School me on ambient metal..

[zachoff]

A couple bands have been popping up on my Pandora station lately that I'm really digging... Pelican and Isis. Don't know much about these bands & want to also know about other bands kinda like them. I've heard them classified as "ambient metal"... Sounds fitting.

[somegeezer]

I would say Isis are Post-Rock, Drone, Doom, Sludge, Ambient, Metal. To be awkward. =P They say they got a lot of influence from Neurosis before them though. Have a listen to other bands in those various styles. A lot of early Doom Metal bands are amazing. Anathema and My Dying Bride are 2 of my favs. Check out Mouth Of The Architect, a newer band [2003] using a similar Sludge/Doom sound. If you want full on Drone Metal, have a listen to Sunn O))). I know of no better Drone Metal band than them. I've heard Cult Of Luna are another good band similar to Isis. Never listened to them personally. If you want to check out some true Ambient, away from Metal; Do try check out Aphex twin. He has a couple of Ambient disks. If you can get hold of any Bjorn Lynne, he does a lot of different types of electronic music, but his Ambient music is some of my favourite. He also does some Instrumental Rock. This is my most recent band I started listening to though; Returning We Hear The Larks - http://returningwehearthelarks.bandcamp.com/album/ypres
This album called ypres has some Ambient textures over Progressive Metal songs. Hope any of that helped.

[dozicusmaximus]

Which albums are the songs off of? They were both a little heavier earlier in thier carreer. I think most of these types of bands are calle Post-metal, Post-whatever blah blah. Excellent stuff.
SUMA, JESU (even some Godflesh stuff), Russian Circles, Neurosis (everybody calls ISIS a rip off of them, but I prefer ISIS), 35007, Cult of Luna, Rosetta, Mouth of the Architect, 5ive, Buried at Sea, A Storm of Light, My Sleeping Karma, Manatees, Earthless, Baroness
That should be a good start...
There are more heavy, more rock, more doom, more prog type of leanings in alot of bands.
ISIS is my fav. for the whole Post thing. Jesu is my go to ambient styled metal

[somegeezer]

Originally Posted by dozicusmaximus

Which albums are the songs off of? They were both a little heavier earlier in thier carreer. I think most of these types of bands are calle Post-metal, Post-whatever blah blah. Excellent stuff.
SUMA, JESU (even some Godflesh stuff), Russian Circles, Neurosis (everybody calls ISIS a rip off of them, but I prefer ISIS), 35007, Cult of Luna, Rosetta, Mouth of the Architect, 5ive, Buried at Sea, A Storm of Light, My Sleeping Karma, Manatees, Earthless, Baroness
That should be a good start...
There are more heavy, more rock, more doom, more prog type of leanings in alot of bands.
ISIS is my fav. for the whole Post thing. Jesu is my go to ambient styled metal

+1 to all that. Seems like a real Post-Metal/Sludge fan.

[NateS]

also, Rosetta is sweet, What The Blood Revealed is a good post-metal/hardcore, but mostly post-metal.

also, Darsombra (good post metal, 1 man band with a 8 string bass)

pyramids is good post-metal...kind of grindcore/ambient, very interesting.
and battle of mice.

and everything dozicusmaximus

[baalroo]

Originally Posted by dozicusmaximus

Which albums are the songs off of? They were both a little heavier earlier in thier carreer. I think most of these types of bands are calle Post-metal, Post-whatever blah blah. Excellent stuff.
SUMA, JESU (even some Godflesh stuff), Russian Circles, Neurosis (everybody calls ISIS a rip off of them, but I prefer ISIS), 35007, Cult of Luna, Rosetta, Mouth of the Architect, 5ive, Buried at Sea, A Storm of Light, My Sleeping Karma, Manatees, Earthless, Baroness
That should be a good start...
There are more heavy, more rock, more doom, more prog type of leanings in alot of bands.
ISIS is my fav. for the whole Post thing. Jesu is my go to ambient styled metal

All those, plus Red Sparrowes, Mogwai (especially their Mr. Beast album), Omega Massif, and Sparrows Swarm and Sing.

For "Doom," which is closely related, my favorite band is Amenra.

[NateS]

when it gets into doom, you can also cross into stoner doom, like Sleep, and it's sometimes just as ambient/out there.

[dozicusmaximus]

Originally Posted by baalroo

All those, plus Red Sparrowes, Mogwai (especially their Mr. Beast album), Omega Massif, and Sparrows Swarm and Sing.

For "Doom," which is closely related, my favorite band is Amenra.

