Event Robot

I've heard the term to describe such bands as Neurosis and Isis, but what exactly makes a band a post metal band?

kinda a hard genre to clearly classify. but ill try my best... i would call it very atmospheric, with vocals that are usually screamed but do not necessarily have to be. you can be a band like say pelican and have no vocalist and be post metal. or be like isis who actually sing clean probably as much as they scream. and the screams are usually not like other genres of music like the grunts of death metal or the high pitched screams of black metal but are usually... bellowed, i guess i would call it. take neurosis as a good standard for most post metal screaming. post metal tends to not follow regular musical patterns and time signatures and stuff which in my opinion creates a lot of room for more creativity. post metal is a much looser genre than other musical genres that allows alot more freedom in the music. depending on the post metal band, there may also be a lot of ambient, computer made noises along with the instruments (ie rosetta) or mostly just straight instruments (pelican or some neurosis). post metal and post rock are also very similar and often float into one another, as a band like once again pelican flirts with both ends. post metal is also very much known for its song length, most post metal bands have songs that are hugely long. like on neurosis' newest i dont think there is a song under 5 minutes. these songs take alot of different turns throughout and hardly ever follow one musical idea the whole way through. post metal is also very instrumental, with alot of songs being purely instruments with no or few vocals. obviously, depending on the band this changes. i hope that helps, but post metal is a genre that, as i said, is really hard to pin down. its really obscure and almost every post metal band is different in their own way. there are also few people who are really into it (me being one of those) so your hard pressed to find someone who knows alot. and im relatively new to the genre, so this is as much as i know.

'Tis the metal after all metal, by definition.

very true

I'm not sure if I believe in a genre as a whole, as it's usually just sludge and drone bands.

I say if you're looking for that sound, check out Russian Circles

well yeah but im one of the proponents of having it be its own genre. it much more atmospheric and does divert from those genres quite a bit.

Post? As in the cereal brand?! Or maybe you mean the U.S. mail?!

In any event...it's basically any genre of metal in which the "fad" expires quicker than it takes your box of Lucky Charms to go stale -OR- where the "fad" expires quicker than a letter dropped at the post office gets delivered to Timbuktu.

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