There’s a recurring joke in the r/shoegaze subreddit: at least once a week, some newcomer to the genre becomes convinced that Deftones are a shoegaze band. Sure, the alt-metal heroes have been outspoken about their love of bands like Hum and My Bloody Valentine, big walls of gazy atmospheres augmenting their riffs for most of their career, but they are not themselves a shoegaze band.

Heavy shoegazers ASkySoBlack pose a wrinkle in the discussion: their new EP Autumn in the Water is clearly dripping in shoegaze influence, its heavy riffs countered by dreamy vocals and rich atmospheres. But it also sounds a whole lot like Deftones…which readers should not is a dang good thing.

The four tracks on Autumn in the Water pay homage to the lush, heavy guitar bands of the 90s, like Hum, Failure, and Far, but they also take queues from the 2000s bands that they influenced. There are glimpses of Cave In, Hopesfall, Chevelle, and, yes, Deftones. This is especially obvious on the riffy breakdowns of “Tell By Touch,” which almost sounds like it could have been a White Pony outtake. But in the rare moments between the massive guitar riffs and syncopated drum grooves, there are moments of swaying delicacy that feel far more like Slowdive than Saturday Night Wrist. Guitars sing with an icy modulation that is pure shoegaze.

Don’t take my constant mentioning of Deftones to mean it sounds like a clone. It’s the most obvious point of reference—largely due to the way the lead vocalist makes unexpected choices in his melodies like Chino Moreno—but it’s hardly just a ripoff. It feels a bit fresher and more rewarding than most of the other (many) bands drawing from the same influences. My only gripe is that it’s only twelve-minutes long—my heart needs this same sound to be stretched out to a full-length. Until then, I guess that’s why God created the repeat button.

Autumn in the Water is out now through New Morality Zine.

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