Agalloch
The Mantle


4.5
superb

Review

by ahsanimam USER (2 Reviews)
July 17th, 2015 | 16 replies


Release Date: 2002 | Tracklist

Review Summary: This thing is ethereal and esoteric too. A well-crafted master piece.

Agalloch are one of the few outfits who had managed to create their own distinctive tone and atmosphere. Haughm's creativity is not only reflected from the diverse use of instruments and effects but also from the lyrical theme that has created an ambience with meaning and concept. I have been the admirer of Agalloch for many years. I have listened many similar acts like them but the overall atmosphere, effects and multiple instruments use, Haughm's use of clean/raw vocals, concept behind each track and last but not the least the cold narcotic feeling I feel is just what I can't explain. Their music is not for mainstream, I can deliberately say.

I thought I should write more about the influence rather than explaining the structure of each song. "The Mantle" brought another masterpiece from Agalloch, Death in June & Godspeed inspired guitar blend is the foreground of this LP. Their influence from the filmography is reflected from "The Hawthorne Passage"; the influence from a folklore is much more reflected from "...and the Great Cold Death of the Earth" and from the deer skull chants on "The Lodge" and Nietzsche is reflected from "In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion"; the use of accordion & mandolin had brought a mellow tone in "A Desolation Song" and somewhat the sing-speak texture made this a little different from the other songs. Well, I was reading their interviews and they said they were actually portraying some images and wanted to express those via this album and they actually did. Each song is actually depicting its own story. Long passage of instruments mainly acoustics and leads are the trademark of this album.

Their music varies from atmospheric black metal to post-metal and post-rock with progressive rock influence but they describe it simply as dark metal and yes they are dark and cold. A best companion on a frosty night with nocturnal silence everywhere. You just can't get enough of this album, I bet.


user ratings (2994)
4.4
superb
other reviews of this album
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Comments:Add a Comment 
Tunaboy45
July 17th 2015


18429 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

The review is well written but it doesn't really feel fleshed out enough to warrant it being anything other than a soundoff.

I won't pos or neg because as I said it's still a good bit of writing.

Hawks
July 17th 2015


87955 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

This review kinda sucks.

Cygnatti
July 17th 2015


36034 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

oh yes! pop rock rarely reaches these levels of esoteric-ness :]

Asdfp277
July 17th 2015


24310 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

fav album

zaruyache
July 17th 2015


27415 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Gonna go out on a limb and guess non-native-English-speaker on this one.



Take the "stompbox-talk:" out of the review and put it as a comment on the review instead; it has no place in the review on its own. And then stretch out your ideas and fill in more details.

Gameofmetal
Emeritus
July 17th 2015


11592 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

the intro paragraph is fairly nonsensical

Archelirion
July 17th 2015


6594 Comments


'oh yes! pop rock rarely reaches these levels of esoteric-ness :]' - this does seem to be your new thing, doesn't it Cyg? :3 Still, I will agree calling it metal is kinda difficult aside from the vocals.

Judio!
July 17th 2015


8496 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Classic album, shit review.

Asdfp277
July 17th 2015


24310 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

why y'all so aggressive, this is not that bad



at least the reviewer took the time to investigate about the album, and wrote more than "cool track, has a solo @3:11 4.5" / "nice track, has growls and acoustic guitar 5.0"

Hawks
July 17th 2015


87955 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

I usually don't neg reviews, but this one is bad. There's run on sentences and grammar issues throughout pretty much the whole thing. If it was cleaned up it would be fine. m/

Asdfp277
July 17th 2015


24310 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

i mean i agree but damn

SCREAM!
July 17th 2015


15755 Comments


This started off promising but you didn't really flesh out your ideas much and only really gave a brief description of different songs.

" last but not the least the cold narcotic feeling I feel is just what I can't explain. "

Try to explain it! This is the sort of thing you have to focus on in your review. Try and give an explanation of how the album sounds as a whole rather than focusing on little sections like you did. You can definitely mention sections but try to use them more as examples to reinforce your explanations rather than basing your whole review around them.

"There's run on sentences and grammar issues throughout pretty much the whole thing. If it was cleaned up it would be fine. "

Hawks is right but I get the feeling English isn't your native language so personally I could look past this sort of thing if you could focus more on working on the actual content of the review. Don't give up man!

BallsToTheWall
July 18th 2015


51228 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

The capacity of human intelligence seems to limit the capabilities to expand upon any possible creative aptitudes. Indeed, if one cannot even notice the facets that the ingenuities around him are comprised of, how can he be expected to fashion a beast of his own? This inveterate sense of constraint is a great blow to the veracity of mankind’s abilities. It restrains us and holds our minds to the ground below, averting any possibility of rising above ourselves to something greater; something not fathomed by the conventional mind. This concept of seeking to go beyond one’s self, known as “transcendence”, is essentially a gateway to unlocking pieces of ourselves that can lead to some of the most elaborate and significant creations of our world. For many, this quest to transcend and form creations that were once considered unthinkable and overwhelming consumes life. Certainly it is rare to find such people, but when they are found, creative barriers are destroyed.



The capacity of human intelligence seems to limit the capabilities to expand upon any possible creative aptitudes. Indeed, if one cannot even notice the facets that the ingenuities around him are comprised of, how can he be expected to fashion a beast of his own? This inveterate sense of constraint is a great blow to the veracity of mankind’s abilities. It restrains us and holds our minds to the ground below, averting any possibility of rising above ourselves to something greater; something not fathomed by the conventional mind. This concept of seeking to go beyond one’s self, known as “transcendence”, is essentially a gateway to unlocking pieces of ourselves that can lead to some of the most elaborate and significant creations of our world. For many, this quest to transcend and form creations that were once considered unthinkable and overwhelming consumes life. Certainly it is rare to find such people, but when they are found, creative barriers are destroyed.



Aftertheascension
July 18th 2015


3564 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

better than my reviews at least



though that's not difficult

ahsanimam
July 18th 2015


2 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Thank you all for the response. There might be some errors in this which I'll surely try to fix. I actually wrote this for those who are new to Agalloch and their style of music and that's why the intro paragraph sounds "fairly nonsensical". I additionally added the "stomp box talk" for those who have some interest in digging effects.

Cheers!

ahsanimam
July 19th 2015


2 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

@soccerRiot I am open for anything.



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