#postmetal — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #postmetal, aggregated by home.social.
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Dymna Lotva – Vyraj Review By Thus SpokeThe power of storytelling is well-known to Belarusian post-black outcasts Dymna Lotva. Their previous album, The Land Under the Black Wings: Blood, progressed that series through tragic true and folkloric tales, its overt tragedy in this sense bringing the real devastation wracking their native and settled home countries.1 Vyraj sees Dymna Lotva continue to communicate with stories. Taking its name from the Slavic mythological realm to which both migrating birds and the souls of the dead travel, there’s an explicit parallel with the members’ own emigration as well as themes of personal journey, life, and death. But there’s always been more to Dymna Lotva’s music than their symbolically powerful concepts, and Vyraj makes no exception.
Dymna Lotva already had somewhat of a winning formula in a uniquely executed blend of black, folk, and post-metal. They evolve anyway, bringing in and emphasising further an electronic side that ranges from shimmering, chimelike keys to soft symphonics. It’s never enough to overshadow the metallic and, at its best, amplifies the (melo)drama of the climaxes and adds more layers to the band’s nuanced and emotional sound. This new direction brings with it something of the anthemic, with songs reprising uplifting melodies, stepping into steady sways, and being narrated more often by a duet, if not a chorus of voices.2 Leading those voices is the force of nature Katsiaryna Mankevich, who once again absolutely kills it with her wrenching screams and solemn classical cleans. The music is more direct, due to all the above as well as a comparatively shorter runtime, with fewer tracks, each of which references the others through recurring motifs.
Vyraj condenses and concentrates Dymna Lotva’s characteristic potency and poignancy, which this time are tinged a touch more with the blush of hope than the blackness of rage. The urgent, cascading melodies ring with a thrilling solidarity (“Zory,” “Viedźmieragina,” “Ustań Za Mianie”) and the mournful soaring solos with bittersweet sadness (“Niama Darohi,” “Return my Coffin Home”). The highlight here, and also the crowning jewel of the album, is the centrepiece “Niama Darohi,” which practically hums with longing for freedom. It’s in these places that the new electronic elements work the most magic, spinning glittering counter-melodies or supporting the climax with subtle strings and fluttering keys. The atmosphere they bring is deepened by the way Dymna Lotva use the dynamics of rhythm and intensity to deepen their compositions and make them still more compelling. Variously whispered, spoken, rasped, screamed lines circulate spells amidst shifting tempos (“Veha,” “Viedźmieragina,” “Niama Darohi”); sung and screamed male and female voices call and respond and join together (“The Boat of Despair,” “Ustań Za Mianie,” “Return my Coffin Home”); and both the graceful lull of cleans and the vicious snarls of harsh vocals move in synchronisation with those of the lead guitars. This also serves to bring the fierceness into sharper focus, through emphasis and contrast alone, or the dramatic turn from this graceful tension into a building explosion of passion and electricity (“Zory,” “Veha,” “Viedźmieragina”).
All of Vyraj has a somewhat magical aura, thanks to the use of (children’s) group vocals and xylophone-esque chimes and ambience amidst the savage or sombre. At its most vibrant, it sings with so much feeling that I long desperately for a lyric sheet and the ability to speak the language(s) these songs are written in.3 The brightness of these highs also obscures the comparative dimness of the lows, where that fire seems to be missing, and mellowness and ambience win out (“The Boat of Despair,” “Bu Samoje”). This is some feat considering the fact that the overall production seems tailored to the increased electronic emphasis, which presses the beautiful layers together, and so the very aspects that lend Vyraj some new magic also weaken that magic’s power. Just a bit more space would do wonders.
But Dymna Lotva are not ones to fade into the background. They care about their stories and delivering them in a way that forces you to listen. Despite any unevenness, Vyraj has an intangible specialness to it that irresistibly pulls the listener back. This is a lovely, sad, empowering piece of art that deserves more than the length of its runtime to weave its world around you.
