If I could afford a therapist, I suspect they'd tell me not to dwell on the past. So here's a quickish recap of the fourth annual Driftmist show that happened back on the winter solstice. I'm not sure if it's meant to chase away the spirits on the darkest night of the year or if it's to invite them to a party.

Kegare started the night. Maybe the band is always a four-piece. It certainly was that night. I asked the guys, but no one returned my messages. The members were young and blended multiple styles on top of a progressive metal core without much thought to subgenre allegiances. Vocals were Geoff Tate-clean or anguished screams, two guitars delivered both bass-like bottom end and finger taps, while the drummer dropped double bass accents without ever taking off his jacket. Keys came from somewhere unseen. In the finale there was a wonderful Grieg-like riff that was massive, folky, and modal.

I have video of the band but they haven't gotten back to me so I guess I don't post it?

Sarkatha followed. Once, the band broke up because some members thought black metal was too constricting. But now they're back. Well, maybe some of them are. A trio played, but at least one member was a loaner. The half-hour set circled around death metal, adding in bits of heavy metal, thrash, and black metal along the way. The vocalist in the Slayer shirt barked and delivered unholy growls. His guitar leads were acrobatic and numerous. A temporary (but once permanent) bass player kept up with one eye trained on the drummer for the changes. The drummer was shirtless and put in a double bass workout and hit his snare hard enough that it tried to wobble free. The sound was a bit thin – especially during solos – but the trio managed a strong telling of Death's "Pull the Plug" and that takes chops.

Driftmist is a portmanteau of Drifter and Aprilmist. And it sounds like Christmas. Anyway, Aprilmist plays every year. The project is blackened post-metal. Of course, it could be blackgaze or maybe neo-black metal or… well, who even knows anymore. The band was a quartet. Two of them played guitars and provided vocals. One had more taps and solos. One had more shrieks. Both had long hair that they whipped around when compositions reached their boiling points. The bassist was new. He did all the heavy lifting in the liminal passages. Blast beats happened but urgency was never the key. There were disjointed elements that didn't quite click – either that or my backup earplugs were trash. Thankfully they were good enough to hear the twinkly Midwest emo line that was in the finale.

Drifter is the other half of Driftmist. You can't have Driftmist without Drifter. The act is an elegant and doomy post-metal trio that creates long compositions. How long? Well, the band played only five or six cuts in its forty-minute set, including one new song making its debut. Like most of the set, it was gloomy with long, sparse passages that let the tune breathe, juxtaposed against intense moments that were heavy as a really heavy thing. When the bassist roared his vocals, the earth shook. While usually mum between numbers, on this night he announced the band's new album was available on vinyl for the first time. A fine gift from the big frontman wearing a Santa suit and an enormous beard. The guitar player had a sea of pedals and less of a beard. He also had two drumsticks and beat the hell out of some floor toms, much to the delight of the audience. The drummer was at the back of the stage a million miles away from his bandmates and the crowd – a sad victim of headliner backlining. Even at that distance, his beard was still visible behind his ample six-piece kit. Although atmospheric, even the tuneless interludes between songs were rehearsed and intentional. Do you suppose dark spirits like professionalism and precision or are they more about chaos?

Thankfully Driftmist had both. And now my hypothetical therapist is telling me to move on.