Atmospheric metal
| Post-metal | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Metalgaze |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Mid-1990s, United States and Sweden |
| Typical instruments | |
| Subgenres | |
| Blackgaze | |
| Regional scenes | |
| Local scenes | |
| Other topics | |
Post-metal (or metalgaze) is a stylistic fusion of heavy metal with post-rock and/or shoegazing. Hydra Head Records owner and Isis frontman Aaron Turner originally termed the genre "thinking man's metal", demonstrating that his band was trying to move away from common metal conventions. Due to the experimental nature of post-rock and shoegazing, post-metal is closely related to avant-garde metal.
Journalist Simon Reynolds writes that:
[T]he term post-metal seems increasingly useful to describe the vast and variegated swath of genres (the thousand flavors of doom/black/death/grind/drone/sludge/etc., ad infinitum) that emerged from the early '90s onward. Sometimes beat-free and ambient, increasingly the work of home-studio loners rather than performing bands, post-metal of the kind released by labels like Hydra Head often seems to have barely any connection to metal as understood by, say, VH1 Classic doc-makers. The continuity is less sonic but attitudinal: the penchant for morbidity and darkness taken to a sometimes hokey degree; the somber clothing and the long hair; the harrowed, indecipherably growled vocals; the bombastically verbose lyrics/song titles/band names. It's that aesthetic rather than a way of riffing or a palette of guitar sounds that ties post-metal back to Judas Priest and Black Sabbath.
According to Aaron Turner of Isis, experimental bands such as Melvins, Godflesh and Neurosis "laid the groundwork for us ... we're part of a recognizable lineage". Although Neurosis and Godflesh appeared earlier and display elements befitting post-metal, Isis – who, like Neurosis, are linked to the sludge metal scene – are often credited with laying down the conventions and definition of the genre in less nebulous terms, with their release of Oceanic in 2002.
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