Rating: Very Good
#2026 #35 #Aug26 #BelarusianMetal #BlackMetal #DymnaLotva #FolkMetal #PostBlackMetal #PostMetal #ProphecyProductions #Review #Reviews #Vyraj
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Prophecy Productions
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: August 7th, 2026 -
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YLY - Being In It.
"Weird music for weird people."
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Only Echoes – Born Adrift Review By Creeping Ivy
Metal is filled with reluctant vocalists. Whether it’s Dave Mustaine ultimately deciding to front Megadeth, or Mikael Åkerfeldt hesitantly filling the void in Opeth, or Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds eventually co-voicing Mastodon,1 vocals often exist in the genre as an afterthought. But what happens when there’s no after to the afterthought? You get something like Only Echoes, an instrumental post-metal quartet from Denver, CO. In their promo materials, Only Echoes explain that they formed expecting vocals to play a part in their music, but ‘when the time came to decide who would sing, no one raised a hand.’ This lack of vocals, however, became a staple of the band’s identity, fueling their self-titled EP (2018) and debut LP Sunsickness (2022), both of which were independently released. Arriving via Braeburn Records, sophomore album Born Adrift promises ‘an internal narrative without relying on lyrics to explain it.’ Said promo materials do, however, sketch the narrative: the album charts ‘a journey through survival, uncertainty, and the strange momentum that keeps a person moving through hostile waters.’
Without a vocalist, Only Echoes rely on the versatile arsenals of their instrumentalists to convey Born Adrift’s arc. The band references several acts one would expect as influences on an (instrumental) post-metal album: Russian Circles, Pelican, Isis.2 On the guitar front, Austin Minney and Dustin Yourishin combine for a menagerie of flickering melodies, glimmering clean chords, and chunky chugs. Drummer Zach Sirotkin lays down a bevy of blast beats, d-beats, and double-bass thunder. Meanwhile, bassist Ben Rosenberg periodically pokes through the mix with some upper-fret flourishes. As some elements of this description of Only Echoes hint at, Born Adrift doesn’t quite channel the spirit of the bands cited above. Yes, there are some well-earned quiet-to-heavy, heavy-to-quiet transitions across the album. But by and large, Only Echoes play far less patiently than these groups, swiftly shuffling between blissed-out breathers, punk-rock paces, and core-ish chuggery. Despite their mostly 6–8 minute lengths, the songs tend to sound like bursts of metal grab bag.
Because all but one song on Born Adrift briskly bounces between styles, any sense of album-spanning narrative is hard to detect. My criticism of the grab-bag songwriting notwithstanding, “Born Adrift” and “Tempest” do open the record with excitement, showcasing a band capable of moving melodies and infectious tempos. “So Tightly Bound” seems like it will be compositionally different; it develops an enchanting vibe across three minutes. But then the song quickly jumps into a d-beat-driven punk part, capped off with some obligatory chugging. It’s as if there’s a missing middle between the beginning and the punky outburst. After the aptly titled interlude (“Inter”), the album closes by showing some signs of patient development (“Steps Ahead of Drowning”). But then Only Echoes revert back to their familiar mode, jarringly contrasting serene buildups with breakneck speed (“Shimmering Death”). At 35 minutes, Born Adrift isn’t exactly a chore to get through, but it often feels longer than it is. I almost get the sense that Only Echoes tried to cram an album’s worth of material into nearly every song.
Unfortunately, sonic missteps also become a barrier to enjoying Only Echoes’s sophomore outing. On the production end of things, Born Adrift does seem cognizant of intentional mixing: the drums and bass grow more present in sections where the guitars are textural and ambient. The guitars, however, unpleasantly dominate the mix when Minney and Yourishin turn towards chugging rhythms. The bass, when it sticks to lower registers, gets lost and feels inessential. The big issue, however, concerns the low bitrate of Born Adrift’s audio files (128 kbps). At lower volumes, the album sounds compressed and mushy; at higher volumes, it’s clippy and grating. As a metal album in want of blasting, this latter fact is quite unfortunate.
