Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics are intended to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom. The genre is strongly influenced by the early work of Black Sabbath, who formed a prototype for doom metal. During the first half of the 1980s, a number of bands such as Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar from England, American bands Pentagram, Saint Vitus, the Obsessed, Trouble, and Cirith Ungol, and Swedish band Candlemass defined doom metal as a distinct genre. Pentagram, Saint Vitus, Trouble and Candlemass have been referred to as "the Big Four of Doom Metal".
Crust punk is a subgenre of punk rock influenced by the English punk scene as well as extreme metal. The style, which evolved in the early 1980s in England, often has songs with dark and pessimistic lyrics that linger on political and social ills. The term "crust" was coined by Hellbastard on their 1986 Ripper Crust demo.
Metalcore is a fusion genre combining elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk, that originated in the late 1980s. Metalcore is noted for its use of breakdowns, which are slow, intense passages conducive to moshing, while other defining instrumentation includes heavy guitar riffs often utilizing percussive pedal tones and double bass drumming. Vocalists in the genre typically perform screaming; more popular bands often combine this with the use of standard singing, usually during the bridge or chorus of a song. However, the death growl is also a popular technique within the genre.
Calculating Infinity is the debut studio album by American metalcore band The Dillinger Escape Plan. Recorded at Trax East Recording Studio in South River, New Jersey, it was produced by engineer Steve Evetts with the band's guitarist Ben Weinman and drummer Chris Pennie, and released on September 28, 1999, by Relapse Records. Calculating Infinity is the band's only full-length album to feature original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, who left the band in 2001.
Mathcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk and metalcore influenced by post-hardcore, extreme metal and math rock that developed during the 1990s. Bands in the genre emphasize complex and fluctuant rhythms through the use of irregular time signatures, polymeters, syncopations and tempo changes. Early mathcore lyrics were addressed from a realistic worldview and with a pessimistic, defiant, resentful or sarcastic point of view.
Integrity is a hardcore punk band originally from Cleveland, Ohio, but based in Belgium since 2003. It was formed in 1988 by lead vocalist Dwid Hellion.
Souls at Zero is the third studio album by the American post-metal band Neurosis. It was released in 1992 by the Alternative Tentacles record label. It was reissued in 1999 with bonus tracks on the band's own Neurot Recordings label. On February 15, 2010, the album was reissued on CD and digitally with new artwork by Neurot. Souls at Zero marked a shift in the band's style, moving away from the fast-paced hardcore punk influences of their early work towards slower tempos and greater experimentation.
Deafheaven is an American post-metal band formed in 2010. Originally based in San Francisco, the group began as a two-piece with singer George Clarke and guitarist Kerry McCoy, who recorded and self-released a demo album together. Following its release, Deafheaven recruited three new members and began to tour. Before the end of 2010, the band signed to Deathwish Inc. and later released their debut album Roads to Judah, in April 2011. They popularized a unique style blending black metal, shoegaze, and post-rock, among other influences, later called "blackgaze" by reviewers.
Deafheaven / Bosse-de-Nage is a split EP between the American, San Francisco Bay Area black metal bands Deafheaven and Bosse-de-Nage. The album was released in an LP format through The Flenser on November 20, 2012. Deafheaven contributed a cover of the post-rock band Mogwai's "Punk Rock" and "Cody" from their 1999 album Come On Die Young, while Bosse-de-Nage contributed the original composition, "A Mimesis of Purpose".
Sunbather is the second studio album by the American metal band Deafheaven. After the release of their debut record Roads to Judah, the then two piece group consisting of George Clarke and Kerry McCoy began work on Sunbather under the label Deathwish and recorded in several days in January 2013. The recording process brought a third member into the fold with drummer Dan Tracy who would go on to become a permanent fixture of the band. The album was recorded in The Atomic Garden Recording Studio, owned by Jack Shirley who had been a long time producer of the band.
The Flenser is an American record label founded by Jonathan Tuite in 2010 from San Francisco, California. It describes itself as a "dark music" label and a "dark experimental record label".
Kerry Dylan McCoy is an American musician, best known as the guitarist of San Francisco–based blackgaze band Deafheaven.
Mutoid Man is an American heavy metal band formed in 2012 in Brooklyn, New York City by Cave In vocalist/guitarist Stephen Brodsky, Converge drummer Ben Koller and bassist Nick Cageao. They have released two EPs and three studio albums to date. AllMusic described their sound as metalcore but noted that it engages not just with hardcore punk and heavy metal but also rock and roll, math rock, progressive rock, and psychedelic music. Pitchfork celebrated their debut album Bleeder for "[embracing] both numbskull hard rock and cerebral progressive metal, at a time when the two approaches have become almost mutually exclusive in heavy music."
Blackgaze is a fusion genre combining elements of black metal and shoegaze. The word is a blend of the names of the two genres, described by The Guardian as "the buzz term for a new school of bands taking black metal out of the shadows and melding its blast beats, dungeon wailing and razorwire guitars with the more reflective melodies of post-rock, shoegaze and post-hardcore." According to Exclaim!, blackgaze "marries the harsh, alien instrumentation of black metal with the mellower, dreamy soundscapes of shoegaze."
Bosse-de-Nage is an American band from San Francisco, California, United States, composed of four anonymous members. Considered a part of the blackgaze scene, the band performs an experimental black metal style that draws from post-rock, shoegaze, post-hardcore, screamo, and indie rock, with influences from Slint, Mogwai, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. AllMusic critic Gregory Heaney wrote that the band "crafts a sound that's as comfortable expanding outward as it is contracting into a suffocating mass of needling guitars and frantic drumming." The band's lyrics touch upon various subjects, such as sex, filth, bodies, perversion, and death. Their name is taken from French symbolist Alfred Jarry's book Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician; it is the name of a monkey which may or may not have been a hallucination of the narrator.
III is the third studio album by American black metal band Bosse-de-Nage, released on June 26, 2012. It is the band's first album on Profound Lore Records. The album features a cross between black metal and math rock styles, with elements from various genres such as shoegaze, post-hardcore, screamo, and indie rock. The album's sound was also compared to various music acts such as Slint, Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord.
Jack Shirley is an American record producer, audio engineer and musician. He is known for his analog driven aesthetic, and work with eclectic artists, including Deafheaven, whose 2013 sophomore album Sunbather received widespread critical acclaim. Shirley also worked with various other music acts, including Jeff Rosenstock, Loma Prieta, Bosse-de-Nage, Punch, Whirr, Shinobu, La Bella, State Faults and Frameworks. Besides his production work, he plays guitar for the bands Comadre and Everybody Row.
Posthuman is the fourth studio album by the American hardcore band Harm's Way. The album was released on February 9, 2018 and marked the band's first release through Metal Blade Records. Vocalist James Pligge says the album is influenced to a smaller extent by Slipknot, but to a larger extent Triptykon and Machine Head. Harm's Way promoted the album with music videos for "Become a Machine" and "Last Man", and online streams of "Human Carrying Capacity" and "Call My Name".
