Minsk - The Ritual Fires of Abandonment (2007)

Minsk are a fairly well-known post-metal band hailing from Chicago that really know how to create atmosphere. Like Neurosis, they intersperse their sludgey metal riffs and howled vocals with beautiful, ritualistic, and quite hypnotic guitar drones. In fact, there might even be more of these ritualistic passages than actual metal on this album which is fine by me. While they do indeed follow the formula that pretty much every post-metal band does, they still do a hell of a job with it. I'm extremely impressed on my first listen and I'm sure I'll come to love it even more after time.
9/10