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Agalloch: Pale folklore
02/08/07 || The Duff
This here is one of the most strangely appealing albums I have ever come across. Normally, I should be ripping into this album with little to no abandon (Agalloch wear antelope/moose skulls on their heads, for fuck’s sake), because this band attempts to use every single masturbatory trick in the book in order to sound like a semi-decent atmospheric act. Instead, they fortunately do more than pull things off and produce one spectacular album I am exceptionally fond of.
Everybody praises Agalloch (especially Opeth fans), whether it be through this release or their following full-lengths “The Mantle” and “Ashes Against the Grain” (for those who give a shit, I don’t think much at all to these two), so I obviously had reason to check them out. They play a style of folkish black metal (some have labeled these guys as “grey metal” – don’t care if this works or not), supplying a mixture of growled, whispered and occasionally clean (reminiscent of Novembre’s early days) vocals; a majority of the album is performed through the use of acoustic guitar passages, but still combines some good ol’ black metal riffing to keep the metal crowd satiated.
The compositions strike me as awfully amateur – the first solo sounds like it’s being played by someone with two right hands, and yet the band will adopt an incredibly inventive and mature approach for that found on “As Embers Dress the Sky”. Some of the songs most certainly have a pop-element to them (“She Painted Fire Across the Skyline (Part 2)” and “Hallways of Enchanted Ebony”), and at times even sound like a number of Swedish/Gothenburg bands (again, “Hallways of Enchanted Ebony”). The interesting attempt at an instrumental is most surprising for it is one of the most adult pieces of music ever to be found in the sub-genre; it is what can best be described as emotionally captivating. And yet the band will write something as entirely forgettable as “Dead Winter Days”, proof to me that the band have little to no idea of what they are doing and that this album is a fluke.
There are some very pretentious ideas used, such as the sound of winds and wolves, as well as piano being used to close the album… and that better not be a gun being cocked in “She Painted Fire Across the Skyline (Part 3)” (I’m sure it isn’t… just taking the piss a little). And yet they’ll add nice little touches, such as the bells/chimes (also “She Painted Fire Across the Skyline (Part 3)”), and most notably the methods used in recording the instruments, which remain unpolished to the point where even the quivering of a note, due to the guitarists inability to keep his fingers steady(or maybe it’s just a weird vibrato), has the chance to be heard (certainly with the leads and solos). This adds greatly to the album’s charm. “Hallways of Enchanted Ebony” contains a second main lead that never fails to hit me on an emotional level, even though it is absurdly straightforward in structure.
My one major gripe is that I get the impression that this album is not quite “complete”, as if the music isn’t condensed enough, and that there should be something in-between certain riffs. I’ve thought of possibly having a ninth track to sooth my qualms, but have ultimately concluded that it would help very little. This is because everything is supposed to be appreciated as a unit; in its entirety – adding or subtracting anything to/from “Pale Folklore” would undoubtedly conclude in a detrimental aftermath.
Minor complaints include the fact that the opening segment is repeated far too often, making me wonder whether the band was drunk when writing “She Painted Fire Across the Skyline (Part 1)”. The theory behind time flying when you’re wasted has never rung truer. The lyrics aren’t that captivating either, and come across as goofy, but they are expressed with vigor, giving life to the album, so not much of a complaint there. Finally, the issue I have with “Dead Winter Days” is that I perceive the song to be far too expressively flat. It is a song with which I have the least problems in terms of its “density”, but nonetheless consider it a tiresome track to sit through.
This album should get a seven on terms of musical performance, but I’m going to give it an eight because it genuinely offers me something no other album can. I’ll even go so far as to say that it may very well be worthy of a nine within a month or two, when it has had a respectable chance to grow on me.
Also, I don’t know who the fuck plays drums on the album, probably one of the three other fellows.
8 antelopes with Agalloch up their ass out of 10
- Information
- Released: 1999
- Label: The End Records
- Website: www.agalloch.org
- Band
- Don Andersson: guitars, vocals
- Jason William Walton: bass
- John Haughm: guitars, vocals
- Tracklist
- 01. She Painted Fire Across the Skyline Pt. 1
- 02. She Painted Fire Across the Skyline Pt. 2
- 03. She Painted Fire Across the Skyline Pt. 3
- 04. Misshapen Steed
- 05. Hallways of Enchanted Ebony
- 06. Dead Winter Days
- 07. As Embers Dress the Sky
- 08. Melancholy Spirit
