Describe some music that you would like to be recommended

Listening to all the songs you posted (one or two for the first time), I think Ringo Deathstarr isn’t actually the right answer to your question. I’m not sure if you’ve been part of the community enough to hear me bang on about Underground Lovers before (90s band from Australia who reformed a few years ago), but I reckon a few of their songs might fit the bill, particularly this recent one:

They’ve got a few other “propulsive, melodic rock songs … that heavily incorporate elements of shoegaze” (though a chunk of their stuff is a bit more downbeat, and with a bit more electronica). Their 1992 album Leaves Me Blind probably has the highest ratio of propulsive, melodic, shoegaze inflected tracks to more downbeat stuff. Here are some highlights:

Eastside Stories

Promenade

I Was Right

Your Eyes

And a few from other albums:

In My Head

Au Pair

They might be a bit more pop than rock (?) and I’m not sure whether they cover the “twists along the way” part of the description, which is the biggest obstacle to finding recommendations, I think. But anyway, I’d be keen to hear what you think, as I’m always on the lookout for someone to convert into an Underground Lovers fan.

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Fuck Buttons’ debut, Street Horrrsing, is the first thing that springs to mind.
On the more rhythmic end of the spectrum, try Xanopticon’s Liminal Space

Wow, thank you! While (so far) not 100% what I had in mind, I’m really liking this and actually excited to delve into them further. On first listen their songs seem to have a purpose and to have been constructed with thought - it’s not the “well, I guess this is a chord progression, guess I’ll play it mid-tempo and sing something that’s not really even melodic over it, 1-2-3-4” situation that I’ve been finding in many of the shoegaze bands I try.

I’m so disappointed that Leaves Me Blind isn’t on Spotify / Youtube (unless I’m just missing it due to sleep depravation). I listened to the first three songs on it and liked them right away, but then couldn’t find all of the rest so I switched to the new album. I want to listen to it again today, which is probably a good sign. Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll have more detailed thoughts as I listen more.

Glad you like. Underground Lovers are one of my favourite bands, and so massively underrated/ criminally unknown. Leaves Me Blind and Dream It Down are both brilliant 10/10 albums, the latter picking up on and running with the electronica elements incorporated into Leaves Me Blind. Their other albums are also very good, if not quite as sublime as those two.

It’s no surprise that you’d have trouble finding their stuff on Spotify etc. , and you may struggle to find their albums via conventional means. If so, let me know and I’ll help you out.

How about this one?

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Oathbreaker are the first that spring to mind although I’d be surprised if you hadn’t already checked them out. Last year’s Rheia was stunning. Also, the Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas album Mariner might be up your street but it’s neither black metal or much like Black Monolith

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Heh you’ve just mentioned two of my favourite LPs from last year! I thought the JC and Cult of Luna LP an almost perfect collaboration (solo she can be a bit unstructured and they can be rather too-structured post metal by the numbers). Both are excellent but neither really falls into the kind of BM specifically I’m looking for.