Daygraves

Shoegaze staples like My Bloody Valentine, M83, or even Hundredth have forged the path for ethereal soundscapes, obscured vocals, redefined guitar distortion, and volume. Bands like Uada, Vials of Wrath, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Antestor have forged a more aggressive path in black metal. What happens when these two classes of sounds merge is an evolving genre that has been dubbed “blackgaze.” If you’re unfamiliar with either, welcome to the party. Your life is about to change for the better.

Daygraves, based in Austin, TX, is quickly becoming essential to any blackgaze collection. With their newest EP, Imperishable, Daygraves takes listeners deep into the mysticism and the beauty of what the genre embodies. The music is both haunting and heavy, leaving you with a sense of calm in the midst of darkness.

“Desert Dust” kicks off the EP with an enigmatic, melancholic atmosphere that Daygraves captures with near perfection. The following track, “The Loneliest Liturgy,” is quite the opposite, with almost no gaze and plenty of black to pay homage to a purer vein of black metal. But then Daygraves throws you for another turn with the title track, “Imperishable,” a song that lingers with beautifully dark ambiance. It is a haunting, magical, and spiritual experience that leaves you in a state of sober-mindedness about the beauty and brevity of life.

Still in their early origins, the band’s modest following is likely due in part to their spiritual contextualization. In the thicket of black metal gatekeepers, their music is a paragon for those with open minds, stretching the genre’s typical paganistic themes into new philosophical territory that could bring Daygraves to the front of the pack.

About the Author

Andrew Voigt

Andrew currently lives in the Charlotte, NC area with his wife Beth, their son Declan, their daughter Sophia, and their orange cat, Pumpkin. He is also a self-renowned root beer and coffee enthusiast who has a slight addiction to Star Wars.

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