Born Adrift ultimately disappoints, but not for its lack of vocals per se. As instrumentalists, Only Echoes clearly possess chops, and they show a knack for crafting and connecting affecting passages (“Born Adrift,” “Tempest”). Too often, however, these passages are disrupted by abrupt stylistic changes that come off as contrived. Additionally, the sonic flaws sadly hamper an album that does, at times, sound massive and powerful. In my view, Only Echoes don’t necessarily need someone to step up and command the microphone. They might, however, exercise the kind of restrained patience that, for me at least, tends to make for notable instrumental metal/rock.
Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 128 kbps mp3
Label: Braeburn Records
Websites: Official | Instagram | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: August 14th, 2026Show 2 footnotes
- Yes, Brann Dailor also sings for Mastodon, but not at the outset. ↩
- The band also cite Deafheaven and God Is an Astronaut as influences. ↩
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Listening to Gnosis by Russian Circles until the new album is released at the end of this month
Gnosis
Bandcamp link
https://russiancircles.bandcamp.com/album/gnosis -
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The Mantra Discord - Collecting Sentiments of a Derailed Past
"Some stories are too fractured for words"
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VARIÁT - Unintended Intention
"Austere urban psychedelia, dissonant noise poetry, string rituals & esoteric metal experiments."
#ambient #experimental #noise #industrial #psychedelic #avantgarde #postmetal #postindustrial #sludge #music
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Splendidula - Post Mortem
"A musical landscape of intense and modern Post/Sludge/Doom Metal."
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Splendidula - Somnus
#bandcampcodes #psychedelicrock #doommetal #stonermetal #postmetal #sludgemetal #femalefronted #femalevocals #music
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Amenra au Hellfest, un concert aussi viscéral qu’envoûtant #postmetal #live #Belgium - ARTE Concert More concerts on our website: https://www.arte.tv/concert You can also find us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ARTEConcert Instagram FR: https://www.instagram.com/arteconcertfr Instagram DE: https://www.instagram.com/arteconcertde
› https://feedbot.net/watch/Rxi-ia4OS-U via @feedbot -
AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö: Beware of Gods – Upon Whom The Last Light Descends III: Behead The Oracle By Kenstrosity
“AMG’s Unsigned Band Rodeö” is a time-honored tradition to showcase the most underground of the underground—the unsigned and unpromoted. This collective review treatment continues to exist to unite our writers in boot or bolster of the bands who remind us that, for better or worse, the metal underground exists as an important part of the global metal scene. The Rodeö rides on.”
Flying well under the radar, Minneapolis-based psychedelic sludge/doom metal duo Beware of Gods would’ve released their third installment in their Upon Whom the Last Descends series, entitled Behead the Oracle in such complete obscurity that even Metallum doesn’t know about it yet. But thanks to our resident sludge expert Cherd, Behead the Oracle entered our consciousness just in time for an assortment of ne’er-do-wells to offer their entirely unearned judgment of its mettle. Little do the Gods know that when they enter the realm of dogs, there be risk of piles. Good luck out there, and may your souls be spared. –Kenstrosity
Beware of Gods // Upon Whom The Last Descends III: Behead The Oracle [July 10th, 2026]
Grin Reaper: Beware of Gods throws a lot of labels into their description of Upon Whom the Last Light Descends III: Behead the Oracle,1 all of which are apt. Cinematic, progressive, doom-laden metal toeing the line between sludge and post furnishes a rich backdrop where Beware of Gods details a dystopian narrative with elements like machine messiahs and the illusion of free will. Conceptually, this environment will feel familiar to fans of Fear Factory and The Matrix, but musically Behead the Oracle lands in an industrial-tinged sludge trudge that often reminds me of a doomy Nine Inch Nails (“Secondary Drowning,” “Disenchanted Enchanter”), even down to The Archetype’s Reznor-like croon. Instrumentally, Beware of Gods delivers convincing performances in service to Behead the Oracle’s story, where guitars and bass swell and groove in a deftly-mixed soundscape. Unfortunately, Behead the Oracle suffers a fatal flaw when it comes to length, compounded by a few tracks that can be challenging to listen to over repeated spins. “The Ghost of a One-Armed Comedian” draws my biggest complaint, as it’s a six-minute plod featuring a meandering voice-over that would be more effective if chopped in half or cut altogether. Meanwhile, closer “Starve My Eyes That I May See” drags an already overlong album on for another ten minutes. Ultimately, Beware of Gods delivers good ingredients undercut by an unsavory length and a few skippable tracks, but exhibits enough talent and intriguing ideas that I’ll check out whatever divine warning they offer next. Mixed.
