Agalloch
The Mantle

THE REVIEW

Agalloch know how to amaze. Far too well. They did it in '99 with their debut Pale Folklore, and they do it again three years later with their next album, The Mantle. Only two albums to their name, yet the band from Portland already knows which strings to pull to stir something within the soul of the listener. They do so with 9 tracks of absolute melancholy, where the acoustic guitar reigns, creating gray and dreamy atmospheres, combined with metal elements such as double pedal, a distorted guitar, and Haughm's voice; a voice that can effortlessly range from a whispered scream to a clean, "nasal" singing, down to rolling into a sigh. All while winking (with extreme personality) at times to Katatonia, at times to a certain Finnish "folk metal" scene, if it can indeed be called a scene.

Songs full of emotion, those of Agalloch; everything here is at the mercy of arpeggios, slow and moving melodies, dark progressions alternating with driven pieces ("I Am The Wooden Doors"), with instrumentals that have a dreamlike flavor ("Odal") and almost hypnotic ("The Lodge"), not to mention a song like "In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion," a slow and long 14-minute suite that knows how to reach deep into the soul. Cathartic atmosphere, enveloping melancholy, clear decadence. Everything here is soaked in a subtle anguish and air as sulfurous as it is nostalgic. Do you love music that can deeply convey emotions (rhetorical question, obviously)? Then The Mantle is not an album to ignore.

Not a masterpiece, no. I don't think it has the necessary criteria to be defined as such. In short, interesting but certainly not essential. And yet The Mantle is an album I have lived more than listened to, and as naive and exaggerated as this statement may seem, it rightly belongs among those albums that made me realize how important music is (for me and I believe for everyone) to face life. Because to face it, we have a constant need for a healthy psychophysical balance... And who can provide that better than music? It's not just a simple pastime, and those who love it know this all too well.
Music for those who want to travel with their mind, music to be savored gently and unhurriedly. Recommended with open arms.