Review Summary: An album that cannot be replicated in terms of writing and passion. An album with no mission to annoy or please the listener but to engage the listener with emotions ranging from desperation, to bliss and finally serenity.
Music means different things to different people. Some people like music playing in the background, relentlessly pursuing their main focus and using music as a wonderful distraction thereby taking away the monotonous feeling of their current task. Some people just dive into their music, thereby triggering all of their senses to reach out to the music effectively shutting out the outside world.
Ashes Against the Grain is not an album for the former. This album demands you to cut off contact from the outside world and instead forces you to contemplate about the world within you. Agalloch seem to have no intention to depress you with their riffs, however, they are not going to pump you with false hope. This album is completely open to interpretation and can mean different things depending on the mood of the listener. The mood changes are rapid and frequent, yet do not feel forced or theatrical. Every note picked and every vocal line delivered seem perfectly timed in this record. A remarkable accomplishment by itself. Nothing seems out of place.
There are few songs in the grand world of metal that are written with so much passion and energy when compared to 'Not Unlike the Waves'. Picture riffs and notes held in complete captivity. Now picture Agalloch setting them free and out in the open with the riffs just running amok celebrating their independence. Unpredictable and haphazard, yet feels so concise and complete.
At the end of a riff so divine, yet sinister; 'The God of Man is a Failure' proclaims John Haughm, the lead singer and guitarist of Agalloch. A vocal line delivered with so much desperation yet a hopeless acceptance to fate. These are just some of the few moments in music that are powerful enough to change your world-view. This is an Agalloch song for you. An album in the grey, neither white or black. A sort of hopeful depression so to speak.
Most of the lyrics flirt dangerously with the concept of self-realization using the elements of nature as a direct or indirect metaphor. All of the elements, fire, water, ice, snow, earth, mountain are tastefully used to paint a serene landscape of beautiful and passionate guitar melodies. The interpretations of the riffs are left totally to the listener. Despite the fact that an album of this sort does not require any heroics behind the drum set, the drumming is more than adequate and gives the album the tight and polished feel, without the feeling of it being overdone. Haughm has done a fine job with the vocals that are absolutely spot on with the rasps and the grunts that do so well to shift the mood of the listener from hope to desperation.
The sense of melancholy in 'Limbs', or the sense of deep contemplation in 'Fire Above, Ice Below', or the sense of hope painted within the mental imagery provided by 'Not Unlike The Waves' or the feeling of eternal damnation in 'Our Fortress is Burning: Bloodbirds' are just few of the highlights in this album. Musical notes meandering between the arcane and the insane. The sense of foreboding hidden deceptively behind the ray of light is just the part of the journey Agalloch intended us to partake. Although this journey does not seem to have a specific destination, there exists a feeling of familiarity upon reaching the finale of the album. That's Agalloch for you.
