The Rise of Blackgaze

Blackgaze can be a term or genre that a lot of traditional metalheads shudder over. It combines black metal’s screeched vocals, blast beats, and extreme distortion with shoegaze’s ethereal, dreamy soundscapes. This may seem immiscible at first, but these two things blend together quite well. It has become one of my favorite sub-genres of metal and I think it has a lot of room to expand in the future. Blackgaze offers something a bit different than just atmospheric or ambient black metal. The sound seems more coherent and distinct. It can be hard to differentiate it from “post”-black metal, which itself is an…