Style: post-metal, progressive metal, black metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ghost Brigade, Swallow the Sun, Enslaved, Sólstafir, Ihsahn, Cult of Luna, Neurosis
Country: Germany
Release date: 7 November 2025

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When sorting through an endless list of underground releases, something as simple as an interesting “for fans of” note can go a long way in grabbing my attention. It wasn’t the ridiculous band name V/Haze Miasma—whatever that’s supposed to mean—or the unconventional album title Praise Me! Erase Me! that fast-tracked this record to the top of my pile. Rather, it was the band’s FFOs, which included a bunch of powerhouses: Ghost Brigade, Swallow the Sun, Enslaved, Sólstafir, Ihsahn, Cult of Luna, and Neurosis. The thought of mixing ingredients from those groups into some sort of melodic, blackened, progressive, post-metal soup enticed me. Then again, given the avant-garde-leaning band name and album title, I half expected the record to sound like nothing of the sort—something more unique, for better or worse.

What did I get? Well, a taste of both the familiar and the unfamiliar.

At its core, V/Haze Miasma’s sound is rooted in post-metal, with Praise Me! Erase Me! featuring relatively long tracks built upon repetition and compelling soundscapes. And for the most part, the building blocks are quite simple: take the basic guitar lines opening “Praise Me!” and “Demi-Human,” the bass and drum grooves in the middle of “Animos” or at the start of “Shadows,” and the mantra-like vocal repetitions littered throughout the album. The band have a strong ear for evocative motifs and atmosphere, and make sure not only that foundational ideas are effective in their own right but also that they evolve into sweeping, impactful passages. The massive final minutes of “Shadows,” for example, roll out of—and back into—the same basic bass and drums that opened the track with natural ease. Similar can be said of “Eden,” as it patiently moves between powerful riffs and soft strums and piano, never straying far from its central set of melodies. 

However, none of this is to say that the music on offer is watered down. V/Haze Miasma find clever ways to layer in a variety of guitar parts and tones, clean and harsh vocals, and keys, making each track feel sonically dense and full of detail. Whether nodding along to the pummeling guitars in “Eden” or taking in the dissonant, vocal-led bridge midway through “Karzer,” a distinctively dark, theatrical throughline holds the compositions together. The vocals are especially effective in thickening the album’s atmosphere, with Andreas Fingas delivering melodic and, at times, haunting clean vocals while bassist Sebastian Moser shrieks in places demanding more intensity. Consistent across nearly every track, the two combine in some way to complement each other: sometimes in call and response, other times joining together for added force. The intertwined, dynamic vocal performances stand out as unique among post-metal—I haven’t heard another album in the genre with clean and blackened vocals performed quite like these.

Another feature that separates Praise Me! Erase Me! from the modern post-metal horde is the way it skillfully weaves black metal into its sonic tapestry. The band’s shoutout to Enslaved and Ihsahn seems about right, as softer passages are liable to explode into tasteful blast beats and trem-picked riffs while holding onto a progressive edge—“Praise Me!” and “Cannula” showing prime examples. And more generally, a black metal tonal palette shades the album, particularly in the melodies and harsh vocals, making the more overtly blackened excursions sound intuitive rather than gimmicky. Yet, V/Haze Miasma never lose their post-metal identity, as the black metal aspects play a sizable but still complementary role in the overall sound.

As spellbinding as Praise Me! Erase Me! can be, however, it’s plainly too long for its own good. Repetition is a key piece of the band’s atmospheric style, but each track has a passage or two that repeats a few times too many, or a build that goes on a minute or two too long. This adds up over the album, resulting in an hour-plus runtime with quite a bit of bloat. The first six minutes of “Demi-Human,” for example, could likely be cut in half, and the blistering passage near its end—and really, the song as a whole—would be just as impactful. This all leads to a related problem: pacing. Toward the end of the album, both “Karzer” and “Cannula” build patiently into spectacular endings, but because of the bloat in the tracks before them, the first several minutes of these two tracks feel particularly stagnant. And by the time we reach the closer, “Erase Me!”, its five minutes of repetitive, dissonant chords are untenable—I’m checked out. 

Nevertheless, V/Haze Miasma have still delivered a genuinely strong album on the whole. It’s plenty accessible, with influences traceable to the many bands cited, while having some unique aspects and a sound that’s very much its own. Praise Me! Erase Me! holds tons of memorable motifs, boasts interesting performances across the board, and triumphs atmospherically, even if it revels in that atmosphere for too long. So add this record to your library and praise it, or erase it—I don’t care. It’s well worth at least a listen.

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Recommended tracks: Animos, Shadows, Eden
You may also like: The Lotus Matter, Brévine, Obscure Sphinx, Decline of the I
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Inertial Music

V/Haze Miasma is:
– Johannes Lenk (guitars)
– Sebastian Moser (bass, harsh vocals)
– Julian Osterried (drums)
– Andreas Fingas (clean vocals)