At this point, the subgenre’s trend level has crested and most of what the specific style of music has to offer has likely been explored, but although it gets the ol’ eye-roll “not this again” treatment these days, it’s worth remembering that post-metal has produced some great, landmark albums, and that the bands who came after had solid reasoning behind being influenced as they were.

Blending post-rock elements with heavier, often crushing guitar work, the classification post-metal is as amorphous as any genre term. I’ve heard everyone from High on Fire to Ulver referred to under its umbrella, but I want to be clear that when I talk about post-metal, I’m thinking of what’s also commonly called “metalgaze,” the specific branch of metal heavily inspired by the bands below.

I wanted to do this Where to Start post not just for those looking to expose themselves to the genre, but also in case anyone who maybe is tired of hearing bands that sound like this has forgotten how killer these records were. Here’s my starting five essential post-metal albums, ordered by year of release:

1. Godflesh, Godflesh (1988): I saw the album art on hoodies for years before I knew what it was. 1989’s Streetcleaner was better received critically at the time for its industrial leanings, but Justin Broadrick‘s first outing after leaving Napalm Death has grown over time to be the more influential album. At just 30 minutes long in its original form (subsequent reissues would add bonus material), it’s a pivotal moment in understanding modern post-metal that predates most of the genre’s major contributions by over a decade.

2. Neurosis, A Sun That Never Sets (2001): Take a listen to A Sun That Never Sets closer “Stones from the Sky,” then go put on just about any post-metal record, and you’ll see many of them trying to capture the same feel and progression — if not just blatantly transposing that riff onto their own material. Say what you want about Neurosis‘ earlier material, I think if everyone was honest about it, it would be A Sun That Never Sets mentioned even more. An awful lot of the modern wave of post-metal bands formed in 2001 and 2002, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

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The song is called “Curse of Chains,” it’s 15 minutes long and it comes from The Wounded Kings‘ new split with Virginian doomers Cough, An Introduction to the Black Arts, which is out Nov. 16 on Forcefield Records. If you think you can handle the sheer classicist doom misery of the song, put your robe on and feast your ears on its darkened wonders:

Curse of Chains

Astute attendees will remember earlier this year when I interviewed The Wounded Kings guitarist Steve Mills and he mentioned the split. Here’s what he had to say at the time:

“…it was recorded in a studio rather than in my basement studio, so it’s a whole different process going on. We played it live with four musicians straight away, and it’s got a different sound again. It’s evolved. I think you’ll find that the musicianship is definitely better (laughs)… We got a much better drummer. I’m not putting myself down too much, but I play practically all the instruments on the album, and I play what’s needed to get my point across of what I’m trying to convey. On the new recording that’s coming out, there’s a drummer who’s a drummer. He lives for drums. And there’s a bass player who loves his bass and so forth. It’s evolved again, on a musicianship level of play.”

In case you missed it, our amigo Black Bubblegum over at BrooklynVegan premiered Cough‘s portion of the split on Monday. Cough will also be playing BrooklynVegan‘s CMJ showcase this Saturday with The Body, Inter Arma, Royal Thunder and Batillus at Union Pool. More info on that here.

Sunday afternoon I got an email about Monday night’s Precious Metal ritual at Lit Lounge in NYC, and to my surprise, it was the recently-featured Man’s Gin playing the show. The email said it was just two acts, and that the show was starting at 8:45, so I got out of class and hightailed it into the city in time to hopefully catch Goldhail, who was opening.

I made it and then some. The basement of Lit — a fucking institution when it comes to heaviness in Manhattan — wasn’t open when I got there, so it was happy hour upstairs for a drink while I waited. When I did get down there, I was one of about five people not playing. I paid my $6 willingly, helping a good cause. It was Goldhail‘s first show, and the one-man project of The Nolan Gate guitarist Paul Andress was a little rough in the offing, but interesting nonetheless, bouncing Gary Arce tones through loops and off the concrete walls. For a Precious Metal night that wasn’t really all that metal, it wasn’t out of place.

