Post-metal
Post-metal is a style of music that is rooted in heavy metal but explores approaches beyond the genre's conventions. It emerged in the 1990s through the work of bands such as Neurosis and Godflesh who transformed metal texture through experimental composition. Associated with and inspired by post-rock and post-hardcore, the genre employs the darkness and intensity of extreme metal but emphasizes atmosphere, emotion, and even "revelation", drawing on a wide range of sources including ambient, noise, psychedelic, progressive, and classical music to develop an expansive but introspective sound. Post-metal songs are typically long, with loose and layered structures that discard the verse–chorus form in favor of crescendos and repeating themes. The sound centres on guitars and drums; any vocals are usually screamed or growled and resemble an additional instrument.
Post-metal is closely related to avant-garde metal and has also been associated with sludge metal, drone metal, progressive metal, and industrial metal. Alternative names that have been used to describe the genre include art metal and metalgaze, highlighting its connection to art music and shoegazing, respectively. Contemporary post-metal, pioneered by disparate groups such as Isis, Agalloch, Boris, Pelican, Jesu, and Wolves in the Throne Room, often employs the extreme heaviness of doom metal but has also become associated with shoegazing and black metal. In particular, the recent critical acclaim of Deafheaven, whose fusion of these two genres has been nicknamed blackgaze, demonstrates the growing success of the global post-metal underground.
History
Predecessors
The groundwork for post-metal was laid in the 1980s and early 1990s by various artists combining heavy metal and punk rock sounds with an "avant-garde sensibility", such as the Melvins, the Flying Luttenbachers, Justin Broadrick of Napalm Death and Godflesh, Swans, Gore, Last Exit, Glenn Branca, Rollins Band, and Fugazi. Helmet's albums Meantime and Betty were also significant, while Tool's music was described as post-metal as early as 1993. Many of these artists emerged from hardcore punk and post-punk circles but their combination of sonic violence with experimentation and eclecticism made them difficult to categorize under any one genre.Emergence in the 1990s
The term post-rock was coined in 1994 and soon used to describe a diverse group of bands that shared "a penchant for drifting melodies and the desire to expand beyond established rock boundaries". As this movement swelled, bands from post-hardcore and experimental backgrounds began to incorporate its tendencies of "ambience, offbeat experimentation, downcast melodies and psychedelia" into metal. The two genres further converged through the influence of post-rock bands such as Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Lift to Experience who shared metal's emphasis on loudness.Neurosis' third album Souls at Zero and Godflesh's sophomore album Pure, both released in 1992, are often retrospectively considered the first post-metal records. Godflesh had already pioneered "sluggish and tortured" industrial metal of their 1989 debut Streetcleaner, but Pure showcased "more expansive structures and long stretches of billowing noise", inspiring a number of subsequent bands to combine metal with "layered washes of sound". Neurosis on the other hand were a hardcore band who embraced doom metal, post-punk and industrial influences, experimenting with texture and dynamics. They have since become "worshipped for their pioneering post-metal efforts and unwavering dedication to expanding their artistic boundaries." In 2010, guitarist Steve Von Till stated:
The band's 1996 fifth album Through Silver in Blood was credited by Terrorizer with "effectively invent the post-metal genre" and named the best post-metal album of all time by Fact. The fluctuating 12-minute song "Purify" has been described as the album's "signature track". Neurosis' work has also contributed the development of doom metal, sludge metal, and drone metal, and these genres have been associated with post-metal since. Similarly, drone metal pioneers Earth have been significant to post-metal ever since their 1991 debut release Extra-Capsular Extraction.
of Isis and Hydra Head Records has been a major figure.
Furthermore, Fact writer Robin Jahdi highlights the late 1990s noisecore of bands such as Botch, Kiss It Goodbye, the Dillinger Escape Plan and Coalesce, who merged brutal metallic hardcore with jazz into fast-and-complex compositions, as a fundamental influence on post-metal. Writing for Bandcamp Daily, Jon Wiederhorn also noted the significance of Botch and Cave In, while Converge have been connected to post-metal through their longer songs since the closing track of their seminal 2001 album Jane Doe. According to Jahdi, the genre emerged as "those young intellectuals decided to slow it down" and labels such as Relapse Records and Hydra Head Records began releasing "slower, more bass-heavy and abstract" music more akin to post-rock.
