Post-VC: Official Post-Rock/Post-Metal Discussion v.2.0

[Derek™]

What is the best post-metal act of all time and why is it Isis?

[The Vool]

2 hours ago, Derek™ said:

What is the best post-metal act of all time and why is it Isis?

As much as I love Isis, I‘d go with RC since I consider their music  rather to be Metal than Rock (ignoring the classical Definition of Post-Metal). Isis comes close after RC for me

[Derek™]

32 minutes ago, Sasan said:

As much as I love Isis, I‘d go with RC since I consider their music  rather to be Metal than Rock (ignoring the classical Definition of Post-Metal). Isis comes close after RC for me

Yeah, if anyone is going to give Isis a run for their money, it's definitely Russian Circles for me too.  (Though that's really like apples and oranges.)  All in all, album for album, I think RC has a more consistent discography.

[mrewest]

Speaking of Isis I came across this band yesterday that’s basically post-rock/metal with death metal vocals that remind me of Isis a bit.  Punishingly heavy.  Really good stuff imo.

 

http://wowod.bandcamp.com/album/zemlya

Edited February 2, 2019 by mrewest

[wisdom81]

17 hours ago, Derek™ said:

What is the best post-metal act of all time and why is it Isis?

It's quite hard to choose between Neurosis, Isis, Cult of Luna, Russian Circles and Rosetta. 

 

If I have to pick one, I'd go with Isis. Mostly because Oceanic, Panopticon and Wavering Radiant are such special albums for me. 

[Derek™]

56 minutes ago, wisdom81 said:

It's quite hard to choose between Neurosis, Isis, Cult of Luna, Russian Circles and Rosetta. 

 

If I have to pick one, I'd go with Isis. Mostly because Oceanic, Panopticon and Wavering Radiant are such special albums for me. 

Those are my holy trinity for Isis, too.  Warmed up to In The Absence of Truth a while back, which has been nice to add to the rotation.  And of course Celestial is just a monster but I have to be in a specific mood for it.  Counting post-metal with vocals, I'd easily place Isis over Neurosis, CoL, and Rosetta... but that's just me.  I've been on a huge kick with them lately, enjoying everything from live albums to that Temporal compilation.

[Stress On The Sky]

If we're calling Neurosis post-metal then I wouldn't necessarily agree that ISIS wins but to me they've always been more Sludge.

 

As far as the holy trinity of ISIS goes mine has always been Panopticon/Oceanic/In The Absence Of Truth. Still need to pick up Celestial on vinyl at some point.

[Gumbo72203]

On 2/2/2019 at 12:57 AM, Derek™ said:

What is the best post-metal act of all time and why is it Isis?

I could hug you right now  

 

On 2/2/2019 at 6:31 PM, wisdom81 said:

It's quite hard to choose between Neurosis, Isis, Cult of Luna, Russian Circles and Rosetta. 

 

If I have to pick one, I'd go with Isis. Mostly because Oceanic, Panopticon and Wavering Radiant are such special albums for me. 

Rosetta and Cult of Luna are DEFINITELY worthy contenders.  I could care less about Russian Circles honestly, so you guys can have them.  However, I don't think we would have the post-metal scene we do today without Oceanic and Panopticon.  Those albums created the roadmaps that many people followed, and broke such new ground. 

Cult of Luna comes close, but it took them a few albums to really get to the post-metal sounds, whereas Isis cracked that shit wide open with Oceanic. 

However, I struggle daily with whether or not I think A Determinism of Morality is better than Oceanic.  Rosetta is SO GOOD. 

 

 

It's funny you guys mention In The Absence of Truth.  @drds89 and I have talked about this before, where we think ITAOT might be their best album.  It's without question their most creative, and it has so much of everything I love about the band.  It's very Tool-influenced, and that could be a drawback for some, but man.... that whole album is SO good and it's SO long and never gets old.  It has so many incredible moments. 

Oceanic is the greatest album, but ITAOT might be their best.  I still don't get the love for all of Panopticon because to me, that album falls of significantly after In Fiction.  But man, those first 3 songs.......  (Wills Dissolve is very creative, I just don't love it as much). 

[deafening]

15 minutes ago, Gumbo72203 said:

I could care less about Russian Circles honestly

So many things wrong with this sentence.

[wisdom81]

1 hour ago, Gumbo72203 said:

I could care less about Russian Circles honestly, so you guys can have them.

Thanks, I'll keep them! Russian Circles know how to make songs interesting and not just chug away for 8 mins like most instrumental Post Metal bands. Super dynamic, great riffs and the best drumming. 

