... Against the Grain

Agalloch is a group that you should never overlook. Their most recent release, "Ashes Against the Grain", almost perfectly describes their music. Against the grain...

You will never find a bigger fan of the cheesy folk metal bands - Ensiferum, Korpiklaani, Finntroll, and some Trollfest thrown in for good measure. But sometimes it's nice to have a band play that style in a serious manner. But calling Agalloch folk metal is a serious understatement. Black metal, doom metal, and even a few post-rock elements make up this band's complicated style. Plus this band pretty much bleeds nature. The special edition of "Ashes Against the Grain" came in a wooden box, with some pieces of bone in it!

But that album isn't nearly their best effort, I would have to choose "The Mantle" to take that award. It's perfect in every conceivable way, right down to the clicking sound found in "The Lodge", made by the vocalist beating on a deer skull.

This album truely is a masterpiece, and if you are a fan of folk metal, doom metal, black metal, post-rock, neo-folk, or even progressive metal you would have to be out of your mind not to own this album. It's got everything you could want and more in an album. Melancholic black metal influenced passages, melodic acoustic guitars, clean vocals and the occasional black metal shriek that reminds you that you are listening to metal and not some people living in the forest who had never been in contact with civilization.

If anything, get The Mantle, which I will gladly assist you with. If you love it (which you'd better) then buy it and support this group, because you don't get music like this from Lady Ga Ga.

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"I will die and no one will remember me..."