Exploring the World of Ambient Metal
Ambient. Metal. These two words describing a genre probably sound completely paradoxical. Looking at them individually, these two genres couldn’t possibly be farther apart in the musical realm, right? I mean, metal is all about distortion, speed, and being as loud as possible. Ambient music is so quiet, one doesn’t even notice there’s music playing. How can these two things go together? I personally find that the more contradicting two genres are that form a subgenre, the more captivating it can be. Often, it is just experimental or dark ambient music with a touch of metal influences. Alternatively, some ambient metal artists explore both sides of the genre individually. They might switch back and forth from album to album or song to song.
Here are 10 ambient metal artists to check out if you find the idea intriguing.
Lustre is probably my favorite ambient metal artist. Most of their songs consist of melodic keyboard melodies over suppressed metal riffs and distant shrieks. The viscous atmosphere is all-enveloping. It yields a very comfortable and safe environment, despite sounding desolate and cold at the same time. These are honestly some of the most relaxing albums I own. I often listen right before bed or to help unwind after a particularly long or stressful day.
Lustre has quite a few albums and EPs to discover — a task which I am still working on. Many of their albums don’t sound terribly different from one another but they’ve gone through a variety of production qualities over time. Their earlier work is more “lo-fi” but can be quite enchanting. Their more recent albums sound more polished, but a tad formulaic and predictable.
Favorite albums: Wonder, Blossom, Still Innocence
Basarabian Hills (Moldova)
This band is fairly similar to Lustre, creating keyboard-laden, long, relaxing pieces with distant screams throughout. Calling this “metal” in any form is a bit of a stretch, but that’s the nature of this genre. Some of it can sound a bit amateur, but overall, I enjoy what I’ve heard so far. I haven’t checked out nearly as many of their albums, but I plan to. Oh, and they have one of the coolest band logos I’ve ever seen.
Favorite albums: Groping in a Misty Spread, Enveloped in The Velvet Cloak of Midnight
Burzum (Varg Vikernes) is a very well-known influence in the early Norwegian black metal scene. He started experimenting with ambient (or “dungeon synth”) pieces early on. At first, they were sandwiched between the raw, unrelenting, black metal tracks in early albums such as Det som engang var and Hvis lyset tar oss. I won’t go into the details here, but in 1994, Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison. Once imprisoned, he recorded two albums but only had access to a synthesizer, so they were completely in the ambient style. The first one, Dauði Baldrs is generally considered to be terrible, but its successor Hliðskjálf is quite pleasing. The medieval instrumentation and melodies are quite enjoyable. I quite enjoy Filosofem as it contains a good mix of the two sides before he went full-on ambient. I haven’t been too excited about checking out any of his post-prison work, because it simply doesn’t seem very good. I do know there are more dungeon synth and neofolk-type sounds in there, though. Maybe there’s a hidden gem somewhere.
Favorite albums: Hvis lyset tar oss, Filosofem, Hliðskjálf
This enigmatic artist may not be the best example of ambient metal, but there are only so many artists I know of to showcase here. He (Georg Börner) hovers somewhere around depressive or atmospheric black metal, but experiments with ambient tracks quite often. There are a few on Melancholie², most of the second song on the Wolves and Sheep EP, as well as most songs on the Interludium EP. I do like his more metal albums better though. If you’re interested in those, be sure to check out TheStarsAreDeadNow and especially my favorite, Autumn.
Albums in question: Melancholie², Wolves and Sheep, Interludium
I’m only referring to Kauan’s first two albums here — Lumikuuro and Tietäjän laulu. Not everyone would agree that these are ambient metal albums, but they largely remind me of other bands in this list. The soft keyboard and piano melodies are arguably the forefront of these albums, and the restrained distortion and vocals are just an afterthought. There’s even some violin and flute thrown in the mix. The ambient qualities on these albums could be the product of low production quality. Several of these songs were later re-recorded on Muistumia and pack much more of a punch.
Kauan went in a much more folk metal/post-rock direction after this. Don’t get me wrong, I love that direction and Kauan is one of my favorite bands. I just wanted to showcase their more ambient works.
Albums in question: Lumikuuro, Tietäjän laulu
I admittedly don’t know much about this artist — I discovered him (Alexander Koskin) fairly recently and only have one album so far (Summer). It reminds me of Basarabian Hills, maybe a bit heavier. It is slathered in keyboard melodies but also has a fair bit of harsh vocals. His more recent work seems to be getting more polished and moving toward a symphonic/post-black metal sound. He has plenty of albums and I’m looking forward to checking out more.
Favorite album so far: Summer
Eldamar create more of an epic-sounding, proper album than a lot of the artists here. It’s progressive, fantasy-inspired, and blends the two sides of this genre together perfectly. There’s a decent amount of keyboards here, not to mention female vocals, and plenty of heaviness too. I’ll be the first to admit, this band is a bit cheesy, but somehow I don’t care and actually enjoy it. The songs here don’t have much variation, but that is intentional as the music takes time to build a fantasy world around you.
Favorite album: The Force of The Ancient Land
Honestly, I get Elderwind confused with Eldamar not only because of the name, but they also sound so similar. These Russian guys create something a bit closer to atmospheric metal, but there are still many ambient influences here. Their music is fairly uplifting, with heavy nature themes. There are keyboards but they don’t steal the show too much. I can hear hints of Summoning, Saor, Sojourner, and Lustre.
Favorite album so far: The Magic of Nature
Nhor is a very unusual and anonymous solo artist that I struggled figuring out if I wanted to include here at all. I decided to go for it because I don’t know what other list I would ever include him on. I also believe he’s very talented and don’t mind getting the word out.
His “ambient” work mostly consists of delicate, meditative piano playing and some acoustic strumming. It is played conventionally but has a very sorrowful and mournful tone. I would honestly consider this neoclassical or even neofolk, but some of it is so sparse that calling it “ambient” is fitting as well. In fact, I discovered him from the Whom the Moon a Nightsong Sings neofolk compilation that I talk about in this article. There are some vocals here and there, generally of the wordless, chanting variety. The majority of his albums and EPs are in this style and don’t contain any hints of metal at all.
The strange part is two of his albums are straight-up doom/black metal, with these ambient parts integrated in. He holds his own with the metal songs too — they are just as good as any of the atmospheric black metal artists around today. I guess it’s just rare to see the same artist create such opposing work, juxtaposed to each other chronologically. I’d say both of his styles are good in their own regard and are worth checking out.
Favorite albums: Nhor, Whisperers to This Archaic Growth, Within the Darkness Between the Starlight
Note: Towards a Light That Dwells Within the Trees is a boxed set containing the first three albums, the first EP, and additional bonus tracks.
Erancnoir (Iran)
This middle eastern, German-singing underground solo artist with snowy mountains on his album covers may somehow be the perfect union of “ambient” and “metal.” There are fast, heavy riffs, blastbeats, and shrieking vocals, but a subtle, yet lustrous keyboard melody encompassing it all. There are plenty of breaks in the riffing to allow for the extra ambient parts to sneak in. Somehow, even though the metal clearly shows itself, it all just has a very calm feel and does exactly what ambient music is supposed to do. I think the main difference here from a lot of these other artists is that keyboards and synth melodies are not overused. His songs, which average at least 15 minutes, really don’t change a whole lot in terms of rhythm and structure, producing an almost hypnotic feeling.
This artist is a very fresh discovery for me, and I only have one of his albums so far. But I will likely be grabbing the rest soon and checking out his other projects, of which there are plenty of.
Favorite album so far: Berglicht