It was just the two bands, Andress as Goldhail and Man’s Gin, so I didn’t expect a late night and I didn’t get one. Joining Erik Wunder was Inswarm‘s Josh Lozano on guitar, bass, vocals and saxaboom (days to learn, weeks to master), as well as percussionist Brett Zweiman of experimentalists Clutter. Scott Edward was the missing piece of Man’s Gin “usual” lineup — I put “usual” in quotes because they’ve only played a few shows together — but Lozano, Wunder (on vocals and guitar) and Zweiman managed to put together a satisfying show nonetheless, riding as only the brashest of outfits can on swagger, talent and songwriting.

Wunder having made the curious decision to play without a shirt on, they played cuts from the Smiling Dogs album, opening with “Free” and including “Nuclear Ambition” parts one and two (with banter beforehand about whether or not they were indeed two separate songs), the title track, “Hate Money Love Woman” and set-highlight “Doggamn,” along with covers of Nirvana and Will Oldham. I would have liked to see “The Death of Jimmy Sturgis,” but in a world where you’re paying $5 for a bottle of Budweiser because you’re afraid if you don’t the place will close down, beggars can’t be choosers.

It was a low-key night for all involved. Wunder and Lozano were joking around as much as they were playing, pointing out friends in the crowd (most of us sat in the pews lining the walls) and joking about the video camera taping the show. Still, I think they probably sounded much better than they knew; the guitar strums of “Hate Money Love Woman” were gorgeous almost in spite of themselves. When it was over, I made my way back around the corner to my car and out the Holland, hitting practically no traffic, as had also been the case on the way into the city. I was back in the valley before midnight. Some nights, you just win.

Dutch dronely experimentalists Viridiana make their first offering to the gods of musical inactivity with the ultra-malevolent IV (free download link through the band’s MySpace). Yes, despite the numerically misleading title, it is the duo’s first outing, though with two tracks as oppressive as these, there might as well be four of them. If the two-two connection seems purposeful, in all likelihood, it is. Calling themselves Alpha and Omega, the individual members of Viridiana present “Deimos” and “Phobos” (the two moons of Mars) on IV, evoking dense soundscapes in each that are unwavering in their force. Turn up “Phobos” and you’ll feel like someone’s pressing on the side of your head.

There is some vocalizing on “Phobos,” bass rumbling and samples that spring up during the 21:41 runtime (both tracks circle the 20-minute mark), but “Deimos” is more droning the whole way through. Both are nasty, however, and even without being “heavy” in the sense of loud guitar and crashing drums, Viridiana create a breathless ambience with the echoing hand percussion of “Deimos” that finds payoff in the final, less sedentary moments of “Phobos.” But seriously, folks — drone.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if all these drone acts got together and formed one big supergroup: Monsters of Drone, or perhaps a more apt name would be Earth 2. Whatever they called themselves, it would be interesting to hear what a bunch of droners came out with when they all had to be in the same room with each other. I’m sure I’d review it.

Until that happens (never), Viridiana‘s ruthless, pitiless sonic expanse will have to serve as cold comfort. IV isn’t reinventing the genre, but the low-end focus and subtle progression of “Phobos” do put it in line with what Om might have been had it come from the minds of SunnO))), and I can think of at least three people off the top of my head who’d be interested in experiencing such a thing. For them, Viridiana‘s on the radar.

Seriously, even bassist Vanja Slajh comes off looking pretty well-hung in the shadow-puppet chorus scenes of Triptykon‘s new video for “Shatter,” the title track of their latest EP. The song rules, so I point this out in only the most lighthearted of joshing, but it’s kind of hilarious. Here’s the clip if you haven’t seen it yet:

“Shatter” was directed by Philipp Hirsch of Film-M. Triptykon‘s Shatter EP is out Oct. 25.