Oh yah! Red Sparowes is post rock supergroup stuff. haha
Amenra A+ stuff right there. Mass III and Mass IIII are great. Earlier stuff too, if I'm in a more hardcore mood.
Kongh - 'Counting Heartbeats' and S;T Erik - 'From Under the Tarn' my go to for the doom feel.
Mindrot - 'Soul' is my go to for 90s metal feel
Minsk - 'Ritual Fires of Abandonment' for the tribaly interesting drum work
Rwake - "voices of omens' for random ideas and awesome heavyness
And if you want some black metal flavor check out Agalloch. I think anybody with an intrest in post stuff should listen to these guys, or well crafted metal in general. Don't worry it doesn't sound like it was recorded on a talkboy in a trashcan.


There are really so many ways to go once you find a few bands with the style you like the most. I gravitated to the sludge/doom side of things. Heavyier riff-ier stuff. But in general the 'post-' bands have alot of my favorite parts of metal/shoegaze genres in one convinient package.

[Deluge Of Sound]

There's a whole bunch of this stuff in the Bonekrushing thread.

[jollygiantchris]

You're talking post metal stuff wouldn't really call it ambient metal. I'm gonna relist some stuff people already did so as not to leave anything out. I will also add a couple post-rock bands you might like (someone else alrdy added Mogwai) and some sorta related bands. To be honest thats something of a huge genre you could say the Nachtmystium's Assassins Black Meddle is in it as well as Mogwai which could not possibly be more different sounding bands.

Neurosis, Pelican, Isis, Cult of Luna, Caspian, Red Sparoews, Rosetta, Explosions in the Sky, Burst (their last two albums The Lazarus Bird is great), Cynic, Earth, Giant Squid, The Ocean (the german one Precambrian is badass), Grails, Intronaut, Jesu, Minsk, Yakuza, Mouth of the Architect, Russian Circles, Suns of the Tundra, Ufomammut, Godspeed you! Black Emperor, and Yawning Man.

These are all great bands but a couple are more rocky.

[SurferJoe46]

Originally Posted by zachoff

A couple bands have been popping up on my Pandora station lately that I'm really digging... Pelican and Isis. Don't know much about these bands & want to also know about other bands kinda like them. I've heard them classified as "ambient metal"... Sounds fitting.

Ya kidding - right?

Ambient Metal, as in: Metal Elevator Music?

Somehow it seems to be a contradiction of some sort.

[Deluge Of Sound]

Originally Posted by jollygiantchris

You're talking post metal stuff wouldn't really call it ambient metal. I'm gonna relist some stuff people already did so as not to leave anything out. I will also add a couple post-rock bands you might like (someone else alrdy added Mogwai) and some sorta related bands. To be honest thats something of a huge genre you could say the Nachtmystium's Assassins Black Meddle is in it as well as Mogwai which could not possibly be more different sounding bands.

Neurosis, Pelican, Isis, Cult of Luna, Caspian, Red Sparoews, Rosetta, Explosions in the Sky, Burst (their last two albums The Lazarus Bird is great), Cynic, Earth, Giant Squid, The Ocean (the german one Precambrian is badass), Grails, Intronaut, Jesu, Minsk, Yakuza, Mouth of the Architect, Russian Circles, Suns of the Tundra, Ufomammut, Godspeed you! Black Emperor, and Yawning Man.

These are all great bands but a couple are more rocky.

While I love Yawning Man to death, they're not really in the same category as the rest of the list.

I would also add Nadja and Ocean (US), if you're really interested in the Ambient part.

[zachoff]

Rad, thanks. I've heard a lot of these bands. Been into the stoner/doom stuff for a while. Just hadn't heard some of these. :thu:

[KTFunkAlive]

"Ambient Metal" sounds like an oxymoron.

[jollygiantchris]

Originally Posted by Deluge Of Sound

While I love Yawning Man to death, they're not really in the same category as the rest of the list.

I would also add Nadja and Ocean (US), if you're really interested in the Ambient part.

Yeah but Yawning Man is ****ing awesome and totally worth a plug as a lot of people that like these sorts of bands would and do like Yawning Man. Technically you could argue Yawning Man is post-rock. Although I'd call them stoner rock personally.

[AcidFripp]

Earth is a good band for that. Check out any of their albums, really.
Check out Om too. They're Sleep's rhythm section. Their album Pilgrimage is not exactly ambient, but still chilled out.

[Lazarus.Bird]

Originally Posted by jollygiantchris

Burst (their last two albums The Lazarus Bird is great)

Heellll yes it is!

[Miskatonic]

Old Man Gloom might be a good try as well. Not very "ambient", but Shrinebuilder is pretty cool, more sludge/doom.

[Mr wiggl3s]

I usually don't call anyone ambient, but atmospheric. Ambient metal is sort of an oxymoron. Most people don't consider the bands you're after metal. I like em though.

[GregC]

Originally Posted by KTFunkAlive

"Ambient Metal" sounds like an oxymoron.

+1. I guess it's part of the general effort to create one billion different metal subgenres.