Palms

Caspian are an instrumental band from Beverly, Massachusetts, formed in 2003, and they use post-rock's crescendo shape as a container for far more than post-rock. Three guitars, pedal steel, synthesizers and tape loops build the quiet halves; the loud halves reach genuine post-metal weight, PopMatters calling Dust and Disquiet (2015) a 'prog-metal melee, equal parts resplendent and eviscerating' full of 'distorted clangor, rife with feedback and guitar squeals'. Around the edges sit things the genre usually leaves out — programmed voices, beats and loops, a crooning trumpet, piano and glockenspiel, and on later records obscured vocal melody and outright screams cutting through the shimmer. Where their peers treat atmosphere as the destination, Caspian treat it as one instrument among several, which is why the records keep changing texture from track to track instead of repeating the same slow build.

Jesu are a British experimental metal band formed in 2003 by Justin Broadrick in Abergele, Wales, following the breakup of his industrial-metal band Godflesh; the name comes from the last track of Godflesh's album Hymns. Essentially Broadrick's solo vehicle, the project trades Godflesh's brutality for melancholic, heavily layered music blending shoegaze, dream pop, drone, and post-metal. Their early lineup for releases such as the Silver EP (2006) and the album Conqueror (2007) added Diarmuid Dalton on bass and Ted Parsons on drums.

From Köld (2009) onward Sólstafir shed black metal for sweeping atmospheric post-rock and post-metal, trading harsh vocals for Aðalbjörn Tryggvason's desperate, cracked clean singing over long, melancholic, reverb-drenched crescendos sung in Icelandic. The double album Svartir Sandar (2011) and its single "Fjara" broke the band internationally, and Ótta (2014, Season of Mist) leaned further into cinematic, cowboy-tinged shoegaze grandeur. This later Sólstafir sits alongside the atmospheric black/post-metal wave of bands like Alcest and Deafheaven while keeping a windswept, uniquely Icelandic identity.

Fjaraplay in the dock

BandcampSpotifyTidal

compare profiles →

Charming Timur is a Helsinki, Finland one-man project self-described as "a one man musical Soothing Apocalypse" spanning experimental metal, industrial and atmospheric music. Albums like "Focused Rage" (2017) blend nu-metal riffs and chaotic screaming with post-rock vibes and electronic atmospheres — the artist's own description is wanting it to sound like "the entire universe rip itself apart and yet it would sound beautiful at the same time." The project's identity behind the name could not be confirmed from any directly-fetched source; bassist Damjan Kapor guests on most of Focused Rage.

Psychotic Depressionplay in the dock

BandcampSpotify

compare profiles →

Alcest is a French band formed in 2000 in Bagnols-sur-Cèze by multi-instrumentalist Neige (Stéphane Paut), initially as a solo black metal project. Widely credited with pioneering blackgaze and post-black metal, the band pairs black metal's tremolo and blast-beats with the shimmering, ethereal textures of shoegaze and dream pop to evoke Neige's recurring theme of a luminous 'other world.' Since 2009 Alcest has been a duo of Neige and drummer Winterhalter, releasing albums such as Souvenirs d'un autre monde (2007), Les Voyages de l'âme (2012) and Kodama (2016) on Prophecy Productions before moving to Nuclear Blast.

Autre Tempsplay in the dock

BandcampSpotifyTidal

compare profiles →

Hail Architeuthis! is a chaotic instrumental metal duo from Bloomington, Indiana, combining technical, prog-metal riffing with cinematic, ambient, and post-rock textures across dynamically extreme compositions. Released a self-titled debut EP in 2009 and a full-length in 2010, both via the Auris Apothecary label.

Rosetta is a post-metal band formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2003, blending sludge metal, post-rock, drone, ambient, and space rock into a sound the band self-describes as "metal for astronauts." Their key releases include the two-disc The Galilean Satellites (2006), Wake/Lift (2007), and A Determinism of Morality (2010), issued on Translation Loss Records before the group became fully independent. They are known for lengthy, atmospheric compositions and an eclectic hybrid drawing on post-hardcore, shoegaze, and progressive elements.

Isis were an American post-metal band formed in Boston in 1997 and later based in Los Angeles, active until their breakup in 2010. Building on roots in hardcore punk and doom metal, they helped pioneer and evolve the post-metal sound established by Neurosis and Godflesh, favoring lengthy compositions built on repetition and gradual structural evolution. Led by Aaron Turner, founder of Hydra Head Records, the band's core lineup remained consistent across five studio albums including the acclaimed Oceanic (2002) and Panopticon (2004). They disbanded in June 2010, just before a split EP with the Melvins, and reunited once in 2018 as Celestial for a tribute show.

London-based post-metal/progressive collective led by songwriter Mark Norgate, weaving shoegaze wall-of-sound, doom weight, and Eastern/esoteric folk textures (chant, saxophone) into long-form suites. Their 2025 release 'The Between' expanded the lineup to twelve players for a single 32-minute 'guided meditation through death and dying.' The band has walked away from Spotify entirely over its treatment of artists.

R.I.P.play in the dock

Bandcamp

compare profiles →

Mamiffer is an American experimental band based in Seattle, Washington, founded in 2007 by Faith Coloccia out of ideas from her former group Everlovely Lightningheart. It began as her solo project and grew into a duo with Aaron Turner (of Isis and Sumac), who became her creative partner and later husband; the two also co-founded SIGE Records. The music intertwines ambient, drone, and post-rock composition with piano and ethereal vocals, and the band is known for collaborative albums and rotating guest musicians.