Review Summary: Perfect sad black metal
My first review. I decided to review something that I knew I loved. I bought this album sitting in Geneva Airport on my way home from a snowboarding weekend with my brothers and Dad. I wish I’d bought it on the way out.
Agalloch play atmospheric metal. They appeal to fans of black metal; furious, pummelling drums, the tremolo picked minor key guitar lines and the wretched vocals. But these guys add textures to their music and it might be this that makes it special. 12 string guitars strum the chord progressions behind the serrated lead guitar playing.
It’s interesting to note the other instruments put to use too, so here’s an exciting list: Cello, piano, moogs, vibraphone, glockenspiel, petrified bone, glass and metal sheets. They also employ field recordings to impart atmosphere, and atmosphere is what this record has in abundance.
The first track (They Escaped the Weight of Darkness) is a sombre cello instrumental and it sets you up in the correct mindset for the rest of the journey. The second track (Into the Painted Grey) starts off with racing drums and fast tremolo picking until it transforms into a building melody that sounds a little like something from their previous album, ‘Ashes against the Grain’ but a little less polished sounding. A piano joins in with the guitars and builds the pretty atmosphere. There aren’t many instances of verse – chorus – verse, the songwriting instead favours a more progressive, or post <insert genre label here> structure. Sections and ideas evolve, change and tensions builds before resolving. It rewards repeated listens.
It’s a pretty heavy album, and the band have made efforts to make it sound less polished than their previous offering. This, however, doesn’t mean it sounds bad. It sounds like a blizzard of snow on the top of a mountain overlooking a frozen valley, but at the same time it has a classic warm analogue feel.
Most of the tracks are fairly epic, the shortest track proper, called ‘Ghost of the Midwinter Falls’ is 9:39, and the longest (Black Lake Niðstång) is 17:34. They cleverly keep the listener’s interest by varying the pace, building to crescendo and segueing into almost ambient music at times. It’s relentless when it needs to be but they know when to bust out a gorgeous guitar line, or drop the blasting drums to allow you to hear the 12 string more clearly (and presumably so the drummer is allowed a bit of a break). There’s a lot of tension and release, and there’s a lot of (sometimes buried) melody.
I think my favourite track is ‘The Watcher’s Monolith’ which is more mid-paced and has almost a standard rock drumbeat, and if it weren’t for the (perfectly pitched) harsh vocals it could be something by Mogwai or Crippled Black Phoenix if you didn’t know better. There’s some clean singing on this song too, it sounds like it was recorded out in the wild but I think it’s double tracked or something because it has this really lovely sort of analogue layering effect which makes it sound all natural and welcoming. It has a wonderful almost swinging drum section before it reaches the penultimate euphoric section. Outstanding.
The longest track, ‘Black Lake Niðstång’ is about a cursed totem set up in a lake to ward off the nasties that scared away the cranes, stags and other nature. This track veers very close to dark, ambient music at times. It’s very relaxing and conjures lonely naturalistic images if you listen on headphones and close your eyes and let it just saturate you.
‘Ghosts of the Midwinter Falls’ starts off with an echoing bouncy arpeggio and it builds around this motif for a good while, the distorted guitars adding texture and the lead lines building a nice counterpoint to the bass and acoustic instruments. After a couple of minutes it turns into an friendly, optimistic dark metallic folk dirge, before a traditional black metal riff recalling earlier Emperor or Ulver makes its way into the composition. After that it turns again into a rock folk tune.
The final track (To Drown) is an acoustic guitar accompanied by the cello, and the electric guitar weaves in and out of this, evoking a longing feeling. It closes the album with another almost ambient section of large drums and a cello that sound like the wind is very very angry at you, and winds down into what sounds like a field recording of a gentle stream.
This album came out in November of 2010 on the respected Profound Lore label, and it’s had regular rotation since. It’s not an immediate record, preferring to reveal layers to you on each successive listen. But it is one that I would recommend persevering with because when it clicks with you it’s a wonderful, thrilling, beautiful experience.
It’s absolutely ***ing awesome. Check it out!
