Lune - Into Eternal Sleep (2026)

A mysterious project from the mountains of Austria (or the Danube's valley of Austria possibly, but I wanted to be as epic as the music here). The artist known only as M with no social media as far as I know, released what seems to be his 4th album and filled it with very, very very cinematic, if not pompous metal music.

I have little idea on the divisions between metal genres and, frankly, I rarely care. I usually listen only to the atmospheric ones that border post-metal as close as possible. You can safely say that Lune's two-track album is one of those exceptions. Atmospheric to the core, sounding like a soundtrack to an epic, possible viking-themed (probably because of the title) cinematic production, even if slightly lacking on the quality front, Into Eternal Sleep sounds more like a movie score than a metal album which I count as a big plus. The compositions are interestingly complicated and beautifully unhurried, the more metal passages really seem to underline something important, a pinnacle point that really matters.

The rest of the compositions are more ethereal than heavy, more like a dream played with guitars and keys. The valleys. But when the cinematic ecstasy kicks in, you certainly know it.

Into Eternal Sleep costs 8 EUR.

Check: The Silent Departure

Country: Austria

Genre: cinematic black metal

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Besna - Krásno (2025)

After three years since their debut, the Slovakian outfit Besna shows us their sophomore album called Krásno. The Black metal here is only marginally seasoned with the "post-" suffix and while usually it makes me throw a bit, in this case the band's music works really well. I think it's also darker than before, but maybe it's because the world grew darker as well.

The title of the album translates to "Beautiful", which is slightly surprising. There must a good deal of irony in that as the worldwide situation is far from being beautiful (the band supports the Ukrainian war effort for example, and this crisis is nowhere close to an end, but the point is that the artists are aware and focused on what's going on, politically speaking). The lyrics supports this thought as, among traditionally metal-kind of poetry, there's this sentence (taken from the title track): "Indifference feeds hopelessness, indifference only feeds hopelessness". Indeed.

Musically speaking, the message is conveyed in the blackest of the ways: angry screams, guitar noise and fast melodies. My favourite track is the most deceiving one as Oceán prachu sounds like a peaceful instrumental interludium for the most part, but suddenly develops into pure musical anger. Again, indeed.

Krásno costs 7 EUR.

Check: Oceán prachu

Country: Slovakia

Genre: (post-) black metal

Besna - Zverstvá (2022)

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Great Cold Emptiness - Immaculate Hearts Will Triumph (2023)

The project led by the Maine-based Nathan Guerrette, Great Cold Emptiness, has recently released his third ever album and the final part of the "The Becoming of a Man" trilogy. Called Immaculate Hearts Will Triumph, the album is filled with heavy guitars and blackgaze vibes.

As he already managed to get us used to, Guerette creates a top-quality atmospheric black metal bordering with oneiric blackgaze. The compositions here are both dreamy and nightmarish, airy and heavy, soothing and enraging. There is some of black metal's riff racing and tons of angry vocals hidden somewhere under the haze of music. But the flow and the dispersed effects make it all extremely shoegaze-like. This whole powerful and inspiring atmosphere is needed on the album to talk about self-realization, the importance of friendship and "the triumph of the heart and overcoming the most difficult stages in a man's life: him finally leaving home". Nothing quite inspires awe just like a well-tailored blackgaze.

Immaculate Hearts Will Triumph costs 7 USD.

Great Cold Emptiness - Death Gifted a Bouquet (2020)

Check: With Friends Like This

Country: Maine, US

Genre: true blackgaze

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EYRTH - Meridian (2022)

The Latvian EYRTH creates their "uranium wreckage in audio" or post-rock/post-metal massive sounds for five years now and this is their second LP.  And so Meridian brings tons of overwhelming atmosphere and it is extremely satisfying.

Although the intro gives dark ambient vibes, the album quickly speeds up to its limits. The guitars are extremely heavy, doom metal-like but filtered by the post-metal atmosphere and noisy vibes. This combination brings fantastic results: it is dark, it is overwhelming, it is immersive. The music here fluctuates: sometimes it is closer to instrumental ambient, but usually it comes up to the heavens of loudness. The ambient passages slowly developing into deafening crescendos is how the album's longest track, Elliptic, is structured and everybody has to agree that it's something spectacular. But the whole album sounds like a whole that had been well thought through by the band: the calmer parts prepare the audience for louder hits, the louder hit deliver satisfying walls of noise and if it wasn't for the Spotify's playlist, I wouldn't know where one track begins and another ends.

Meridian costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Fallout

Country: Latvia

Genre: atmospheric post-metal

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olim - Ursine (2022)

Olim, or Joe Caswell, creates his solo music to channel the complicated feelings that make up blackgaze and atmospheric black metal genres and produce the "soaring passages of epic post-black melodies that are simultaneously melancholy and uplifting". On his second album under this moniker, Ursine, those are particularly striking.

And it's absolutely obvious that Caswell knows what he does. The compositions here are atmospheric in every meaning of the world while still being pretty fast-paced. The music is overwhelming and monumental, taking no time to develop, but, instead, attacks the audience with the heavy and rhythmic sound from the very beginnings of the songs til the very ends. But, blackgaze-like, the music feels also extremely smooth and inviting. This makes it a perfect trance-like experience as it's really difficult to stop listening until the very end. Ultimately, this is an album that can be enjoyed by both black metal and shoegaze fans equally and I'm here for it.

Ursine costs 4.5 EUR (6 CAD).

Check: Light Crept in Where Once Was None

Country: Canada

Genre: atmospheric black metal

Label: Flowing Downward

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