Storm Static Sleep: A Pathway Through Post Rock

by Jack Chuter

Simon Reynolds offered his perspective on post-metal in a 2009 article for Slate, observing that the path from metal to post-metal was not necessarily one of musicality. “The continuity is less sonic but attitudinal: the penchant for morbidity and darkness taken to a sometimes hokey degree; the sombre clothing and the long hair; the harrowed, indecipherably growled vocals; the bombastically verbose lyrics / song titles / band names. It’s that aesthetic rather than a way of riffing or a palette of guitar sounds that ties post-metal back to Judas Priest and Black Sabbath.” While I agree that there is an aesthetic continuity from metal to post-metal, I’d make a case for post-metal’s partial sonic heritage in the riffs of Sabbath, whose density and severity crop up in some of the more doom-centric post-metal outfits (albeit at half the speed).