Hello Heathens, I had a lot of fun putting together a last minute playlist for the show this week based on a conversation that I had a few weeks ago with a coworker. I was talking about the sub-genres of metal that I really enjoy and how it impacts my non-metal listening. I got onto talking about how post-metal and post-rock got me into shoegaze and my coworker had never heard of the genre shoegaze. Shoegaze is an offshoot of indie rock and dream pop that is based on using effects from pedals, patches, and distortion to create layered songs to well, gaze to. It’s a genre of music that is hard to explain to people who have never heard it, but once you hear it you learn to recognize it.

What I love about this genre is the heavy use of delay, reverb (and reverse reverb), tremolo’s pedals all coming together to give you an almost dreamlike rock sound. While there are some heavier sounds out there in the shoegaze world the dreamy stuff is really what I love. Then when we look at the cross over of metal and shoegaze we get post-metal which is a combination of elements of doom, death, and sludge metal and shoegaze. With many of the same pedals used in both genres and the only big difference being the aggressive you get some cool tracks like those in today’s playlist that sound more like a nightmare vs a dream pop soundscape.

Overall I’d say that both are fun genres and really great for putting on while you are doing some work as their layering, minimal vocals, and emotional tidal waves can help bring you in and out of moments of focus vs relaxation while chugging away at a long task. I included a few bonus songs that weren’t on the show in the playlist below.

Keep heavy the Sabbath day.
5.4.21 Playlist