Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
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Music CD Cover
Artist: AgallochEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-08-15
Music Label: The End Records
Soundtracks:
- Limbs
- Falling Snow
- This White Mountain On Which You Will Die
- Fire Above, Ice Below
- Not Unlike The Waves
- Our Fortress Is Burning... I
- Our Fortress Is Burning... II - Bloodbirds
- Our Fortress Is Burning... III - The Grain
Free Music Notes for Ashes Against the Grain
Free Music Review: There is a God...
Hit: 5 Stars
...and his name is John Haughm.
Agalloch has done it again, created a bleak, adventurous, breathtaking sonic landscape that has taken the metal world by surprise. Of course, simply "metal" does not do the band a hint of justice or explain their sound at all. Their sound has mixtures and inspirations from Post-rock, to folk-noir, to black metal, to experimental, ambient atmospheric music. This band has never simply played instruments to form songs; they extract images in your mind, building grim landscapes and perhaps stories with their dark, poetic lyrics and rich melodic layers of instruments. Of course, an open mind, concentration, and imagination are required to truly experience Agalloch. This isn't nearly for everyone.
I think anyone who likes "The Mantle" would also enjoy this album about the same. The general feel and character, are quite similar to it, well, relatively (this is much more similar to "The Mantle" than "Pale Folklore" is to "The Mantle"). Not to say it is so similar that there are no new ideas. Agalloch is always full of ideas.
"Limbs" opens up with the most distinctive, eerie and piercing melody, soon welcoming a full band, but the sound still lurking underneath the rest of the instruments. This song probably portrays the most unsettling feeling of any Agalloch song so far, however being so melodic at the same time. After a good five minutes of instrumentation twisting and winding around in different directions, Haughm's scruffy growls emerge, and never recede for the rest of the song, and it song gets heavier, adding to the already dark and creepy atmosphere. Later on there is a very sudden halt and a very calm bass solo in the middle of the song.
"Falling Snow" is the song the label released months before the album came out, and subsequently the one I listened to about fifty times in anticipation of the album. This song has much more of a rhythm and flowing structure to it, the main guitar themes are some of the most melodic and brilliant they've written. Several times the song breaks down into a clean, folk-like acoustic guitar melody for just two seconds or so, perfectly contrasting with the heaviness and fitting in with the direction and mood of the song. Vocals in this song are heavily alternated between growled and sung, usually with whispering overlaying the singing. I think the climactic point in this song, after the last two lines of vocals in this song and the instrumentals after it is probably the best part of the album.
"This White Mountain on Which You Will Die" is more of an intro or outro to a song rather than a song by itself. It is a one-and-a-half minute extremely ambient piece, unfortunately, without much substance. "The Misshapen Steed" and "The Lodge" blow this instrumental out of the ashes.
"Fire Above, Ice Below" is a rather slow-paced song, and not as heavy. The band experiments with singing and growling overdubbed, and long, winding instrumental passages. The song ends with the calming sound of waves, authentically recorded by Haughm on the coast of Washington.
"Not Unlike the Waves" begins with those same waves, morphing into a faster-paced, heavy song, with many harmonized/overdubbed vocals and some brief morsels of folk-like acoustic melodies thrown in the beginning.
"Our Fortress is Burning..." part I starts off with a sparse piano, slowly forming into a pretty nice instrumental. Part II starts off with the same general sound, expanding upon it, and eventually introducing vocals.
Part III is a very interesting "experimental noise" type piece from the band, only hinted around on "The Gray" EP a little bit prior to this. It contains distorted, distant guitars and swirling resonance, evoking a modern, urban, chaotic, almost apocalyptic type of feeling, something completely different from any vibe I have got from the band. Most people call this song a "waste" or "worthless" but I highly disagree and honestly, I like this instrumental better than the other two on this album and it probably evokes the most images in your mind of any other song. I pretty much saw something like this coming because the band has stated that they will explore more of their influences... further preventing possible classifications for their music. This song reminds me a lot of Godspeed You Black Emperor's album, "F#a#Infinity" because of the apocalyptic feel and "non-musical" sort of structure, except not so calm.
I would have to say this album is not quite better than the previous two full-lengths, however, that is understandable because those are so good I wouldn't really expect the band to ever surpass them. The band says it's their most "focused," but bands almost always say they are most proud of their newest work. I still believe "The Mantle" is their most accomplished and distinctive work. Specifically, all the instrumentals on "The Mantle" evoke so much more of a landscape like snowy, wintry, log cabin type of feeling, and are so much better than the instrumentals on this album (although Fortress III comes close), and this album has much less folk influences which made the previous two albums so unique.
They have set their standards so high they can't even reach them anymore. But that is not to say this album is disappointing, in the least. It is FAR from disappointing, and I have been waiting four long years for more material, other than a few EP's. It was worth the wait.
Many people also seem to not like the new drummer, Chris Greene, (previously just the live drummer) as much as Haughm doing the drums. Haughm still does them on "Falling Snow" and "Not Unlike the Waves." Greene's drumming seems a tad less imaginative, but I don't think it hurts the album much.
Although more of a personal note, I would also like to mention Agalloch has now surpassed Opeth as my favorite band. Opeth is still interesting, has amazing melodies, great ideas, progressions, and is unlimitedly interesting, but Agalloch, they have all these things and more. They convey so much feeling and emotion; words cannot describe it well enough. My appreciation for Opeth has not decreased, I have simply realized with the intense anticipation for this album and then finally hearing it, that I simply enjoy Agalloch above any other band. I am not comparing the two, but Opeth just happens to be my previous favorite band.
I feel like I have "grown" with Agalloch much more because when I first discovered them, it was before "The Mantle" even came out, and they were much more obscure. "Pale Folklore" totally floored me and changed the way I look at and think about music. I don't think I was ever excited about getting an album more than "The Mantle." I remember The End Records did this little album-listening event where you sit in a chat room with many other fans, and they played the entire album, like a month before it came out. I admire how the band members visit the label's forums and regularly interact with the fans, usually answering questions and such. A band isn't quite expected to do that. In some ironic sense, they care about their fans much more than most bands do, but at the same time they don't care about their fans because they do what's in their hearts and minds when arranging and executing their music. They will not conform to other people's opinions, regulations, limitations or commercialization. If they disappoint fans they don't care. But that isn't a selfish behaviour, it is the behaivour of true artists; artists who pour their soul into their art. And that's who Agalloch are.
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