Post-Metal

Origin: Late 80’s/Early 90’s USA

Characteristics: Emphasis on ambiance, layering, atmosphere and experimentation; long, dramatic, crescendo/climax-based song structures; often melodic

Typical live hand gesture: 🖐 if any

What is the appeal?: Immersive atmospheres; cathartic build-up and release of emotion

According to Bandcamp’s Jon Wiederhorn, the term “post-rock” was coined in 1994 by Simon Reynolds, a British journalist, who was talking about London band Bark Psychosis at the time. In a short amount of time, the term was used to describe a number of bands who were pushing the boundaries of what could be considered rock music, each in their own ways, including Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Sigur Ros.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor would be influential to both post-rock and post-metal, with their melancholic, layered compositions that would often feature a dramatic climax, as “The Dead Flag Blues” does.

In the years following the inception of post-rock, a handful of sludge metal bands – Neurosis, Godflesh, and Melvins, among others – applied certain aspects of post-rock songwriting to their own, more aggressive music. This early style of post-sludge metal utilized textures and sounds outside the typical vocabulary of metal to create eerie and crushing atmospheres, and some bands’ songs even followed a similar crescendo/climax songwriting structure used by successful post-rock bands.

Neurosis’ songwriting on Through Silver In Blood utilizes a variety of textures, and a song structure that keeps building on itself until reaching a crushing and dramatic climax.
A dark and unsettling industrial metal album, Godflesh’s Streetcleaner paved the way for post-metal to follow with its intense atmosphere and at-times texture-like use of guitars.

In the 2000’s, post-metal would come unto its own identity, as a number of sludge metal bands adopted post-rock influences. Bands such as Isis and Cult of Luna wrote more atmospheric post-sludge metal than Neurosis had, with works such as Panopticon and Somewhere Along the Highway utilizing a variety of atmospheric timbres both to create beautiful soundscapes and to enhance post-metal’s typical crescendo-based songwriting.

“So Did We” is a great example of a post-sludge metal song, shifting through a variety of timbres as it moves towards an empowering climax.
Cult of Luna compose in a similar vein to Isis. “Finland” is one of their definitive tracks. There is particular attention to the way the song builds on itself over its ten minute duration.

While post-metal started as distinctly sludge metal-influenced, in time, a number of bands from various subgenres would adopt the post-metal songwriting mentality without using sludge elements. Deftones broke ground with 2000’s White Pony as they brought atmospheric post-rock timbres into their style of alternative metal. Years later, a number of bands would bring post-metal’s crescendo-based songwriting into black metal, creating the emotional and cathartic style of post-black metal. Meanwhile, bands like Thy Catafalque and Kayo Dot would push the boundaries of what could even be considered metal, defining post-metal as a forward-thinking family of music.

Years after White Pony, Deftones are still soundly in post-rock territory. Koi No Yokan is full of atmospheric textures in between moody alternative metal riffs.
Thy Catafalque perform a style all their own, mixing elements of black metal, doom metal, electronic and industrial music, and Hungarian classical and folk music.
Along with post-metal, Kayo Dot are often tagged as avant-garde metal. Mainman Toby Driver has been pushing the envelope of metal songwriting since his first notable band, Maudlin of the Well.

Works Cited

Wiederhorn, Jon. “A Brief History of Post-Metal.” Bandcamp Daily, Bandcamp, 4 Aug. 2016, daily.bandcamp.com/lists/a-brief-history-of-post-metal.