Spicie Forrest: The concept album strikes again! Centered around protagonist I, Nomad, Beware of Gods’ third LP, Upon Whom the Light Descends III: Behead the Oracle travels through an industrial, post-collapse hellscape. The album’s cinematic trappings of remind me of IPs like Mad Max, Fallout, and Casshern Sins, making Descends III feel more like the soundtrack to an unwritten movie than a typical album. Primary creative force The Archetype weaves riotous, stimpak-fueled sludge (“Tectonic Boogie with the Grief Eater”), the hard-boiled spoken word of seedy, smoke-filled hideouts (“The Ghost of a One Armed Comedian”), and 90s nu-metal (“Behead the Oracle”) into a surprisingly singular vision. While there are a lot of styles on display here, they’re stitched together well, with theatrical threading embodying the irreverence necessary to survive such a hopeless world. And for such a range of metallic styles, The Archetype’s pipes rise to each occasion and complement the music suitably well. I particularly enjoyed my nerves patiently fraying at the atonal hammering of “Disenchanted Enchanter” and “Starve My Eyes That I May See,” but those two are the longest tracks on the album, and they—along with a couple others—struggle to support their own weight. And while I can understand the narrative demands of Beware of Gods’ vision, getting through Descends III in one sitting proved a struggle, largely due to having three interludes (“Conflict Code_Cursed Blessed,” “Dead Radio Daylight,” “Correction Code_Pre-emptive Strikes Against Prophecy”). Nevertheless, of 56 minutes, there’s about 40-45 minutes of solid material here. 2.5/5.0
Sentynel: I know it’s a cliché for this sort of stoner-psych music, but wow, Behead the Oracle has a problem with songs that don’t go anywhere. I was misled by Beware of Gods’ promise of “cinematic sci-fi doom/post-metal,” but make no mistake: under the Scooby-Doo mask is but a meandering stoner album with a slight industrial edge to its sound palette. It sounds like it wants to be Isis (“Conflict Code_Cursed Blessed”) by way of Mutoid Man (“Tectonic Boogie With the Grief Eater”), with a reference here or there to Kyuss/QotSA (“Dead Radio Daylight”). But we’ve hit the fourth track (“Ocean of Teeth”) before we get a song with any trajectory at all. And that’s only if you survive the six minute spoken word plod of third track “The Ghost of a One Armed Comedian,” which will certainly haunt me. The rest of the album serves up an interlude and a repetitive Monster Magnet offcut for every additional track with any interest at all (“Disenchanted Enchanter,” “Dethroning the Delusion”). There’s lots of things I should like here, and when I put this on in the background it was very easy to tune in occasionally and hear something vaguely interesting. Actually sitting down and listening to the whole record, on the other hand, was a slog. Bad.
