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Post-metal is a music genre rooted in heavy metal but exploring approaches beyond metal conventions. It emerged in the 1990s with bands such as Neurosis and Godflesh, who transformed metal texture through experimental composition.
Oct 1, 2024 · This list of the top post-metal bands in the world includes all musicians who have released recordings that have gotten distribution, and is an up-to-date list. Post-metal groups and artists are shown below along with any additional genres in which their music belongs.
- Reference
- Godflesh – Christbait Rising
- Neurosis – Lost
- Isis – The Beginning and The End
- Agalloch – You Were But A Ghost in My Arms
- Jesu – Your Path to Divinity
- Cult of Luna – Leave Me Here
- Alcest – Écailles de Lune, Part 2
- Amebix – Visitation
- NRA – Nowena | 9.10
- Bossk – Pick Up Artist
(taken from Streetcleaner, 1989) Droning, sparse guitars hammering the same riff for minute after minute. Justin Broadrick’s scraped raw vocals fed through knackered amps and layered over precise, lifeless programmed drums. Streetcleaner, Godflesh’s first full-length may precede the post-metal movement, but there is no doubt that the sonic nihilism...
(taken from Enemy of the Sun, 1993) Despite forming as a punk act in the mid-eighties, by the start of the next decade Neurosis were showing indisputable signs of the shifting, boundary-pushing band they would become. The release of 1992’s Souls At Zeromarked a distinct change in tact for Neurosis as they pushed towards a sound riddled with a varie...
(taken from Oceanic, 2002) If Neurosis spawned the beast, then Isis moulded it into the monolith that it would become. Oceanic was the band’s second album, and inflated the work on their debut Celestialinto a vast, considered concept album that introduced a generation of progressive fans to the appeal of grinding, mesmerising heaviness. Isis frontm...
(taken from The Mantle, 2002) The same year Isis were staking a close claim to be the sonic successors of Neurosis, Agalloch were quietly striking a match that would light a storm in the deepest black. The Mantle was their second album, and it showcased a band buried in mystic lore, indebted to Norway’s black metalpioneers, but with an eye focussed...
(taken from Jesu, 2004) Broadrick’s involvement in the genre wasn’t to end with the demise of Godflesh. Jesu, an experimental outfit born from Godflesh’s last breath (the band name is the final song from their last album Hymns), shuddered into existence with the hermetic meanderings of 2004’s debut. The heavily textured footfall of songs like Your ...
(taken from Salvation, 2004) Spawned from the ashes of hardcore band Eclipse, Cult Of Lunacontinue to invest a huge amount of clout in the emotion they deliver amidst a hammer heavy backdrop. Harking from the experimental hotbed of Umea in Sweden, home for bands like The Refused and Meshuggah, their 2004 release of Salvation received almost univers...
(taken from Écailles de Lune, 2010) Agalloch proved the dichotomy of their craft, creating beauty and desolation, and Alcest swept in behind. The French shoegazers achieved wonderful lush landscapes in their definitive work, Écailles de Lune, but left the barbs of their earlier aggression to poke through the fug. The one-two punch of the album’s op...
(taken from Sonic Mass, 2011) No post-metal list would be complete without the inclusion of Amebix, a band whose output in the eighties has been cited again and again as Neurosis’ reason for setting out their stall in the first place. Having only released two albums before disbanding in 1987, they reformed in 2008 to release Sonic Mass, a record as...
(taken from Mass V, 2012) Come the end of the noughties, post-metal’s founding entities were facing extinction. By 2010, Isis had disbanded and Neurosis were in the middle of a five year drought between album releases. A new breed were pushing up through the gaps left by the genre’s forebears, headed by the likes of Belgium’s Amenra, a band who Sco...
(taken from Pick Up Artist,2012) Defying the notion that anything post metal has to be laboured or inaccessible, on-again-off-again Brit band Bossk is the sound of Judgement Day set to disruptive time signatures. Currently signed to Deathwish Inc, their existence over the last ten years has only yielded a handful of tracks, yet every one displays a...
- Luke Morton
- Neurosis – Through Silver In Blood. “I was drawn to Neurosis when I read that they started as a hardcore band back in the day and evolved their sound and craft by incorporating samples, keys, punishing riffs, a sometime dual-vocal assault, but always with a sense of melody.
- Russian Circles – Enter. “Russian Circles dextrously compose some of the best dark/light moments ever committed to record. Their ability to move between the heaviest of riffs and bewitching melody is matched only by how competently the music is played.
- Pelican – Australasia. “Introduced to me by a mate in 2003, I instantly fell for this album and snapped up all their EPs and albums since. NightEndDay’s main riff strides along like some sort of behemoth – albeit one that will hug you instead of crush you to death – that’s equal measures murky and affable, seemingly without turning off the distortion.
- Isis – Oceanic. “I was a bit late to the Isis party but have since revisited their earlier recordings. For me, this gave the ‘scene’ a swift kick up the arse.
- Neurosis. Through Silver In Blood. (Relapse/Release, 1996) The daddy. Through Silver In Blood was one of the first post-metal albums, and remains one of the most influential.
- Kayo Dot. Choirs of the Eye. (Tzadik, 2003) The incredibly talented Kayo Dot have always sounded like outsiders. Led by musical polymath Toby Driver, and formed from the ashes of prog-ish outfit Maudlin Of The Well, the band released their ear-opening debut Choirs of the Eye on the label owned by improv jazz supremo – and post-everything svengali – John Zorn.
- Mare. (Hydra Head, 2004) Emerging from pretty much nowhere and returning almost as quickly, Mare were the ultimate short, sharp shock. Very much a Hydra Head band, they shared musical DNA with the likes of Cave In, Harkonnen and Botch, coming from thrashy, hardcore backgrounds but exploding in all kinds of different rock directions.
- Nadja. Touched. (Alien8 Recordings, 2007) Touched is the Loveless of the Sunn O))) generation. Opener ‘Mutagen’, a quarter-hour trip into a layered fuzz void, sets the tone.
Apr 26, 2023 · Here are the 10 best post-rock/post-metal albums of the last 10 years (dating back to 2013), chosen by Spotlights drummer Chris Enriquez.
Aug 4, 2016 · Today’s post-metal bands dabble with a wide variety of styles, including black metal, shoegaze, prog, folk, doom, and classical. Here’s a brief guide to how the scene evolved from a bunch of musicians bored with conventional metal, to a global community of artists with a love for aggressive music, and a need to express themselves through ...
