The Best Post-Metal Album - Metal Storm Awards 2025

A Flock Named Murder - Incendiary Sanctum

It's hard to say whether Incendiary Sanctum belongs in this category, but it's the least ill-fitting home for such a sprawling and undefinable experience. A Flock Named Murder bring together black, doom sludge and post-metal into a sound that utilizes the strengths of each genre without closely resembling any one of them. Expansive atmospheres, melodic post-rock textures, thrilling blast beat-laden surges, howling rasps, bludgeoning sludge riffs, doomy trudges and other sounds weave in and out of the fabric of Incendiary Sanctum, crafting long kaleidoscopic songs that keep listeners ever on their toes.

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Cave Sermon - Fragile Wings

Charlie Park, who now handles not only all instruments but also the vocals for Cave Sermon, delivers on his third album not a slightly varied continuation of its universally acclaimed predecessor, but almost something akin to its counterpoint. Where Divine Laughter was a raging snowstorm accompanied by turbulent dissonance and even noise designed to induce discomfort, Fragile Wings is the gathering heat thunderstorm, heralded by a fresh breeze that electrifies the air above a summer meadow filled with pulsating life. The menacingly towering clouds remain the same, yet everything feels lighter, more vibrant, and almost buoyant as thunder rumbles in the distance and only a fleeting chance remains before the cleansing rain to absorb every impression, every color, and every sound of the bustling scene. Fragile Wings clocks in at just forty minutes, and that is more than enough time to be swept away and utterly enthralled, yet far too little time to even begin to grasp all the facets of this dynamically overflowing hybrid of post-metal, sludge, progressive death metal, blackgaze, and more.

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Conjurer - Unself

Opening with an acoustic adaptation of gospel hymn is an unexpected move from Conjurer, but a lot of Unself represents new territory for the band. From dabblings with Midwest emo and post-rock, to a lyrical shift towards societal topics, this latest record is a stark departure in some ways for the British group. However, at the same time, the absolutely vicious brutality that has defined their extremified take on sludge/post-metal to date remains firmly intact, merely accentuated by more acute contrast.

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Decline Of The I - Wilhelm

The concept of 'post-black metal' has been taken in a wide variety of directions since its inception, but few bands have come close to Decline Of The I in merging the malevolence of black metal with the expansive dynamism of post-metal. Wilhelm is the midpoint of a philosophy-themed concept trilogy, and it takes the engulfing intensity of Johannes to another level, while traipsing the record's atmosphere with plentiful use of gloomy monastic choirs. Alongside this core sound are a number of bold sonic detours, including dabblings with the likes of trip-hop and chamber strings. The scope of Wilhelm is intimidating, and its philosophical musings are unnerving yet irresistible.

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Euphrosyne - Morus

We said when introducing Euphrosyne with our coverage of their debut EP, Keres, in Clandestine Cuts that future success seemed inevitable, and they've soon proven that statement accurate. Their debut full-length Morus builds upon the distinctive post-black metal sound of Keres by expanding the use of Efi Eva's remarkable clean vocals alongside increased incorporation of piano, strings, and electronics. Nevertheless, this is still a release with great capacity for black metallic ferocity and anguish to accompany the sullen melancholia of a journey into the experience of losing a loved one to cancer.

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Kauan - Wayhome

A lot of post-metal is basically very heavy post-rock. And what post-rock is really good at is being a patient, slow-delivering vehicle for the most melancholic and heartbreaking of emotions. Kauan go exactly for that quality of post-rock, making it even more melancholic and heartbreaking by sprinkling some doom metal in its heaviest moments and a lot of almost cinematic-sounding orchestration in its airier moments. Wayhome celebrates the project's 20th anniversary with some of the most evocative music that the genre has to offer, built around the feelings of someone who had to uproot themselves from home.

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Monograf - Occultation

The delicacies of Monograf's early years are a far cry from the monster that bandleader Erik Sannes Aanonsen (Antestor) has grown them into. Occultation exhibits the post-rock, progressive rock and folk elements of previous recordings taken in a darker and more metallic direction, as shrieking harsh vocals are introduced alongside lumbering riffs. At the same time, however, the band's use of violin, acoustic guitars, and folksy melodies adds plenty of charm to the record's dark and brooding atmospheres. Monograf have hit upon a unique and staggering mesh of sounds on Occultation that embraces the strengths of a multitude of underlying genres.

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Obscure Sphinx - Emovere

Emovere is just an EP, and for it to be a contender among heftier releases only goes to show how high the anticipation for anything with the Obscure Sphinx name was and how much they managed to deliver on that promise. It might not sate the appetite, but there's plenty of weight in these three tracks, especially on the 13-minute closer, to show that the band still sounds menacing in both quiet and explosive moments.

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Pothamus - Abur

Last year we had Hippotraktor, now it's time for Pothamus.  Put them together and you've got one extremely heavy creature.  We eagerly await the collaboration between these two post-metal megafauna, but for now let's appreciate Abur on its own merits.  Those merits include an inclination for spacious drone, wherein wordless voices echo over a low guitar rumble that becomes a screen of static; an emphasis on repetition in dogged rhythms we often term "ritualistic" for their portentous consistency; and an eerie ambiance that makes for about the most otherworldly and unsettling album you'll hear in this category.  Pothamus's soundscapes are esoteric and perhaps unforgiving, but in slow, long-form metal, there are few bands with quite as powerful and singular a sound.

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Psychonaut - World Maker

An album shaped by joy and grief, World Maker is at different times dreamy and crushing, floating into the clouds before descending into the abyss. Psychonaut very quickly demonstrated themselves to be masters of this intersection of progressive and post-metal, so it feels reductive to refer to World Maker as a maturation when previous releases already felt very mature, but it is an impeccably balanced release, flowing seamlessly between effortless demonstrations of remarkable instrumental virtuosity, sumptuous atmospheric texturing, and visceral outbursts of bruising groove.

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