What Are You Listening To?

[SteveO]

Agalloch - The Mantle




A very highly regarded band from Portland, Oregon that is at the top of music critics' lists in various best metal album polls I have seen. All of their albums seem to appear at number one or two and they interchange it seems from month to month! The problem here is because Agalloch is so diverse and original , no one knows where to put them ! They are not a metal band perse,,,believe me !

This is their second album and the first I heard...drawn to it by the unusual cover and then a strong recommendation from a record store friend. It would be a shame to discard them as another dark metal band ! There's much more here than just metal. I classify them as eclectic with many styles - folk, hard rock, prog rock, dark metal...not much singing on their albums...the instrumental composition is their tour de force !,,,beware there are a few brief death growls and grunts but they are far and few between,,,lol

All of their albums have a nature wildlife outdoors theme ,,,no I Love You Baby tunes here ! This is provocative sophisticated intelligent music ,,,I sense that Agalloch are perfectionists,,,in their music due to the fact that they have only released four studio albums in ten years !

Nearly seventy minutes of very good music that All Music rates as ...4.5/5 !


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDakWq7aVx8 The Lodge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ8cIn8sKSQ - A Desolation Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfhUfEPCBU0 - The Hawthorne Passage ,,,,wow what an Instrumental !!!!