The Best Post-Metal Album - Metal Storm Awards 2024

A Swarm Of The Sun - An Empire

There is an almost unparalleled aching tenderness to An Empire that not even A Swarm Of The Sun have reached until this point. The extraordinary dynamic range and hefty length of this release will challenge some listeners, but the immaculate level of detail that the duo behind the band have approached its composition with reaps dividends, tugging on heartstrings to the absolute fullest. 'Cinematic' get used a lot when describing post-rock and post-metal bands, but the ebbs and flows and dynamic contrasts of An Empire result in the kind of engrossing and emotional journey that merits such a tag.

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Bipolar Architecture - Metaphysicize

It is to absolutely no surprise that the progressive post-metal of Bipolar Architecture's debut found the band a place on the Pelagic Records roster, nor is it that their sophomore album Metaphysicize more than lives up to the pedigree of that record label. The blackened, raspy vocals accompany a whole range of sounds across the album, from tranquil post-rock vistas through to punchy prog riffs, polyrhythmic djent crunch, and even occasional glimpses of extreme metal aggression. Across all of this variety, Bipolar Architecture's melodic aptitude comes through very clearly, particularly in many of the lead guitar motifs that often define the album's remarkable sound.

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Datûra (POL) - Obsidian

Obsidian is one of those albums that it's difficult to believe is a debut album, given the proficiency on all fronts. Datûra display excellent songwriting and instrumental skills across this patient, expansive and compelling post-metal album, with Maja Rutkowska holding everything together with a vocal performance that effortlessly switches between tender cleans, full-lunged belting, and multiple forms of harsh vocals. As implied by the presence of said harsh vocals, Obsidian can get seriously heavy, but the consummate crafting and patient evolution of the songs' quieter passages is arguably where Datûra shine brightest on this fantastic debut record.

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Glassing - From The Other Side Of The Mirror

From The Other Side Of The Mirror by Glassing is an album that combines the best elements from multiple genres like post-hardcore, black metal, shoegaze, and sludge. The band seamlessly shifts between these genres like a storm that alternates between calm winds and intense, crashing waves, keeping listeners captivated with every transition (some more sudden and abrupt than others). Unlike any other, Glassing is a band that knows how to balance intense, chaotic moments with softer, more atmospheric passages, some of which feel almost hauntingly vulnerable. The album is both cohesive and accessible, with a sound that is dynamic yet remarkably light. This intricate interplay of heaviness and melody make From The Other Side Of The Mirror a standout release and a worthy successor to Twin Dream.

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Grind - Grace And Misery

Look, a band doesn't just get to call itself Grind and then not know how to grind. It's against the rules. Grind lead with the misery portion of their sophomore album, just to lay any doubts to rest with a gusty and grotesque charge that could challenge any of our nominees in the actual Grindcore category; you'll get rampant splatterings of that throughout the album. But there's a "slow" setting for grind, too, and that's the grace half: a trudging mammoth's gait that's deep and wide, a powerful and mountainous low-end lurch. They're here in Post-Metal for a reason. Sometimes you'll even get the two together, with half the band hurtling towards a brick wall and half the band contemplating a distant grey horizon. "Fast and violent" and "slow and atmospheric" are two approaches not known for meshing well, but not enough people have heard Grind yet.

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Hauntologist - Hollow

Do you ever think Mgła just isn't post-metal enough? Hauntologist are here to deliver that very premise! With Darkside's drumming already having been such a staple of Mgła's sound, hearing it alongside the rest of the soundscape conducted by Mgła live bassist and Medico Peste member The Fall is an intriguing enough concept on its own. Hollow does its job of both acing that very specific black metal sound and doing some interesting things on its own.

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Huntsmen - The Dry Land

Huntsmen made a strong impression when they debuted in 2018 with an earthy, atmospheric mixture of sludge metal and American roots rock; they've done some tweaking since then, but The Dry Land could well be their most successful venture yet, and in part thanks to their reincorporation of those unusual elements. Blues, country, folk, and heartland rock surface throughout the album, adding great textural dimension with acoustic passages, wailing solos, and crescendos that cast the band's core of post-metal in a unique light. Huntsmen now also have their strongest and most diverse vocal arsenal yet: Aimee Bueno-Knipe steps up from backing to frequent lead vocalist, sharing this responsibility with each other member of the band; multiple voices often blend into harmonies that reveal yet more of the band's Americana influences and temper the furious noise of their blackened and heaviest post-metal aspects. Huntsmen started strong, but they've put effort in to evolve, and they're reaping the benefits here.

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Moriya - The Black Nail Tantra

From the frozen Siberian shores emanates a dark, formless magic: the Buddhist doom of Moriya. Mystery and menace lurk in the shadows of The Black Nail Tantra, a wordless album of psychedelic post-metal whose every song layers percussion over percussion, dissonant melody over dissonant melody in an infernal mantra; in some ways, Moriya is similar to the heavy ritual soundtracks proliferated some 4,000 miles away by the likes of Dark Buddha Rising, but with palpable influences from their East Asian homeland in instrumentation and composition. Few bands in this category have ever managed to sound so sinister: attune to Moriya and feel the spiritual vibrations of dread.

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Schammasch - The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean

The first Maldoror Chants release from Schammasch was remarkable in how it departed from the group's established black metal style in favour of dark ambient explorations; The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean is another bold exploration for the group, this time taking the post-black hints in their previous releases and turning them into the core of this album. It's an experiment that pays off richly; the emphatic nature of Schammasch's black metal works very well in contrast to the many clean and atmospheric post-rock passages on the album (including several featuring Sylvaine's Kathrine Shepard), and the bold range of the record (particularly the extensive use of clean vocals by frontman C S R) makes The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean one of the more remarkable entries into what is a staggeringly impressive discography.

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Sinistro - Vértice

Even with a new singer at the helm, Sinistro prove that doom metal can be seductive. Of course there was some skepticism with the vocalist change; after all, what made Sangue Cássia as special as it was came specifically in the form of how the immersive post-/doom/gothic sound merged with Patrícia Andrade's fado vocals. But Priscila Da Costa's vocals blend more seamlessly with doom metal, making Vértice a sturdier and proper-sounding record. There's a lot of heavy lifting done by the production that goes into making the huge parts sound colossal, meaning that even with a more focused approach, the core of what Sinistro are doing works so well. Perhaps "seductive" might not be the go-to term anymore, but "enchanting", "elegant", and "sultry" all still work.

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