Nine Atop the Mountain is an American post-metal project by Evan Hoffman. The music combines elements of heavy metal with post-rock inspired repetitive, ambient, and meditative passages. The music is difficult to classify, as it does not follow the increasingly established guidelines of either post-rock or post-metal, and the instrumental nature and varied dynamics of the music make it incompatible with classical descriptors of progressive, dark, or black metal. The Subhelial demo, released in the summer of 2008, features instrumental guitar-driven pieces that follow a non-standard structure, but generally contain a verse/chorus arrangement. Guitar solos are featured much more prominently in the demo than in later releases. The first full-length album, Offering of Dust, was completed in the summer 2011 and quietly released to any who happen upon it. The album presents a tremendous maturation of focus and structure, with "songs" developing from simple themes into climactic, cascading textures as it explores the concept of an extreme act of destruction offered as a gift. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Nine+Atop+the+Mountain">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.