Vaura | |
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Origin | Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Genres | Blackgaze, post-punk, gothic rock, experimental |
Years active | 2009–present |
Labels | Wierd, Profound Lore, The Flenser |
Members | Joshua Strachan Kevin Hufnagel Toby Driver |
Past members |
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Website | www |
Vaura is an American experimental band from Brooklyn, New York, United States, formed in 2009 by singer, guitarist and primary songwriter Joshua Strachan and featuring Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia, Gorguts) on lead guitar, Toby Driver (Kayo Dot, Maudlin of the Well, Secret Chiefs 3) on bass.
Vaura's debut album, Selenelion, was released on Wierd Records in February 2011. Stereogum described the record as "a warped, heady strain of metal, one that incorporates bits and pieces of black metal, post-rock, and prog, melting them all into one singular brooding sludge". [1]
The band has toured in support of French group Alcest [2] and has played with Bloody Panda, Sannhet, Deafheaven, Monarch and Castevet.
In early 2013, Vaura was signed to Profound Lore Records. Their sophomore effort, The Missing, was released by the label on November 12, 2013, followed by a third LP in 2019 entitled Sables which was mixed by longtime Scott Walker collaborator Peter Walsh. [3] The Missing was named one of Pitchfork's Best Metal Albums of the Year, [4] while The Wire called Sables "art-pop with an 80s sheen nodding to bands like Japan, The Fixx, and even Discipline-era King Crimson." [5]
Toby Driver is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter, producer, label owner, and artist, best known for his work as the leader of the experimental bands Kayo Dot and Maudlin of the Well.
KEN Mode is a Canadian noise rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, that was formed in September 1999.
Alcest is a French post-black metal band from Bagnols-sur-Cèze, founded and led by Neige. It began in 2000 as a black metal solo project by Neige, then became a trio, but members Aegnor and Argoth left the band following the 2001 release of their first demo, leaving Neige as the sole member. Neige began incorporating elements of shoegaze and post-metal into the project's sound from 2005 onwards and is largely credited with pioneering the fusion genre known as blackgaze. In 2009, drummer Winterhalter from Les Discrets joined Alcest, after eight years with Neige as its sole full-time member.
Krallice is an American black metal band formed by New York City musicians Colin Marston, Mick Barr, Nick McMaster and Lev Weinstein. They play an experimental, highly technical style of black metal. The band has released fourteen studio albums and three EPs, most recently the LP Mass Cathexis 2 - The Kinetic Infinite on December 1, 2023. They have been described as "one of the most interesting, engaging black metal bands to emerge in recent years" and "one of the most important bands in modern black metal".
Blacklist is a band from Brooklyn, New York composed of Joshua Strachan, Ryan Rayhill (bass), Glenn Maryansky (drums) and James Minor (guitar). They were one of the flagship bands of painter Pieter Schoolwerth's Wierd Records imprint. The band's atmospheric modern rock music was described as "anthemic"; "darkly erotic, strangely sensual"; and "a much-needed anomaly in NYC's music scene". They were sometimes classified as part of the post-punk revival, though their sound was generally more dense, incorporating elements of shoegaze and heavy metal with cold wave. The members often cited influences like My Bloody Valentine, Motörhead and Black Sabbath as influences alongside bands like the Comsat Angels, Killing Joke and the Sound.
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.
Kevin Hufnagel is an American musician, based in NYC. He is known for his solo guitar works, for forming the progressive instrumental rock/metal band Dysrhythmia, and for being a member of Gorguts, Vaura, Sabbath Assembly, Veldune, and Byla. He also is a full time guitar instructor, teaching both in-person and virtually.
Joshua Strawn, known professionally as Joshua Strachan, is a songwriter, record producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist.
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.
Kerry Dylan McCoy is an American musician, best known as the guitarist of San Francisco–based blackgaze band Deafheaven.
Pallbearer is an American doom metal band from Little Rock, Arkansas, formed in 2008.
Castevet was an American black metal band formed in 2006 in New York City, New York. The band announced their breakup on July 21, 2014. The last line-up of the band featured Andrew Hock on vocals and guitar, Ian Jacyszyn on drums and Krallice member Nicolas McMaster on bass guitar.
Sannhet is an American experimental metal band from Brooklyn, New York, United States. The band formed in 2010 by John Refano, Christopher Todd, and AJ Annunziata. They have released three full-length albums as well as a variety of EPs and singles which were collected together and released in their 2016 compilation album Young Death. Sannhet has become known for their elaborate live shows which combine their "dense" sound with lights, projected visualizations and rhythm-synced strobes. They are an instrumental band with a sound that combines black metal, sludge metal, and shoegaze with the structures and orders of post-rock and post-punk, though unlike other bands with similar influences, they tend to favor shorter song structures.
The Ape of God is the name of three different studio albums released by the American rock band Old Man Gloom—one of which was a "fake" album released promotionally to music critics and subsequently leaked online, and two of which were officially released to the public making up the band's sixth and seventh studio albums. The two publicly released albums were released on November 11, 2014, through Profound Lore Records (digital/CD) and SIGE Records (vinyl)—marking the first time since the band's inception that an album was not released through Tortuga Records and Hydra Head Records. The Ape of God albums were marketed and promoted as a single album for several months, but the weekend before its official release, it was revealed to actually be the name of two separate but identically titled studio albums and was also revealed that the version that some music critics had reviewed and leaked only featured edited-down versions of songs from both albums.
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.
Mamiffer is an American band based in Seattle, Washington. It started out as a solo project for former Pyramids and Everlovely Lightningheart member Faith Coloccia that later saw several session musicians and collaborators, most consistently Aaron Turner of Isis fame and who would later become Coloccia's husband. Turner and Coloccia also perform in House of Low Culture together. Mamiffer has released several albums, splits and collaborations through various record labels, most prominently through Turner's now-defunct Hydra Head Records and Turner and Coloccia's own SIGE Records. The band is known for its collaborations, including albums recorded with Locrian, Circle and Daniel Menche; and working with session/guest artists from bands including members of These Arms Are Snakes, Helms Alee, Sunn O))) and Wolves in the Throne Room.
Bell Witch is an American doom metal band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 2010.