Petrychor for Experimental/Post-Metal

I'm honestly kind of surprised that this band apparently hasn't been mentioned here even once, but it is pretty obscure. Experimental/Post-Metal seems the best fit although I could also see the band fitting under Tech/Extreme Prog.

Anyway, Petrychor is a black metal solo project of Tad Piecka, also a member of the post-rock band Beware of Safety and as a solo artist responsible for the ambient project Carbonscape, the electronic project Tremolite, and solo finger-style acoustic folk guitar which he's released under his own name. I'm not sure when the project was formed, but the first EP was 2010's Dryad, followed by 2011's full-length Effigies and Epitaphs. Rounding out the discography are a 2013 split with Frozen Ocean, Autumn Bridges; a 2014 full-length, Makrokosmos; and a 2015 EP, Apocalyptic Witchcraft.

All of these have pretty strong prog credentials, in my opinion, but the best example is Apocalyptic Witchcraft, a 26:19 single-track EP. The song goes from folk to black metal back to folk back to black metal back to folk again, and demonstrates a stunning progression in themes from movement to movement in the grandest prog tradition. The band incorporates influences from disparate genres like folk, electronica, shoegaze, dark ambient, and Krautrock. I also find Petrychor relatively unique among black metal in that, despite a fairly melancholy atmosphere on some tracks, the music also incorporates a fair amount of hope into its emotional palate. In this way it reminds me strongly of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Releases I particularly recommend include Apocalyptic Witchcraft, Dryad, and Effigies and Epitaphs, though all are good.

You can stream Petrychor's entire discography at his Bandcamp, and all releases are available for purchase for a small sum (you can get the whole discography for just over $10, which strikes me as quite reasonable for over two and a half hours of music). Some of them have been released in physical editions on CD, but some are unfortunately only available digitally. (edit: never mind; I've just discovered that Apocalyptic Witchcraft and Makrokosmos were released on CD as a twofer while I wasn't paying attention, meaning that the whole discography is now out on CD).


Edited by CassandraLeo - May 15 2016 at 22:13

On the metal charts for evaluation, thanks