Blackgaze / post-black, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 Then
Black metal 1982
Tremolo picking, blast beats, shrieked vocals and deliberately cold production. More an aesthetic than a technique - atmosphere matters more than clean sound.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The production is intentional, not a flaw.
Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992) - 3 What you asked about
Blackgaze / post-black 2007
Black metal tremolo over shoegaze harmony: the same density, but the result comes out luminous instead of frozen.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Deafheaven - Sunbather. It opens with nine minutes that justify the whole genre.
Deafheaven, Sunbather (2013) - 4 Where to go next
Progressive power metal 1994
Power metal choruses laid over prog structures and meters.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Symphony X - The Divine Wings of Tragedy. The title track runs twenty minutes.
Symphony X, Symphony X (1994)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Blackgaze / post-black descends from, in order. Blackgaze / post-black has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.