Post-rock

Explosions in The Sky is probably the first post-rock band that I heard and is still the one that defines the genre for me. Long instrumental songs that take you on a journey where you can go from a single guitar to all band members pouring their hart and souls into a creating a wonderful sonic force.

Their first four albums are worth checking out, after that they started focussing on making soundtracks which, while still sounding great, feature shorter songs that feel more fragmented.

Mono first came to my attention because they expand on the basic guitar-bass-drum instrumentation of what I previously heard in post-rock with a more orchestral feel. Strings, horns, sometimes a glockenspiel and very occasionally some vocals, it all mixes together beautifully into a sound that is post-rock and also distinctly Mono.

Mono is very productive, having released a lot of albums and EPs while touring the world too. That makes their live albums feel like a sort of best-off snapshot. Holy Ground is also a great live album but the songs on Beyond the Past have a more aggressive edge to them.

To me, this is post-rock perfection. My only complaint is that, with 34 minutes in length, it's too short :)

Another live album on this list and this one has an incredible production value which really captures what Caspian can do, which is also what post-rock does best: taking you on that calm to chaos journey.

Their first KEXP session is also very impressive, and you can see how passionately the band plays their songs.

This Will Destroy You is a band that expands on the genre by adding some more aggression and noise to the chaotic parts (as their name might suggest), making the quiet parts more impressive.

Just like the previously mentioned Caspian and Mono albums, this live album compiles some of the best songs that This Will Destroy You has made while also having a high production value that makes you forget that you are listening to a live album instead of a studio one.

I haven't paid that much attention to their output after this live album came out, but everything before that is great.

Red Sparowes first grabbed my attention with their long song titles, but that's more of a way to add meaning to instrumental songs than just a gimmick.

Where they differ from the previous bands on this list is that songs are more up-tempo, while multiple guitars intertwine and a more aggressive bass is higher up in the mix (things like that stand out in a genre with a pretty specific sound).

Check out 'The Soundless Dawn Came Alive as Cities Began to Mark the Horizon' if you want to hear how wonderfully a slide guitar can mix with post-rock.

I don't think this band can be defined as making purely post-rock, but it has all of the characteristics while being even more aggressive. With thunderous drums high up in the mix and a bass that rattles on it creates songs that make an impact both on record and live. So, probably not something you want to hear if you want to use post-rock to just relax.

'Lisboa' is my favorite song of theirs and is a great example of how the calm-chaos journey can sound in the hands of Russian Circles.

Bands like EF and Yndri Halda use post-rock as a base and add vocals and orchestral elements like strings and piano to the sound. 'We Salute You, You, and You!' was one of my favorite albums of 2022 and is a great example of how you can use post-rock as an influence while creating more up-tempo songs that still have an emotional heft to them.

OK, let's take things down a notch. This band creates wonderfully orchestrated post-rock songs that really take their time to expand, creating these sonic journeys while not being that aggressive in the more up-tempo parts. Give them a listen if you liked Mono.

I like post-rock, I like Portugal and I like Urso Bardo from Lisbon too. The lead guitar has a pretty specific sound that sometimes is drawn out to almost a slide guitar or a siren kind of a thing, beautifully intertwined with the rhythm guitar.

I wanted to give them a special shout out because they only have 38 listeners on Spotify which is way too low for the great post-rock music they put out.

Spurv is one of the most exiting bands in post-rock to me. Hailing from Oslo they seem to expand their sound with every album they put out. On their latest album 'Brefjære' they've added a choir and feature more orchestral elements, making their first album almost sound stereotypically post-rock in comparison (still great though). I like to imagine that they are being influenced by Norway's vast landscapes and fjords, recording somewhere after trudging through forests and over barren lands, whether that's true or not :)

This album was part of a playlist that I played a lot while I made a journey by train through Scandinavia (also featuring their neighbors to the west, Spurv). I feel like this band from Stockholm hasn't discovered their true powers yet, and that's a good thing. This beautiful live record shows more potential than their previous studio output. It features the whole previously unreleased 'Kyrie' suite, with a single from 2021 in the middle. That same suite has been released as a studio album in September 2026 and I look forward to see what they will do next.