Boris (rock/shoegaze era)

Cave In is an American rock band formed in 1995 in Methuen, Massachusetts, whose 1998 debut Until Your Heart Stops established them in the metalcore scene before they shifted toward space rock with 2000's Jupiter. Founding vocalist/guitarist Stephen Brodsky leads the band alongside guitarist/vocalist Adam McGrath and drummer John-Robert Conners. Bassist Caleb Scofield died in a car accident on March 28, 2018, after which Nate Newton of Converge joined on bass and backing vocals. Much of their core catalog was released through Hydra Head Records.

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Rosetta is a post-metal band formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2003, blending sludge metal, post-rock, drone, ambient, and space rock into a sound the band self-describes as "metal for astronauts." Their key releases include the two-disc The Galilean Satellites (2006), Wake/Lift (2007), and A Determinism of Morality (2010), issued on Translation Loss Records before the group became fully independent. They are known for lengthy, atmospheric compositions and an eclectic hybrid drawing on post-hardcore, shoegaze, and progressive elements.

Isis were an American post-metal band formed in Boston in 1997 and later based in Los Angeles, active until their breakup in 2010. Building on roots in hardcore punk and doom metal, they helped pioneer and evolve the post-metal sound established by Neurosis and Godflesh, favoring lengthy compositions built on repetition and gradual structural evolution. Led by Aaron Turner, founder of Hydra Head Records, the band's core lineup remained consistent across five studio albums including the acclaimed Oceanic (2002) and Panopticon (2004). They disbanded in June 2010, just before a split EP with the Melvins, and reunited once in 2018 as Celestial for a tribute show.

Jesu are a British experimental metal band formed in 2003 by Justin Broadrick in Abergele, Wales, following the breakup of his industrial-metal band Godflesh; the name comes from the last track of Godflesh's album Hymns. Essentially Broadrick's solo vehicle, the project trades Godflesh's brutality for melancholic, heavily layered music blending shoegaze, dream pop, drone, and post-metal. Their early lineup for releases such as the Silver EP (2006) and the album Conqueror (2007) added Diarmuid Dalton on bass and Ted Parsons on drums.

Cult of Luna is a Swedish post-metal band formed in 1998 in Umeå, emerging from members of the local hardcore group Eclipse. Widely regarded as a leading force in post-metal alongside Neurosis and Isis, their songs are long, slow and crushing, layering heavy distorted passages with orchestral interludes and post-rock-esque forays. Their discography includes Salvation (2004), Somewhere Along the Highway (2006), and the Metropolis-inspired Vertikal (2013). In 2016 they released the space-themed collaborative album Mariner, recorded with American vocalist Julie Christmas.

Palms is an American post-metal and dream-pop band formed in 2011 by three former members of Isis — bassist Jeff Caxide, drummer Aaron Harris, and guitarist/keyboardist Bryant Clifford Meyer — together with Deftones vocalist Chino Moreno. Their self-titled debut album was released on June 25, 2013 through Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings, trading Isis's sludgy heaviness for lush, shoegaze-inflected atmospheres. A 10th-anniversary edition in 2023 added the previously unreleased tracks "Opening Titles" and "End Credits".

Fleshwater is an American shoegaze/alternative band formed in Boston in 2017 as a side project of metalcore group Vein.fm, pairing Vein members Anthony DiDio and Matt Wood with vocalist-guitarist Marisa Shirar. Trading Vein.fm's chaos for soft-grunge and nu-gaze accessible melody indebted to Hum and Sunny Day Real Estate, their debut LP We're Not Here to Be Loved (2022, Closed Casket Activities) was produced and mixed by Converge's Kurt Ballou at GodCity Studio.

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Helium Horse Fly are a Liège, Belgium avant-garde/experimental-rock act formed in 2009, fronted by vocalist/keyboardist Marie Billy alongside guitarist Stéphane Dupont, bassist Dimitri Iannello and drummer Gil Chevigné (who replaced founding drummer Bastien Dupont in 2014). Critics have described their sound as 'progressive baroque hardcore' and compared its dark, brooding intensity to Kayo Dot, spanning EPs A Dispute to Redefine Clearly Frontiers Between Devils and Angels (2010) and Fishing for Ghosts (2011) through the albums Helium Horse Fly (2013) and Hollowed (2019). Reviewers place them across post-metal, art rock and experimental-rock tags.

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From Köld (2009) onward Sólstafir shed black metal for sweeping atmospheric post-rock and post-metal, trading harsh vocals for Aðalbjörn Tryggvason's desperate, cracked clean singing over long, melancholic, reverb-drenched crescendos sung in Icelandic. The double album Svartir Sandar (2011) and its single "Fjara" broke the band internationally, and Ótta (2014, Season of Mist) leaned further into cinematic, cowboy-tinged shoegaze grandeur. This later Sólstafir sits alongside the atmospheric black/post-metal wave of bands like Alcest and Deafheaven while keeping a windswept, uniquely Icelandic identity.

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Ikd-sj is a Japanese avant-garde/nu/alternative metal act based in Tokyo, active since the 2000s with releases including The Mortuary (2006), World's End Fruit Basket (2009), Eternal Vacation (2016) and 死んだ雪白中毒者にキスを (2023). Reviewers describe a genre-hopping sound fusing post-hardcore, noise rock, industrial textures, shoegaze haze and djent-adjacent riffing under trance-like harsh vocals. The project has stayed active into 2025 with new singles.

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