing through a sleepless city. Saxophone lines cut through dense walls of guitars and bleak atmospheres, creating a cinematic, suffocating sense of tension. A distinctive and genre-pushing album.
Sylvaine – Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone (2018)
A clear step forward in both songwriting and production, Atoms Aligned, Coming Undone refines Sylvaine’s ambient-leaning blackgaze into something more grounded and dynamic. Subtle builds, heavier contrasts, and restrained use of harsh vocals give the album depth without sacrificing atmosphere. It’s more focused than Wistful, and marks her most fully realized work to date.
Avast – Mother Culture (2018)
Urgent and expansive, Mother Culture blends blackened intensity with post-metal’s widescreen dynamics. The album pairs sweeping guitar work with themes of environmental and societal collapse, giving it a weight that’s both sonic and conceptual. Direct and atmospheric in equal measure.
So Hideous – Last Poem / First Light (2014)
Blending post-black metal with sweeping orchestral arrangements, Last Poem / First Light feels more like a film score than a traditional metal album. Strings, choirs, and blast beats collide in dramatic fashion, creating a sense of grandeur that few in the genre attempt, let alone pull off.
Harakiri For The Sky – Maere (2021)
Few bands in this space are as consistent or as prolific as Harakiri for the Sky. Maere doesn’t rewrite their formula, but it sharpens it — with tighter compositions and more control over dynamics. It’s a confident extension of everything they do well.
Evergarden – In Light (2024)
Built on four expansive tracks over ten minutes, In Light drifts between raw intensity and melodic clarity with a sense of purpose. While it draws from blackgaze’s moodiness, the sharper emotional edge and screamed vocal presence nod clearly to the band’s post-hardcore roots. A striking debut.
Olhava – Sacrifice (2024)
On Sacrifice, the Russian band deepens their commitment to ambient-infused blackgaze, using repetition and texture to create emotional weight. It’s not a record built on riffs or hooks, but on immersion — one of the clearest examples of blackgaze moving toward soundscape-driven composition.
Celeste – Assassine(s) (2022)
Tense and unrelenting, Assassine(s) delivers its weight through crushing repetition, sharp dynamics, and thick, oppressive atmosphere. Coming more from the sludgecore side than blackgaze proper, Celeste lose none of their intensity here — and the clarity in production makes every blow feel even more precise. Controlled chaos, executed with purpose.
Deafheaven – Sunbather (2013)
Few albums in this space have sparked more conversation — or imitation — than Sunbather. With its lush melodies, harsh vocals, and striking contrasts, it redefined what heaviness could sound like. Polarizing on release, but now foundational, it remains a reference point for everything that came after.
Deluge – Aego Templo (2020)
Like fellow French band Celeste, Déluge lean toward a more punishing and direct sound — less dreamlike, more immediate. But rather than relying on density alone, they carve space into the chaos, letting melody and tension coexist.
Svalbard – The Weight Of The Mask (2023)
On The Weight of the Mask, Svalbard shift inward — trading past social commentary for lyrics centered on anxiety, depression, and emotional survival. The music remains hard to pin down, pulling from various corners of heavy music without settling into any one mold. It’s intense without being posturing, melodic without softening the blow — a raw, deeply human record.
Besna – Zverstvá (2022)
Probably one of the lesser-known entries on this list, Zverstvá by the Slovak band Besna is a compelling release that rewards close listening. Largely melodic but never predictable, it weaves harsh vocals and driving rhythms through moments of avant-garde experimentation and post-metal restraint.
21-50: Further Recommendations
(in no particular order)
Want more? Our companion playlist features highlights from these albums and beyond, and it’s regularly updated with new releases. Feel free to follow if you’d like to stay in the loop.
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