Alekhines Gun – Utilizing a flair for concept and story telling usually found in post-hardcore, Beware of Gods has emerged with a djenty, doomy, ethereal release. Fusing slabs of Conan heft with post-metalisms and a fantastically varied vocal approach from “The Archetype”, Upon Whom the Last Light Descends III: Behead the Oracle is a real mixed bag of a listen. The vocals do a good job at selling the story, as our Archetype bounces from the expected howls and yowls to full on cleans and spoken-word passages, conveying a narrative to suit the ever-shifting soundscape. Upon Whom is definitely a journey, and an engaging one, though how gripping you find it depends entirely on what you’re looking for. It’s rather light on real riffs or songs of memorability, in the traditional sense, though some real might rears its head in the grin-inducingly titled “Tectonic Boogie with the Grief Eater”, and particularly in “Ocean of Teeth (Haunted by the Glimpse of a White Light)”, the highlight of the album. But what it might lack in the brutz it makes up for in sheer personality and charm, inviting one to listen in on the bizarre and inscrutable exploits of one armed comedians one minute, only to hear the bluesy laments of a “Disenchanted Enchanter” the next, with just enough curb stompage to keep boredom from setting in. Worth a few listens, but not casual ones; really lock in and let this light descend all around you. 3.0/5.0
Kenstrosity: I wasn’t sure what to expect from Beware of Gods when they were brought to my table. Despite a fair bit of lead time, it took a while for me to wrap my head around what Behead the Oracle meant to be, what it meant to achieve. An unexpectedly fluid mix of NIN-esque industrial with Mastodonic sludge and Psychonautic post-metal, slowed down to a doomed crawl and enriched with bouts of poetic spoken word, Behead the Oracle hypnotizes as often as it confuses. With hooky tracks like “Tectonic Boogie with the Grief Eater,” “Ocean of Teeth,” and “Secondary Drowning,” Beware of Gods makes a compelling showing in the style. Competent and varied vocals blend with trippy riffs and eerie melodies in these stronger cuts to create a kaleidoscopic, but dense and dark, bluesy shroud that envelops the senses. In other areas, like the spoken word “The Ghost of a One Armed Comedian” or the overlong “Disenchanted Enchanter” and meandering closer “Starve My Eyes That I May See,” Beware of Gods loses traction as muddy storytelling and abstract character development obfuscate the record’s message in flowery language, repetitive songwriting, and lack of propulsion. Over time, though, I found myself growing more curious to understand this enigmatic record, and found substantial enjoyment in the way it flows despite its lumbering pace and occasionally monotonous sequences. It’s possible that Behead the Oracle is a bit too smart or abstract for its own good, which makes connecting more deeply with its story a challenge. Nonetheless, it’s a curious and layered affair that deserves a spin or two even if it never finds permanent residence in your rotation. Mixed.
#2026 #AmericanMetal #AMGSUnsignedBandRodeo #AMGSUnsignedBandRodeo2026 #BewareOfGods #Conan #DoomMetal #FearFactory #IndustrialMetal #Jul26 #Kyuss #Mastodon #MonsterMagnet #MutoidMan #NIN #NineInchNails #PostMetal #Psychonaut #QueensOfTheStoneAge #Review #Reviews #SludgeMetal #Tool #UponWhomTheLastDescendsIIIBeheadTheOracle -
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The Mountain King - Pike Dreams
"This is not a dream - it is a reckoning of dreams. Pike dreams are human lore in music form."
#drone #noise #electronica #synthwave #instrumental #soundtrack #dungeonsynth #triphop #postpunk #doom #postmetal #postrock #dronedoommetal #music
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Cult of Luna au Hellfest 2026. Puissant concert!
Arte propose plein de concerts filmés lors de la dernière édition
#Metal #PostMetal #SludgeMetal #Music #Hellfest
www.arte.tv/fr/videos/132692-033-A/cult-of-luna -
SAVE THE DATE & SPREAD THE WORD!
🦑 HELLSEATIC FESTIVAL 2027
⚓️ Schlachthof Bremen
🗓️ June 11-12, 2027SEA YOU THERE
#Metal #BlackMetal #PostBlackMetal #PostMetal #Doom #DoomMetal #IndustrialDoom #Sludge #PostRock #Rock #HardnHeavy #Shoegaze #ProgressiveGitarrenmusik #Underground #HeavyMusic
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Heathen Tongues - Neurogenesis
"Two piece post-crust band from the metal capital of the world; Denver, Colorado"
#grunge #doom #postmetal #stonermetal #psychedelicmetal #music