Trails Out of Gloom, the fourth album by Vancouver, British Columbia-based proggers Fen is my first experience with the band. Their first record for Ripple Music, it’s a collection of melancholic, graceful, sincere melodies, in the vein of some of what Opeth reaches toward from time to time, but more in line with Judgement-era Anathema in its scope and casual straddling of the borders between different aspects of its sound, able to switch from heaviness to a more subtle presentation as smoothly as going one measure to the next. I get the sense this isn’t a sudden development for Fen, who’ve been together since 1998, and that their making it sound easy on Trails Out of Gloom is actually the result of years of work and growth. That’s usually how it goes, anyway.

The band is centered around its two founding guitarists, David Samuel Levin and Douglas Alan Harrison, who also provides the multiple layers of vocals that pop up on tracks like the Katatonia-esque “Find That One” and “The World is Young,” which reminds of Porcupine Tree’s darker moments without being entirely derivative. Trails Out of Gloom starts off with its title track, showing off the acoustic roots of Levin and Harrison’s songwriting and giving Harrison a chance to show off his formidable vocal range. It’s also one of the album’s first missteps, as Harrison reaches at times to a kind of falsetto wail that stands out awkwardly from the soothing music behind, not helped at all by being pushed so far forward in the mix. It doesn’t come up all the time, that is, he doesn’t do it on every song, but it holds back the otherwise driving later cut “End of the Dream” as well, and for a band four albums into their career, it’s a kind of surprising issue to take on, and I don’t doubt it’s one that could turn a lot of people off to Fen altogether.

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A couple years back, I was fortunate enough to play the Cleavage of Doom benefit for Evil Fanny at Krug’s Place in Maryland. It was one of the best times I’ve ever had at a show, and Fanny herself, basically the woman single-handedly responsible for making the current Krug’s scene as strong as it is around bands like Earthride, Valkyrie, Lord, Ol’ Scratch (when they were together), etc., was so cool that her good-naturedness was almost enough to make my villainous heart break.

I won’t be able to make it down there myself, owing to obligations elsewhere on Oct. 30, but if you’re anywhere near Maryland or even if you’re not and you’re free that night, you should definitely don a silly costume, head on down to support one of doom’s own at Krug’s and see a lineup of killer bands. Behold the poster below, drawn by the masterful hand of $killit:

Double-guitar Austrian four-piece BeenObscene make their Elektrohasch debut with The Magic Table Dance, an album that finds the band unpretentiously duna-jamming their way through eight organic tracks of Euro-fuzz reminiscent at times of earliest Natas and keeping a spontaneous feel despite being mostly led by the riffs. The album starts instrumentally, and listening to it, it wouldn’t have surprised me had all of The Magic Table Dance been entirely sans vocals, as the flow of the five-minute opening title cut is so easy that, on the first time through, you might just assume the tracks that follow are as well. It’s most of the way through the second song, “Uniform,” before guitarist Thomas Nachtigal sings at all, and though he’s joined on the record by a number of guest performers, BeenObscene’s first offering feels more focused on the music. Given some of the grooves they elicit, that’s not a complaint.

“Come Over,” which follows the start-stop riffing of “Uniform,” is the first of several tracks on which drummer Robert Schoosleitner really makes his presence known, keeping the presentation classy under the guitar grooves of Nachtigal and fellow guitarist Peter Kreyci with popping snare hits that add a jazz feel to what many other percussionists would probably straight-ahead on the hi-hat. He and bassist Philipp Zezula show off some angularity on the shorter, instrumental “Freakin’ Rabbit,” lending the track a feel similar to what Swedish fuzz-mongers Asteroid did on their second album. The Magic Table Dance feels like a quick mover by the time you get to “Impressions,” where Orange-hued riffage meets more traditional stoner structures offset by snare ghost-notes from Schootleitner, but the 14-minute “Demons” changes the feel of the album entirely, showing BeenObscene, in addition to being able to jam harmless and charming tunes out with the best of them, can also affect some serious epic songwriting.

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