Kardashev is a progressive death metal band hailing from Tempe, AZ, whose lyrics focus on the advancement of the human race through themes of technology, selflessness, love, and altruism. They’ve done away with complexity and flashiness to take root in the beautiful and minimal. Given their positive take on death metal, their style has been jokingly referred to as “life metal,” and they also embrace the genre tag “deathgaze” (death metal + shoegaze) which perfectly describes their ambient death metal approach.

To date, the band has released four EPs: Excipio in 2013, Peripety in 2015, and The Almanac in 2017, as well as The Baring of Shadows in 2020. They also have a 5 song demo from 2012 entitled Progression, as well as a standalone single from 2014 named “Iota.” In addition to their regular releases, the band has also released instrumental versions of each of the EPs (except for The Baring of Shadows), all of which are available on their Bandcamp page.