Album Rating: 4.5

'Masterpiece. Also this > Mantle tbh' (2)

Album Rating: 4.5

The Mantle is more diverse and still more rounded, it also doesn't have The Grain, so The Mantle >>, this is still one of the best metal albums in general. Marrow isn't too far behind, neither is Pale Folklore. One of the best discographies ever, even outside of its genre.

Album Rating: 4.5

I love their whole discography, well I'm actually lukewarm to Sphere but it's not terrible, just doesn't compare to their other works. Consistent band.



Really need to hear that Pillorian album...

Album Rating: 4.5

Yes, I also think that Serpent is a good album and would have been fine for most other bands of that genre, but as an Agalloch album it's definitely sub-par. Most of their EPs are also worth listening to, especially The White which is sort of a continuation of The Mantle's quiet moments, and Faustian Echoes which is in turn a continuation of Marrow's heavy moments. The only EP that isn't worth hearing is The Grey. That one's terribly boring.



Haven't listened to the Pillorian album either, I've always saved it for the next winter (and it's at the door so it's gonna change soon!)

Album Rating: 5.0

The Mantle is their best but most of it isn’t really metal so not as easy to compare with their others

First three songs on here are mind-blowing, counting White Mountain as part of Fire, Ice.

Album Rating: 4.5

I think The Mantle and Pale Folklore are way easier to compare than any of those with this one. The feeling on this is much more post-y, they scrapped most of the folk elements altogether ... I like to compare the situation of going from The Mantle to this to Radiohead going from OKC to Kid A - the style is completely different and that's exactly the reason why they were able to make a masterpiece to follow up another one.

Album Rating: 5.0

I actually might like the Mantle more than this now that I'm thinking about both. Yeah, I'm amending my answer to The Mantle > this

Album Rating: 5.0

PF and Marrow are more comparable than PF and The Mantle b/c those are noticeably rawer bm. This hardly has any bm besides some tremolo picking and some vocals. The core sound of this has more doom metal and some post-metal.

Album Rating: 4.5

I don't think PF and Marrow are that close to each other. Sure, they're both the most black metal-oriented out of their first four full-lengths, but they both execute it in very different fashions. PF actually has a "soft" feeling to it imo, mild, sad and intimate, while Marrow is more heavy, brutal, frosty, unforgiving. That's mostly because PF makes use of a lot of acoutic parts that bring a certain warmth to it - I'm particularly thinking of As Embers Dress the Sky's long acoustic segment which I would call the emotional climax of that album, but there are a lot of other examples. Marrow doesn't have these acoustic parts, the only song where acoustic guitars stand out in any way is Watcher's Monolith and even there it isn't the center of its sound. In turn, Marrow makes more use of drone elements. You couldn't have hoped to find anything like Black Lake Nidstang or To Drown on Pale Folklore. The fact that The Mantle uses more acoustic guitars makes it closer to Pale Folklore imo, given how much the choice of instruments forms the overall sound and feel of the music ... but even these two are very different due to PF's production which has more of a lo-fi tendency and The Mantle introducing that "big" feeling of the "standing on a wide field and adoring nature's might" type that wasn't that present on PF but was kept for this album and its successors ...

I could talk about this discography all day long, it's so fun to look at how they evolved

I jam this and the Mantle all the time. I've only listened to PF and Marrow once all the way through so I need to amend that.

Not Unlike The Waves rocks hard

Album Rating: 5.0

Totally agreed with your descriptions of PF and Marrow; despite PF being more acoustic, it’s still rooted in this raw bm sound that only Marrow has too imo. It’s the flat production that keeps PF from being as punchy as Marrow, and it isn’t a detriment aside from the splatty snare. The Mantle really stands out from all of them to me, not only for being their lightest, but the experimentation they delved into for it. They're all different in a lot of ways.

Despite the raw bm sound in Marrow, I figured out that it actually has the most lighter moments of all their full-lengths besides The Mantle.

Album Rating: 3.5

Tbh as an album experience I think this is quite a bit above The Mantle, I find every song on here bar Not Unlike the Waves to be really engaging from start to finish whereas for The Mantle the last two tracks kinda take the gloss off a little for me.

Album Rating: 5.0

Great Cold Death is amazing but A Desolation Song almost feels like a bonus track to me. Still really good and better than The Grain - III in terms of closers.

Album Rating: 4.5

I'd feel like something's missing without Desolation Song. It would be like watching a film without credits.

Album Rating: 5.0

idk the way Cold Death ends is repeating that same chord progression with the same rhythm as the first two tracks and that acts as a really fitting ending. I remember other users saying that a while ago in a discussion I had. Desolation Song is a good bridge from this to White Album now that I think about it.

Album Rating: 5.0

It's funny, John Haum pretty much hated every song on this album except for Not Unlike The Waves, hence it being the single, and why Agalloch never returned to this sound. Just goes to show that on a rare occasion, artists are clueless about their own creations.

Album Rating: 5.0

Clueless is right; I love a lot of Marrow, but the band noticeably went downhill after this, obviously culminating in the disbandment, and Pillorian leaning more toward solid, traditional modern bm. Serpent was really good but kind of bridged the gap from the still experimental Marrow, and what would happen afterwards. Despite all that and the negativity with how they ended, these first three and The White will always be some of the best and special albums I've heard.

I understand having negative emotions when looking back at a difficult recording session, which this reportedly was, but how can you not be proud of at least a few of these songs.

Album Rating: 5.0

Yeah I always thought it was really bizarre because this album changed my life personally, but whatever... If they weren't fulfilled making it then that sucks but it's still a masterpiece.

Album Rating: 5.0

If they aren't proud of Limbs or Falling Snow then they are wrong

Album Rating: 5.0

If I was a main songwriter for this album, especially the second half of Falling Snow, my ego would be the size of the state this band is from.