Post-metal is a hard genre to describe similarly to shoegaze or avant-garde metal,  you can’t. It is very experimental and strays from post rock and post-hardcore. Post-metal is  by far my favorite genre of music, a genre pioneered by bands like Godflesh and Neurosis. Long drawn riffs, vocals and atmospheric tones that feel like texture. Also to note that songs up to twenty minutes and albums reached easily to eighty minutes, nevertheless this was made for me. It is hard to determine if something is post-metal but has elements; if you know you, and that’s how it is. Bands that I hold at the petistle of post-metal are; Cult of Luna, Isis (The Band), Rosetta, Amenra, Pelican, and Deafheaven. These bands that I’ll be discussing have few records or only one. Lastly only one band will have more than a thousand listeners on spotify, and with that said they’re pretty unknown to almost everyone. Even though that’s the case, they are underrated and I’ll explain why.

Honorable Mention: Unhallowed Earth – Wharf (2023)

Although this is some bias, and besides my thin connection to them in any way. Their sound is a blend of post-rock, black metal, and hardcore. Their first song from their new era. Taking forth a theme of our future, the concept of the single “Wharf” is about discovering a city submerged by the rising tide that covers the world in blue. Similar to a previous article about The Ocean (band), the album Pelagial takes a similar course of sequences. As if you are submerging and discovering everything below and digging deeper, it is an absolute journey of a song. Being just over eleven minutes this is a great singular piece of song, theme, and concept.

8/10 They deserve a bigger crowd, hit them up on bandcamp they have merch.

Honorable Mention: Fall of Efrafa – Inle (2009)

This is the most well known band on this list, not underrated compared to the next few. They are absolutely incredible nonetheless, and are a pinnacle of pure post-metal. Their tone and sound is similar to the honorable mention from before, Unhallowed Earth. Hitting the maximum length of an album it’s seventy-nine minutes, and most of their tracks lead into each other. Tracks are up to seventeen minutes packing a punch of riffs and vocals. Excerpts are throughout this album and build a narrative that works well. Fun fact the artist of the cover is the vocalist of the band, and to say they aren’t an idol of mine I’d be lying.

9/10  Highlight track: “Republic of Heaven”, and “Warren of Snares”

Wren – GROUNDSWELLS (2020)

With just under 400 monthly listeners on spotify this band has 5% of a crowd compared to Fall of Efrafa. Even if that’s the case this record is absolutely worth a listen. Being only six tracks long, this album is shorter for post-metal records. (That will be proven to be wrong down the list) Although one thing I love about any genre of metal I love melodic segments that contrast the song and the entire album. Even if that is somewhat missing, it deserves to be on this list for being as heavy as possible. “Murmur” on the upside is the least heavy track on the album and serves to be very melodic compared to the rest of the album.

8/10 An incredibly underrated band Highlight track: “Chromed” and “Murmur”

Hundred Year Old Man – Sleep in Light (2022)

A highlight from another pinnacle of post-metal that is within this record is “I Caught a Glimpse of Myself on Fire” a seventeen minute long track that has every aspect and element of post-metal. Similar to Fall of Efrafa, this album is exactly eighty minutes long. An eight track album that has an average of ten minute long songs. I prefer this tone of post-metal compared to Fall of Efrafa, and theme. Having just over 700 listeners on spotify they’ve gained a following after their newest release. This is their second full length release even though they have a few EPs longer than most albums being forty to fifty minutes long.

8.5/10 The production, sound, tone, and everything in between,  the album cover is perfect. Highlight track: “A New Terror” and “I Caught a Glimpse of Myself on Fire”

VALVE – Thermoclines (2022)

Having an average of under 200 listeners a month on spotify I was flabbergasted. This band is incredible and a perfect description from their bandcamp says about them that, “VALVE is a five headed hydra from Paris, France. Fast but slow, High but low, dark but bright, a blend that resonates with a certain feeling of organized chaos.” They recorded this record live surprisingly and was produced and tuned post of recording obviously. Their second album is one of my favorite records to come out within the past year or so. Being more sludge and post than their debut.  They recorded this record live, and there are only three band members which is considerably low for a post-metal band. Running thirty-eight minutes with just four tracks. This has some of my favorite; riffs, moments, vocals, lyrics, and lastly the perfect measure of songs stretching to ten minutes. The title track “Thermoclines” sounds like a slow posty Converge song, the vocalist really resembles Jacob Bannon in pitch/style. I prefer Anthony Oslo Smith’s false chords over Jacob’s mostly because I enjoy more mid scream vocals over the higher pitch screams Jacob is known for. The opening track “XXXII” after six minutes is incredible, even though two lines are repeated they are fresh and instantly recognizable. The crescendo into the repeated lines continue and become more aggressive. Every track is incredible within this record, even though “Kabuki” is their shortest track it delivers just as well as every other track.

9.5/10 One of my favorite records as of recently and well deserved to be one of my favorite albums ever. Highlight tracks: ( in order from ranking least to most favorite) “Kabuki”, “Schism”, “Thermoclines“,  and “XXIII”

MARE – S/T EP (2004)

This band alone deserves their own article about them. A band that formed in 2003 and released this short post-metal masterpiece later in 2004. Being only just over twenty minutes long it uses that time very well for a post-metal record. Going in and out of quiet jazz segments to gut wrenching vocals and riffs. The sludge is prevalent in the record, but then transitions into melodic sequences. This is the Dillinger of post-metal, and it rules. Surprisingly there is about half and half of the sludge and jazz. It’s a perfect blend of each, making each song feel like multiple tracks mixed into one. I prefer there to be a contrast from heavy to soft, and that’s what they do perfectly. Most post metal bands stick to sounding dark and heavy, but the best post-metal is when it can be beautiful and terror inducing within a span of five minutes. The tracks transition throughout the album, and another note is that rarely but some mixing is actually poor. The members are so talented that they make the record work. The last few minutes have the best vocals of any closing record, (I’m dead serious) sounding like a choir with many overdubs. To then cut back to the harsh vocals and close the short record perfectly. They are criminally underrated in general, and most especially post metal. The vocalist is the highlight of this band, and I say that completely with certainty. Tyler Semrick-Palmateer the vocalist has an insane vocal range, that especially shows in his literal shriek. His clear clean vocals are my favorite parts of the album, and it culminates into a jack of all trades of an EP. Perfectly mixed with sludge, post, and jazz this album goes hard.

If they were to put out a full length album they would be my favorite band of all time.

9.5/10 Highlight track: Every single track is top tier but my personal favorite out of the five is the closer, “Sun For Miles.“

Post-metal is endearing to my taste and builds upon my likeness to music. In my opinion, this is the pinnacle of music at least in the metal genre. Post-metal emits emotion, atmosphere, and a great third act to a song/album. Cult of Luna is a great representation of this with their records having some of the greatest closing tracks that feel like a third act to a great movie. That’s what is so powerful with post-metal that evokes covering a long distance journey where you’ve reached the end. Post-rock is completely different in tone but very similar, some post-rock elements are still in post-metal. The last two records I’ve talked about are in my top list of records for all time. With post-metal being an ambiguous genre and being that way there are a lot of sub genres and mixes of influence. Especially black metal, doom metal, and hardcore elements. Writing this article I did not have MARE at the top of this list, but they are one of my favorite bands, even though they never released a full record or at least half an hour’s worth of a discog. They do have a demo, but I don’t consider that to be up there with their perfect EP. I hope to see VALVE come overseas and tour in the US because Thermoclines live would be life altering. With all that I said, this length is a post-y article.