Post-metal
Stylistic origins:	Post-rock, heavy metal, art rock, post-hardcore, avant-garde metal, doom metal, progressive metal, sludge metal, jazz, ambient, industrial, and minimalism
Cultural origins:	Early 2000s, United States, Sweden
Typical instruments:	Guitar – Bass – Drums – Synthesizer – Other less common instruments, such as cello, minimal use of vocals
Mainstream popularity:	Limited, exists mostly within the metal and post-rock scenes
Regional scenes
California, Chicago, Illinois, and Umeå, Sweden

Post-metal is a music genre, a mixture between the genres of post-rock and heavy metal, with roots in progressive rock and industrial music. It is broadly characterized by distorted guitar, heavy atmospherics, gradual evolution of song structure, and a minimal emphasis on vocals.

Hydrahead Records owner and Isis frontman Aaron Turner originally termed the genre "thinking man's metal", demonstrating the link with avant garde metal, by trying to move away from common metal conventions^[1]. "Post-metal" is the favored name for a growing genre, one also referred to as "instro-metal",^[2] "postcore", art metal,^[1] and a great range of others.

The term "post-metal" was earlier used in the UK to describe another emergent genre of metal, at which time the genre now knows as "post-metal" was referred to by various other names, most commonly "industrial soundscape music" and "soundscape metal". The term largely fell out of use with the rise of what was known as "post-metal" in the US, effectively seconding the term from the British bands.

History

According to Turner, experimental bands such as Flying Luttenbachers, Melvins, Godflesh and Neurosis "laid the groundwork for us [...] we [ Isis ] [a]re part of a recognizable lineage".<ref name="nyt" /> Although Neurosis and Godflesh appeared earlier and display elements befitting post-metal, Isis are often credited with laying down the conventions and definition of the genre in less nebulous terms, with their release of Oceanic in 2002.^[3]

Helmet's albums Meantime (1992) and Betty (1994) are cited as having "eschewed the traditional concept of heavy music" and having "trademarked the drop-d power-groove in 5/4." They may be considered "definitive texts in post-metal."^[4]

Previously, Tool had been labelled as post-metal in 1993^[5] and 1996,^[6] as well as in 2006,^[7] after the term came into popularity.

Characteristics

The simplest way to define post-metal is as a mix of post-rock and metal. This indicates the interplay of light and dark - taking the distorted guitars and guttural vocals of metal and post-hardcore and setting that against the clean instrumentalism of post-rock. Pieces tend to be at a slow- to mid-tempo, focusing on chord changes and barrages of sound rather than lead guitar riffing and shredding, and usually eschewing guitar solos. Post-metal tends not to feature the discordance present in much of modern hardcore; a feature present in music by contemporaries such as Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan.

Isis' Panopticon (2004) is a prime example of post-metal, and post-rock elements are clearly evident in the contrast between calm melodic passages and aggressive distortion-driven climactic sequences. Similar musical structuring can be heard in Pelican's second album released in 2005, The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw, again with a focus on gradual evolution of structure.

Instrumentation

A typical post-metal set-up includes two or three guitars, a bass guitar, synths, a drumkit and a vocalist.^[8][9] There are a number of completely instrumental post-metal bands, such as Pelican. Orchestral passages are not uncommon, especially in the work of Cult of Luna, Intronaut, Kayo Dot and Boris have music strongly influenced by jazz.

The overall sound is generally very low, with guitars being detuned sometimes to as low as B,^[10] the equivalent of a 7-string guitar. Production is usually very tight, and there is little "garage band" feel to the music. This allows for pervasive or minimalist sections, as in clean guitars or synth, to come through more clearly.

Vocals and lyrics

The general philosophy behind post-metal production is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, so each instrument is usually given about equal presence. Vocals are often not particularly high in the mix, and in most cases are in the style of hardcore or metal, i.e. guttural and shouted, rather than clean or shrieked as in emo, or growled in death metal. Lyrics cover a broad spectrum of issues, usually somewhat metaphysical, existentialist or macroscopic, as opposed to deeply personal or directly allegorical. Themes often include political dissatisfaction, or criticism of herd mentality.^[11][12][13]

Structure

Post-metal is also defined by structure, which leans far more towards that of post-rock than metal: songs tend to 'evolve' to a crescendo or climax (or multiple ones within a song), building upon a repeated theme or chord shift, whereas metal, however, often adheres to verse-chorus-verse conventions of song structure. As Aaron Turner of Isis states, "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".<ref name="isisguitar" /> The result of this is often long songs, commonly in the range of six to eleven minutes. Therefore a typical post-metal track is not generally suitable for radio play, nor is it commercially viable. Similarly, albums are often created as quasi-conceptual, creating the greatest impact when listened to as a whole. Likewise, it is not uncommon to see literary influences on albums, such as Red Sparowes' At the Soundless Dawn. This is arguably what makes the genre such an element of the avant-garde. It draws upon the ideas of contemporary classical music and minimalism in the vein of Steve Reich (i.e. repetition and expansion of a theme) and John Cage, at the same time as the metal scene.