 

1 hour ago, Gumbo72203 said:

However, I struggle daily with whether or not I think A Determinism of Morality is better than Oceanic.  Rosetta is SO GOOD. 

While Determinism is great, in my opinion, it's nowhere as good as any of the Isis albums (except for maybe Celestial). 

[omik11303]

5 minutes ago, wisdom81 said:

Thanks, I'll keep them! Russian Circles know how to make songs interesting and not just chug away for 8 mins like most instrumental Post Metal bands. Super dynamic, great riffs and the BEST drumming.

People forget that Geneva might feature one of the best drumming performances post-rock has ever seen.

[Gumbo72203]

3 hours ago, deafening said:

So many things wrong with this sentence.

 

2 hours ago, wisdom81 said:

Thanks, I'll keep them! Russian Circles know how to make songs interesting and not just chug away for 8 mins like most instrumental Post Metal bands. Super dynamic, great riffs and the best drumming. 

 

While Determinism is great, in my opinion, it's nowhere as good as any of the Isis albums (except for maybe Celestial). 

Haha yeah I mean...  I just wish they were spacier.  Their songs never build towards a definable peak for me, and I also could give a shit about tapping riffs (i got sick of it from metal).  Don't get me wrong, they have some sections and songs I do like (1777 and Deficit are great, as is Harper Lewis and Afrika) but by and large, if I never listened to them again, I'd be fine.  Their drummer is great but i feel like he does the same things on all the songs. 

I also don't like Sumac or Pelican either hahaha, even tho all my friends who hate Isis prefer Sumac. 

I'll take Isis, Rosetta, Cult of Luna, We Lost the Sea, Minsk, YONL, and anybody else like that over Russian Circles and Pelican. 

[Bronchitis]

I prefer Sumac over Isis. Are Jesu considered post-metal? Because they are my favorite if so. Probably not the best according to most people and I totally get that but Everyday I Get Closer to the Light From Which I Came hasn’t left my rotation since it came out. I really don’t like Russian Circles at all and feel like I am missing something. I blindly bought Empros years ago and haven’t touched it since. 

[Derek™]

Sumac are so damn dense – not in a bad way at all – compared to how spacious and chill Isis’ grooves can be.  I really love both bands, make no mistake about that.  I just feel like Sumac records take a lot longer for me to fully unpack.  (But end up being incredibly rewarding as time goes on, as a result.)  The way the songs are structured and played though, they’re 2 very separate animals that only really share Turner’s vocals and not much else.  I could see why someone would prefer one over the other.

 

I need to spend a lot more time with Jesu.  I’m familiar with (and own) an embarrassingly small piece of their discography.

[Derek™]

2 hours ago, Gumbo72203 said:

and I also could give a shit about

You really gotta’ work on this.

[Bronchitis]

Ahhh, Jesu are right down your alley, Derek. Definitely worth digging into.

[Derek™]

3 minutes ago, Bronchitis said:

Ahhh, Jesu are right down your alley, Derek. Definitely worth digging into.

No doubt.  I have a friend or two that I have super compatible tastes with, and he basically owns the Jesu discography and swears by it.  I’ve just been dragging my feet and really need to remedy that.

[Gumbo72203]

Okay this is a HARD shift but HOLY FUCK.  So, we just went to dinner for my late-friend's mom's birthday and on the ride back, Kyle's childhood neighbor (who loves black metal, death metal, power metal.... etc) puts on this band.  I'm like "......dude what?  This is post-rock....."  He's like "Really?  I listen to all kinds of stuff."  And i'm like "Yeah why the fuck have you been holding out on this???"

Fucking listen to this guys.  Derek, this one is for you.  It's post-rock but this is waaaaay different.  All of you need to hear this.  It moves from ethereal, dreamy shoegaze/post-rock to blackgaze.  FFO:  Show Me A Dinosaur, TRNA, old Alcest maybe?  I get BIG TRNA vibes from this though at some points, and then other times they're super ethereal.  Also pay attention to the bass player... he's very prominent in the mix and it really gives the music a unique vibe. 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2019 by Gumbo72203

[Gumbo72203]

3 hours ago, Bronchitis said:

I prefer Sumac over Isis. Are Jesu considered post-metal? Because they are my favorite if so. Probably not the best according to most people and I totally get that but Everyday I Get Closer to the Light From Which I Came hasn’t left my rotation since it came out. I really don’t like Russian Circles at all and feel like I am missing something. I blindly bought Empros years ago and haven’t touched it since. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Derek™ said:

I need to spend a lot more time with Jesu.  I’m familiar with (and own) an embarrassingly small piece of their discography.

