Post-Metal – Page 3 – Metal Eclipse Reviews

Best Post-Metal Albums of 2024

Metalcatto

We continue our epic quest through the niche styles Metal has to offer before we reach the final countdown (yes, I made a pun!). Today, we delve into the best Post-Metal of 2024, as crowned by your dark majesty. What is Post-Metal, you ask? Nobody truly knows (we just know it sounds sad). The name may be awkward, but we’ve accepted it—much like we accept taxes as a necessary evil. Despite its vague definition, Post-Metal continues to evolve, and this year has been no exception. Let’s dive into these standout albums that embody the genre’s boundless creativity.

Pillar of Light – Caldera

Pegah

“Man is wolf to man. Who in the face of all his experience of life and of history, will have the courage to dispute this assertion?“

– Sigmund Freud

Pillar of Light’s debut album, Caldera, weaves a rich tapestry of themes through its Post-Metal and Sludge Doom Metal lens. The album’s title and cover imagery suggest a potent exploration of destruction and renewal, evoking transformation both in the world and within the human spirit. The interplay between light and darkness—embodied by the stark, illuminated gate set against a shadowy background—serves as a metaphor for hope versus despair, life versus death, and the dualities that shape our existence.

One With the Riverbed – Succumb

SonikGoat

If Kalamazoo, Michigan, conjures the exoticism implied in the phrase “from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo”, then a band name like that of Kalamazoo natives One With The Riverbed immediately signaled to this writer an expectation for something rooted in the ever-growing Post-Metal genre. My mind went straight to ArcTanGent—that stellar UK festival that curates the best of Post-Metal and Post-Rock. Would Succumb merit the attention of the ATG scouts, a surefire marker of rising prominence for any young band?

Hell is Other People – Moirae

Let’s face it: Post/Black Metal has won the extreme music war. It doesn’t matter where I go; there are at least 20 Post/Black bands making everything around them a valley of tears and sorrow. That brings me to today’s guest, Hell is Other People. With a name clearly inspired by Huis Clos, I couldn’t let it pass! I love my Black Metal existentialist, and that’s what Moirae seemed to promise. Rarely have I been this interested in finding no way out of a painful situation, but that’s what extreme music does to the soul! Anyway, it’s judgment time!

Sumac – The Healer

I’ve been dreading this moment for long; it’s almost given me nightmares. No other band in Metal can evoke the feeling of being trapped in your anxious prison like Sumac does. Ever since, I discovered it with What One Becomes, next to everything Sumac touched has been perfection to my ears. However, since May You Be Held, I’ve started to get worried about the direction of the band. It’s almost become a Noise/Jazz band with Metal textures that explores dark mental corners like nobody does; conceptually fascinating, but challenging to sit through. Hence, The Healer has the tough task to add something new to one of the riskiest projects in Post-Metal, without alienating us, the peasantry. Will it succeed?

Hyppotraktor – Stasis

A few months back, I was minding my own business, which means critiquing papers others wrote because they weren’t up to par… right, you don’t need to know that. Either way, in the middle of that bloodbath, a friend sent me Meridian and I thought nothing of it after listening to the first track. But then I listened to the second and the third. Something had clicked. Hippotraktor (that name…) was different; it was as if The Ocean and Meshuggah had a hipster child. Hence, my expectations for Stasis were high, and that’s always a problem, or is it?