A typical post-metal piece might start with a lone guitar, but eventually build to six-plus members playing simultaneously, as shown in songs like "Genesis" from The Beyond by Cult of Luna. Likewise, a post-metal song may leap "head-first" into the music, with distortion and aggression evident from the start. Songs like this challenge the definition of the genre, but the majority of them will contain clean interludes or lulls, usually as parts of a build-up in themselves. Relevant examples include "False Light" from Oceanic by Isis, "Australasia" from Australasia by Pelican, or "Monstrously Low Tide" from "Leaving Your Body Map" by maudlin of the Well.

Elements of post-metal can also be found in metal, metalcore and hardcore, even in releases by otherwise convention-following bands. For example, on Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child, Norma Jean have two songs as good examples of post-metal: "Pretty Soon, I Don't Know What, but Something Is Going to Happen", and "Organized Beyond Recognition". Other hardcore bands such as Envy ("Chain Wandering Deeply"), Eden Maine ("Disformasiya"), and Converge ("Jane Doe") all give nods to the genre in some pieces, largely in their structuring. Many bands include one or two "epic" songs in an album; it is those which are comparable to post-metal.

Aesthetic Similarities

Many post-metal bands evoke similar imagery in their album artwork, largely taking cues from Isis. Common themes in imagery include oceans, ocean-dwelling creatures (such as octopi, squid, whales or interpretations of leviathan), landscapes and clouded skies. A piece in Terrorizer posits that Oceanic covered "fairly similar aquatic terrain" as Cult of Luna's release Salvation,^[14] indicating a motif of water, and connotations of vastness. Aesthetically, post-metal is often an attempt to return to the truly "heavy" aspects of metal.

Criticism

Since this genre is relatively new and is only represented by a small number of artists, the need for an entirely independent classification of music has occasionally been questioned by music reviewers and listeners. As a label, some see "post-metal" as redundant, since some bands listed as post-metal contain many elements similar to doom metal, progressive metal, sludge metal, and stoner metal. Others, however, argue that these elements have been combined and altered in ways that go beyond the boundaries of those respective genres, creating the need for a single, distinguishing label.

Pelican's Trevor de Brauw said, "I have an affinity for metal, but I don't think of Pelican as a metal band. So when people call us 'instrumetal', or post-metal, or metalcore or whatever, I can see why they say that, but it's not something that I feel a close connection with... I feel our [music] has more in common with punk and hardcore."^[15]

Aesthetic or visual similarities in album art and performance are cited as derivative in claims that post-metal is an overly incestuous movement for its relatively small group of bands and musicians. Isis is often cited as the source of this shared imagery, although bands with similar visual themes playing in the post-metal style existed before Isis greatly popularized the subgenre.

List of notable post-metal bands

• Battle of Mice^[16]
• Boris
• Callisto^[17]
• Cult of Luna^[18][19][20]
• Focus, Light Years Away
• Intronaut^[21]<ref name="bpma" />
• Isis^[22][23]<ref name="bpma" />
• Jesu
• Kayo Dot
• Giant Squid
• Khoma
• Made Out of Babies^[24]
• Mouth of the Architect^[25]<ref name="bpma" />
• Neurosis
• Pelican^[26]
• Red Sparowes^[27]
• Rosetta^[28]
• Russian Circles^[29][30]

References

See also

• Experimental rock
• Post-rock
• Sludge metal

External links

• Songs, artists and albums tagged as 'post-metal' on last.fm

Heavy metal
Alternative Metal - Black metal - Classic metal - Death metal - Doom metal - Folk metal - Glam metal - Gothic metal - Industrial metal - Metalcore - Neo-classical metal - Nu metal - Post-metal - Power metal - Progressive metal - Rap metal - Speed metal - Symphonic metal - Thrash metal
Regional scenes
Scandinavian death metal - New Wave of British Heavy Metal - Bay Area thrash metal
Fashion - Bands - Umlaut