Jesu are *incredible* and could be considered post-metal but I believe their more proper term is sludgegaze or doomgaze ala Outlander (who if you guys haven't listened to, fucking change that right now). 

 

I tend to have to be in the right mood for them, but man....  some of their songs are so satisfying.  The "Silver" and "Lifeline" EP's probably get the most play from me, but I've been recently REALLY been enjoying the Sunrise/Sundown EP. 

[omik11303]

47 minutes ago, Gumbo72203 said:

Okay this is a HARD shift but HOLY FUCK.  So, we just went to dinner for my late-friend's mom's birthday and on the ride back, Kyle's childhood neighbor (who loves black metal, death metal, power metal.... etc) puts on this band.  I'm like "......dude what?  This is post-rock....."  He's like "Really?  I listen to all kinds of stuff."  And i'm like "Yeah why the fuck have you been holding out on this???"

Fucking listen to this guys.  Derek, this one is for you.  It's post-rock but this is waaaaay different.  All of you need to hear this.  It moves from ethereal, dreamy shoegaze/post-rock to blackgaze.  FFO:  Show Me A Dinosaur, TRNA, old Alcest maybe?  I get BIG TRNA vibes from this though at some points, and then other times they're super ethereal.  Also pay attention to the bass player... he's very prominent in the mix and it really gives the music a unique vibe. 

 

 

Had some spare time so I gave this a go. I got about 25 min in, but it's just not for me. Sorta sounds like what would happen if Daturah added some blast beats and mixed in the occasional harsh vocal line (plus some cleans at ~22:00?). That may appeal to some people, but not me.

[mrewest]

On 2/2/2019 at 9:41 AM, mrewest said:

Speaking of Isis I came across this band yesterday that’s basically post-rock/metal with death metal vocals that remind me of Isis a bit.  Punishingly heavy.  Really good stuff imo.

 

http://wowod.bandcamp.com/album/zemlya

So no one checked this out??  I won’t be offended if you all hate it haha.  Just seemed like a fitting band to check out with all this Isis/Rosetta speak.

[mrewest]

Also, I won’t stand for Russian Circles slander lol.  They are the most consistently great instrumental band in existence imo.  I agree with the sentiment about how they don’t need 8-minutes of wandering around to get “to the point”.  They come out firing & beat you down with the best riffage in the game.  Brian Cook might be my all-time favorite bassist, too.

Edited February 5, 2019 by mrewest

[Derek™]

52 minutes ago, mrewest said:

So no one checked this out??  I won’t be offended if you all hate it haha.  Just seemed like a fitting band to check out with all this Isis/Rosetta speak.

Totally meant to queue this up today, but got carried away at work and forgot to come back to it.  The description of yours definitely captured my interest so I'm eager to hear what it's all about.

 

49 minutes ago, mrewest said:

 They are the most consistently great instrumental band in existence imo.

Basically, yeah.  Caspian is a close second.

 

49 minutes ago, mrewest said:

I agree with the sentiment about how they don’t need 8-minutes of wandering around to get “to the point”.  They come out firing 

Basically, yeah.  It may not be immediate on first listen, but repeated plays – especially over the years, and coming back to their albums – really showcase how little fluff they leave in their songwriting.  I don't think there's a single bad or throwaway track in their discography.

 

51 minutes ago, mrewest said:

best riffage in the game.

Basically, yeah.  You know they've nailed it when you hear a similarly appealing riff from a different band and immediately think "mmm... this Russian Circles worship is gooood".

 

54 minutes ago, mrewest said:

Brian Cook might be my all-time favorite bassist, too.

Basically, yeah.  I don't know that anymore needs to elaborated there.

[Bronchitis]

Brian Cook is a God among men. I really need to try to get more into RC but haven’t been in an instrumental post-whatever mood for years now. I binge and purge with music pretty bad and my instrumental phase is bound to come around sometime soon. 

[Derek™]

42 minutes ago, Bronchitis said:

Brian Cook is a God among men. I really need to try to get more into RC but haven’t been in an instrumental post-whatever mood for years now. I binge and purge with music pretty bad and my instrumental phase is bound to come around sometime soon. 

I get the same thing but it's more band-specific than genre.  There will be phases where I know certain groups are near and dear to my heart, but I just have no desire to listen to them for a year or more.  And then out of nowhere I'll get the ambition to revisit everything in their catalog once again, and delve even deeper than before.  (Essentially what I'm going through with Isis at the moment.)  Definitely give 'em another chance when you think you may get that itch.