Nine Circles

 

If you’re a regular reader of my columns on this website, it’s been pretty easy to see the kind of pattern I fall into with my metal listening habits.  I’ve made no secret that I like my metal on the more extreme side, in particular the realms of funeral doom, black metal, death metal, and the intersections thereof.  Recently, though, I’ve felt like I needed to break out of my rut and see what else has been out there that I’ve been missing out on.  Prior to this article, my experience with the diverse world of post-metal was limited to my hometown heroes, Russian Circles and Pelican, with a Red Sparowes album thrown in for good measure.  When talking about this with my Nine Circles colleagues, I was bombarded with a slew of highly recommended albums that I had somehow missed out on over the years, and it became clear that this was the avenue I needed to pursue to broaden my metal vocabulary, so to speak.  Thus, the seed for this piece was born.  Some of these albums are classics that I never got around to visiting, some are more recent releases that simply flew under my radar, but all of them helped rekindle a love for a subgenre that I had been sorely missing out on.  

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Neurosis – Through Silver in Blood

Ok, ok, ok, ok I can hear you all yelling from here.  Yes, the shocking truth is, until now, I have never listened to a Neurosis album all the way through.  What might be even more shocking to you is that…I thought for a while I didn’t even like Neurosis.  I started out my journey into this band’s daunting catalog with Times of Grace, which along with the above mentioned album was recommended to me as the best places to begin, but even after several tries, I dropped off after two or three songs.  It was heavy as hell, sure, but it lacked a certain something that I expected to find in a post-metal album.  I relegated Neurosis to the “cool but not really my thing” folder and moved on.  When the urge to expand my horizons came calling, however, I decided that maybe I should try Through Silver… and see if that might yield different results.  The difference was night and day; awestruck, I instantaneously understood why this is regarded as an all time classic, and why Neurosis are given the lengthy praise they get.  Where Times of Grace felt more aggressive and sludgy, the serpentine riffing and moody atmosphere of Through Silver… clicked with me instantly.  I’m only 30 some odd years late to the game, but you can finally call me a believer.

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ISIS – Panopticon

My experience with ISIS was a little bit more involved than that of the previous band covered, but while I had listened to individual songs and had a general appreciation for the band (and pretty much anything else Aaron Turner gets involved with), it is true that I had never listened to an ISIS album all the way through.  While my collegues may fight me about whether or not Panopticon is the career high of the band, it was the album I saw referenced the most as ISIS’ best work, so it’s the one I decided on.  I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to get out of this album, but even still, Panopticon is outrageously good, and I should have gotten on this train a long time ago.  As with Neurosis, it is very easy to see why this is considered a classic; its mix of melody and aggression, of space and weight is exactly the recipe I want out of post-metal.  And as always, Aaron Turner’s distinctive vocal style caps the whole thing off the right way.

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Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas – Mariner

I don’t feel quite as bad about not getting around to this album until now because it is only two years old.  Except I do feel bad, because this album is jaw-dropping and I really should have listened to this when it first came out.  Very few albums I have heard live up to this amount of hype, but Mariner absolutely deserves every accolade it’s gotten.  Cult of Luna’s thick brand of sludgy metal rolls like waves on the Atlantic, enveloping the listener in lush, heavy goodness, but the star here is undoubtedly Julie Christmas.  The range of vocal stylings she brings to the table on these songs brings out nuances in the music that wouldn’t hit as hard without her.  She is the perfect foil to the post-metal backdrop, and these two forces together build off of each other to create something astonishing.

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The Ocean – Pelagial

Well this is certainly something different.  This was an album recommended to me by my esteemed collegues Dan and Corey, and is one that I was entirely unfamiliar with going in.  Pelagial covers more breadth than the previous album, moving away from the slow and sludgy method to include everything from the occasional blast beat to metalcore-esque breakdowns, and plenty of varied vocal stylings from Loïc Rossetti.  The Ocean’s “more is more” style of songwriting means that Pelagial never gets stale, but is also harder to lose yourself in, at least for me.   This might not end up being one of my favorite albums from this experiment, but it is definitely inventive, and it was worth the listen.

