kokeshi
Japan · formed 2017 · last active 2025
Tokyo four-piece formed around 2017 by guitarist Adel and drummer Kazuma, later completed by vocalist Nana Yokota and bassist Junichi, fusing black metal blast beats and screamo intensity with a blurred, melodic shoegaze wall of sound (blackgaze). Debut album Doukei (2020) and follow-up Reikoku (2023) were both reissued for European/vinyl distribution via Gerpfast Record in 2025. Reviewers describe an intentionally raw, unpolished production framing gloomy, emotionally introspective post-metal songwriting.
SCORE PROFILE
Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.
WHY THOSE SCORES
- Shoegaze 7 — Blackgaze sound explicitly blends black-metal blast beats and harsh vocals with a 'dreamy soundscape of shoegaze,' per reviews of both Doukei and Reikoku (Moshville, Idioteq).
- Ambient 4 — Gloomy, atmospheric post-metal textures dominate the slower passages, with an 'intentionally unpolished' production adding to the raw, hazy atmosphere per critical reviews.
MEMBERS
- Nana Yokotavocals, lyrics
- Adelguitar
- Junichibass
- Kazumadrums
CONNECTIONS
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- UnaffiliatedEI 11AvhathShoegazeHardcoreBlack
Avhath is a Jakarta blackened-crust quintet that fuses d-beat hardcore beatdowns with post-black metal riffing and a blackgaze-adjacent haze that's earned them Metal Archives' 'Post-Black Metal/Crust/Shoegaze' tag. Twice AMI Award winners for Best Metal Production, they've built a dense split/EP discography with regional peers and, in 2024, a full collaborative record with fellow Indonesian experimentalists KUNTARI.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 13DeafheavenShoegazeBlackHardcore
Deafheaven is an American band formed in San Francisco in 2010 by vocalist George Clarke and guitarist Kerry McCoy, and the most prominent US exponent of blackgaze — a fusion of black metal's tremolo blizzards and shrieked vocals with the luminous washes of shoegaze and post-rock. Their second album, Sunbather (2013), released on Jacob Bannon of Converge's label Deathwish Inc. and produced by Jack Shirley, became one of the most critically acclaimed and divisive metal records of its decade, its pink cover art a byword for the genre's crossover appeal. Later albums swung between the harsher New Bermuda (2015) and the fully clean-sung Infinite Granite (2021) before returning to extremity on Lonely People with Power (2025).
- Chiptune blackEI 18HomeskinHardcoreBlackShoegaze
The solo, day-to-day-reality-grounded counterpart project of Dallas, TX multi-instrumentalist Garry Brents (also of Cara Neir and Gonemage), formed 2021. Tagged Avant-garde Black Metal / Grindcore on Metal Archives, Homeskin is built around rapid, often sub-24-hour recording sessions, intentional tape-wobbling production, and a hazy, melancholic take on black metal shot through with post-hardcore, screamo and noise-rock influences. Brents deliberately ended the project at its 17th release, 'End's Daze Without Organs,' after a self-imposed 15-month arc.
- UnaffiliatedEI 17KALT ‖ WEISSShoegazeBlackHardcore
Avant-garde black metal / digital hardcore project founded 2018 by Viktor Sohm (also of Vienna outfit PRLLNKRCHN) in Vienna, Austria. Debut EP Serotonin (2019) fused blackgaze atmosphere with dissonant black metal; the follow-up album NorAdrenalin (2021, reissued by Total Dissonance Worship) pushed further into deconstructed-club and digital-hardcore territory, blending distorted guitars with club-beat electronics around themes of trauma and existentialism.
- Mathcore / DEP-verseEI 8FleshwaterShoegazeHardcore
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.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 16AlcestShoegazeBlackAmbient
Alcest is a French band formed in 2000 in Bagnols-sur-Cèze by multi-instrumentalist Neige (Stéphane Paut), initially as a solo black metal project. Widely credited with pioneering blackgaze and post-black metal, the band pairs black metal's tremolo and blast-beats with the shimmering, ethereal textures of shoegaze and dream pop to evoke Neige's recurring theme of a luminous 'other world.' Since 2009 Alcest has been a duo of Neige and drummer Winterhalter, releasing albums such as Souvenirs d'un autre monde (2007), Les Voyages de l'âme (2012) and Kodama (2016) on Prophecy Productions before moving to Nuclear Blast.
- UnaffiliatedEI 12Al-KamarShoegazeBlackAmbient
Al-Kamar is a Japanese blackgaze/depressive black metal project, essentially the solo work of a musician known as Tsukisima, begun in 2010 as a doujin circle arranging Touhou Project music before evolving into an atmospheric post-black/shoegaze sound that incorporates Vocaloid/voice-synthesis vocals. Live performances feature supporting musicians; the self-titled 2022 album marked a deliberate return to black metal roots.
- UnaffiliatedEI 16DoxophobiaShoegazeHardcoreAmbient
A UK bedroom-solo prog/avant-garde metal project by Leia Camilla that started as a full cover of Metallica's St. Anger before sprawling into mathcore, grindcore, metalcore, blackgaze, atmospheric metal, and ambient free improvisation. Related side-outlets DXO (ambient/noise/improv) and the short-lived black metal project Ljós extend the same restless, genre-hopping approach.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 17OathbreakerBlackHardcoreShoegaze
Oathbreaker are a Belgian band formed in Ghent in 2008, evolving from crust/screamo into the atmospheric post-black metal of their acclaimed 2016 album Rheia on Deathwish Inc. Fronted by Caro Tanghe, whose delivery ranges from fragile singing to full-throated screams, they are part of Amenra's Church of Ra collective. Rheia was recorded by Jack Shirley, the engineer behind Deafheaven's records, situating the band squarely within the modern blackgaze lineage.
- Blackgaze / avant-blackEI 14LasterBlackShoegazeAmbient
Laster is a Dutch avant-garde black metal trio from Utrecht, active since 2012, that has steadily dissolved conventional black metal form into a hybrid of art rock, new wave, and shoegaze. Their Dutch-language lyrics dwell on love, distress, and identity across albums like Ons vrije fatum and Andermans mijne. In 2023 they toured Europe as support for Japanese avant-garde metal veterans Sigh.