Development in the 2000s
Hydra Head Records had been established in 1993 by Aaron Turner. In 1997, Turner co-founded Isis, a band which became central to an increasingly recognizable post-metal movement. In particular, their 2002 sophomore album Oceanic – which showcased "buzzing washes of multilayered sound that ebbed and flowed in intensity", combining the "barbed guitars" and "shouted vocals" of post-hardcore with "meandering, psychedelic progressions" – has become regarded as a classic of the genre. At the same time, Hydra Head signed further prominent bands, releasing the early records of Pelican and Jesu. While Pelican are an instrumental quartet inspired as much by Neurosis and Godflesh as by Mogwai, Jesu was formed by Justin Broadrick after the breakup of Godflesh to explore "ambient guitar compositions", embracing shoegazing and slowcore influences.As black metal "spread beyond Scandinavia to infect the global underground", it joined shoegazing as a major factor in the evolution of post-metal. Many bands employ the "speed and ferocity" of black metal in "contrast to slower, more ethereal compositions". This approach was pioneered by Agalloch, who formed in 1995 and also employed elements of doom metal, progressive rock, folk music, and post-hardcore. Wolves in the Throne Room, who became a significant act for American black metal by the release of their 2007 sophomore album Two Hunters, were also inspired by Neurosis in combining "ambience and violence" to craft deeply melancholic music.
While all post-metal pioneers except Broadrick are American, the genre soon spread internationally. In particular, the Japanese band Boris, formed in 1992, "have always embraced the spirit and vitality of the vibrant movement" and some of their works, such as the 2005 albums Dronevil and Pink, have become influential to it. Boris often employ elements of drone music and have collaborated with prominent drone metal band Sunn O))), who have also been associated with post-metal. Several European bands also gained prominence within the genre, including Cult of Luna from Sweden, whose sound is indebted to Isis' Oceanic, Amenra from Belgium, who signed to Neurosis' label Neurot Recordings and rival their predecessors in sheer spiritual intensity, and Year of No Light from France, who have transitioned from a sludge-oriented sound to monumental instrumental compositions, "beautifully layered, but still dark and heavy".
Another prominent instrumental band, Russian Circles, was also strongly influenced by Oceanic. By contrast, True Widow, whose sound is rooted as much in 1990s indie rock and psychedelic rock as in doom metal, offer a distinctive take on post-metal, most impactfully on the 2013's Circumambulation, by employing "male/female vocal interplay" and showcasing "vulnerability and restraint". Meanwhile, the Melvins had made a direct mark on the sound they themselves inspired with the 2004 album Pigs of the Roman Empire, a collaboration with dark ambient composer Lustmord.
Gradually, post-metal as a genre has achieved major critical acclaim. This was reinforced by the "widely publicized" success of Deafheaven, whose sophomore album Sunbather became one of the most celebrated releases of 2013. The band's successful fusion of caustic black metal with blissfull shoegazing in the vein of My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive, though preceded by the French musician Neige of Alcest, was nicknamed blackgaze and met with disdain from fans of conventional extreme metal. It has also inspired a wave of bands such as Ghost Bath, who often use undistorted guitar melodies to develop unsettling atmospheres, and Austria's Harakiri for the Sky, whose despairing sound melds black metal and post-hardcore.
have brought the genre widespread critical acclaim in their fusion of black metal and shoegazing.
Characteristics
Post-metal is generally heavy, aggressive, and dark, but explores a variety of musical approaches alien to conventional heavy metal and extreme metal. It mirrors post-rock and post-hardcore in its emphasis on atmosphere and deep emotion and may be considered abstract, introspective, expansive, hypnotic, progressive, layered, or even apocalyptic. Jon Wiederhorn writes that though some post-metal bands "sought to break away from their raging roots by exploring less bombastic and more dynamic musical techniques" and others "sought to remain raw and corrosive", their music shares a "heavy-lidded yet eye-opening" effect. The New York Times associated the term with a "wave of bands using metal as a jumping-off point for a range of experimental styles, dabbling in free jazz, minimalist post-rock, noise and even modern classical music." Contemporary post-metal bands incorporate influences ranging through doom metal, black metal, shoegazing, progressive rock, folk music, and classical music.Writing for Slate in 2009, Simon Reynolds reflected:
, are instrumental.
Post-metal is therefore notoriously difficult to define. Fact writer Robin Jahdi notes that "the best Neurosis albums don't sound anything like the best offerings from Isis" and that the genre cannot be readily distinguished from doom metal, modern black metal, and progressive metal, " in all of these elements without being entirely any one of them". Contemporary post-metal is often seen as combining "elements of doom metal, sludge, and/or black metal with elements of post-rock and shoegaze", being more "peaceful" than metal but retaining its dark theming and harsh vocal style. As with post-rock, however, many bands are instrumental and when vocals are used, they often "resemble accompanying instrument" rather than actual words. Songs are typically long and employ crescendos, gradually building upon repeated themes; Aaron Turner of Isis stated that "the standard song format of verse-chorus-verse-chorus is something that has been done and redone, and it seems pointless to adhere to that structure when there are so many other avenues to explore".