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Palms – S/T

Palms are a supergroup consisting of three former members of ISIS with Chino Moreno from Deftones on guitar and vocals, and their self-titled, and to date only, release sounds…pretty much like if Chino Moreno sang over some ISIS songs.  Palms may not hit the same highs as either band that spawned them, but their album is a pleasant journey through the lighter, dreamier end of the post-metal spectrum.  Guitars here take a much more shimmery approach compared to the thick heaviness of ISIS or Deftones, and make great use of chorus and delay effects to stretch their sound out into the ether.  When coupled with Chino’s soaring vocals, the songs on Palms feel like floating on air, and this gives the moments where things get really heavy all the more impact.

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Mouth of the Architect – Path of Eight

Dayton, OH’s Mouth of the Architect are a band I was familiar with in name only, so it was at the suggestion of our own Zyklonius that this album was included.  Interestingly enough, I discovered that Mouth of the Architect’s lineup consists of both present and former members of metalcore legends Twelve Tribes, which doesn’t give you any indication of what their albums may sound like, but is a cool piece of trivia.  Path of Eight (which I believe references the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism) moves from droning noise to proggy sludge and back again, creating an interesting fluctuation of dynamics.  It also helps that at only 45 minutes in length, this album doesn’t overstay its welcome.

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If These Trees Could Talk – The Bones of a Dying World

If These Trees Could Talk are one of those bands that I found, threw one of their songs on a Spotify playlist “so I could remember to check them out later” and then promptly forgot to do anything about.  My memory was jogged by our own Corey Butterworth, who suggested the album when I was assembling titles to go through for this piece, and I am grateful for the assist.  Sacrificing vocals for a triple-guitar attack, the songs on The Bones of a Dying World are beautifully layered, with parts building on top of one another to construct a tower of verdant  sound.  It reminds me a lot of late-era Russian Circles, after they ditched the mathier bits of their sound and went more cinematic; this is a very good thing.

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Rosetta – Utopioid

Rosetta’s Utopioid is far and away the most spacey and ambient affair in this list, but when its crunch time, it still knows how to hit hard.  Its actually the breathier, lighter segments that ended up being my favorite on this album.  Those who recommended I check out Rosetta tried to steer me towards their early career because it was heavier, but I’m glad I ended up giving Utopioid a shot (thank you again, Anton) because this ended up being one of my favorite albums from this little experiment.

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Year of No Light – Tocsin

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I bought a split 12″ between Altar of Plagues and Year of No Light.  I bought this platter mainly for the Altar of Plagues side, and unfortunately I found their contribution to the split to be a little lackluster.  The Year of No Light side, however, fascinated me.  I wasn’t expecting a band I had never heard of to blow me away, but they stole the show on that release.  And then, of course, I promptly forgot to check out anything they had ever done.  But I remembered that split, and so I threw Tocsin, the band’s 2013 full-length into my playlist for this article.  Post-metal in general is usually doom-adjacent, but Tocsin is serious doom metal meets post-rock in the best way possible.  Like If These Trees Could Talk, Year of No Light sacrifice vocals for a three-guitar setup, but instead of playing off one another, the guitars come together to create a massive wall of sound that envelops and engrosses.  Once again, the dark horse band has blown some major contenders out of the water.

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If there’s two things I discovered during this little experiment, it’s that 1.) post-metal makes excellent gym music and 2.) I should have attemted to burst my little bubble a long time ago.  It’s easy to get trapped in a routine with the things you listen to, and there’s nothing wrong with knowing what you like, no matter how narrow that scope is.  I am someone, however, who likes to foster curiousity and am always looking to expand my horizons.  I’m grateful to have friends with such excellent taste that gave me these recommendations, and I’m very happy to have another avenue of metal to geek out over with these good people.

– Vincent