New York City’s Vaura share members with some of metal’s weirdest bands (Dysrhythmia, Gorguts, Kayo Dot, Secret Chiefs 3, and Religious To Damn), share bills with some of metal’s most critically lauded acts (everyone from Krallice to Alcest), and are currently set to release their sophomore LP on metal’s best label (Canadian indie Profound Lore), but the quartet have traveled so far from any known definition of metal that the tag feels totally inaccurate. Call it post-post-metal? Can we do that? No? Because that’s really what it is: Some core elements are there — tremelo-picked guitars, blast beats, doomy interludes — but they’re used in the service of something entirely different. Featuring cover art by Terence Hannum of like-minded post-posters Locrian, Vaura’s forthcoming The Missing (which follows a 2012 debut, Selenelion, released on artsy NYC imprint Wierd Records) has a strong darkwave feel, probably due to vocalist Josh Strawn’s croony Sylvian-esque vocals. (If George LeSage Clarke was hiss-screaming over these tracks it’d be a whole ‘nother thing.) But what darkwave band can play like this? Every member of Vaura is basically a virtuoso-level instrumentalist, and even with their avant-garde tendencies sanded down to achieve maximum dramatic impact, these dudes still drop jaws and melt faces. “Incomplete Burning” is the first track to be released from the album, and it’s a soaring, skyscraper-sized monster. Check it out.

The Missing is out 10/29 via Profound Lore.