Ethereal : Agalloch's The Mantle (2002)

Agalloch are one of the few outfits who had managed to create their own distinctive tone and atmosphere. Haughm's creativity is not only reflected from the diverse use of instruments and effects but also from the lyrical theme that has created an ambience with meaning and concept. I have been the admirer of Agalloch for many years. I have listened many similar acts like them but the overall atmosphere, effects and multiple instruments use, Haughm's use of clean/raw vocals, concept behind each track and last but not the least the cold narcotic feeling I feel is just what I can't explain. Their music is not for mainstream, I can deliberately say.

I personally decided to review this album conceptually as there are many reviews revolving around talking generally about the overall music and comparison.
"The Mantle" brought another masterpiece from Agalloch, Death in June & Godspeed inspired guitar blend is the foreground of this LP. Their influence from the filmography is reflected from "The Hawthorne Passage"; the influence from a folklore is much more reflected from "...and the Great Cold Death of the Earth" and from the deer skull chants on "The Lodge" and Nietzsche is reflected from "In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion"; the use of accordion, mandolin had brought a mellow tone in "A Desolation Song" and somewhat the sing-speak structure made this a little different from the other songs.
Well, I was reading their interviews and they said they were actually portraying some images and wanted to express those via this album and this is what they did. Each song is actually depicting its own story. Long passage of instruments mainly acoustics and leads are making a soothing and melancholy environment. 

stompbox-talk:

Besides from the concept and other things, I had been remain curious about the use of effects that Haughm does and I got lucky to see his pedalboard on effectsbay.com and he said in the interview that his effects always give birth to songs mainly like the Nova Delay is behind “Ghosts Of The Midwinter Fires” which you can listen in the intro. Delay is the main secret behind many of his composition that's why he has three units of delay (MoogerFooger Analog Delay, the Boss DD-6 and the TC Electronic Nova Delay). The noticeable use of flanger can be listened in the mid of "In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion" and MXR Micro Flanger is behind it. A must read for any Agalloch admirer: http://www.effectsbay.com/2011/12/talking-about-guitar-effects-with-john-haughm-of-agalloch/

Their music varies from atmospheric black metal to post-metal and post-rock with progressive rock influence but they describe it simply as dark metal and yes they are dark and cold. A best companion on a frosty night with nocturnal silence everywhere. You just can't get enough of this album, I bet. 

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The Most Horrible Way of Representing Beauty...

Uaral, the moment when I listened their sacred music I came to aware that life is more austere than death. The duo combined the real feelings, the real emotions and all the grief with their heart. This is soul touching music. In my opinion, unclassifiable. Uaral is love not lust. I seriously don't have words to describe the music. Something coming from the dark melancholy woods with swamps around the lake of tears and the mist around with a cold silence, nocturnal. The Chilean country-side and Uaral himself had inspired Aciago & Caudal so much that they inherited the mentor’s heritage in their veins and transformed in the form of their compositions.

"Sounds of Pain..." is the band's debut full-length. The lyrical theme mostly deals with sorrow, nature and experience of life with the use of classical Latin acoustic style guitar, flute and piano creates a mournful atmosphere. Much of the music in the album has a long passage of mixed instruments mainly acoustics and less vocals. The vocals are deep guttural growls creates a strong doom/death metal influence also Empyrium's Schwadorf style clean singing creates folk/atmospheric black metal environment. The songs also has laments, crying and all the bemoaning. I just lost in the chants, the whispering winds and the sound of rains. The sound varies with a non-linear song structure throughout the album.

This thing is a masterpiece. A perfect piece of depressive yet progressive music. Do read the interview of the duo on their un-official website. It sounds like souls are talking not humans. Bunch of thanks to the Iranian fans for making the website.

The epilogue is, listen this on a cold frosty night with full moon. You will be pleased. One of the best blend of doom/black/folk.

Visit: Uaral


Originally written for Death.fm

Sepultura's Arise (1991)

Well I think thrash is against all the masquerade behind the hypocrisy, the testical egoistic morons & not the very least against all odds. The 'old' Brazilian outfit with Cavalera bros. know this shit very well and they did transform all their expression with their critically acclaimed lyrics; incorporates mainly with anti-corruption,  anti-fascism and I think they had predicted many things coming to the future and what would be the outcome! I'll come to the point shortly about that. This album is my all-time personal favorite. I just couldn't get enough of it. One of baddest shit in the thrash. There are/were few bands who make their own peculiar sound or tone with crushing riffs, dexterous creative solos, tribal influenced drumming with fast gallops and blast beats, brutal dry savage vocals and lyrics that describes the 'inside' - that is Sepultura. You never omit them, listening is edict. 

Before going towards the album actually, I want to put some words about the band itself. Sepultura has quite a complex kind of genre history. Started as a death metal act had have lyrical themes dealt with Satanism i.e. Bestial Devastation (1985), Morbid Visions (1986), Schizophrenia (1987); followed by thrash metal elements with Beneath The Remains (1989), Arise (1991); then Chaos A.D (1993) brought a pre-bell to a disaster that came in the form of Roots (1996) because simply the band went nuts by changing towards nu metal and blah blah! Another unfortunate thing happened was the departure of the front man Mr. Max Cavalera, the man behind Sepultura. For me, Sepultura was dead the day he left the band and soon after his brother Igor did the same thing but because of the 'creativity differences' or whatever. Damn!

After listening Arise predecessor, I wasn't expecting Beneath the Remains part II but still the sound is something Deja-vu but an improved compositional skill along with lyrics explaining the anecdote of the sterile world. The album kicks off with 'Arise', a potent track describing the victims of the warfare like "Terrorist confrontation/Cities fall in ruin/Victims of war, seeking some salvation/Why must we die?”; strong vocals, Andreas' dive bomb, harmonics enriched solo is praisable. 'Dead Embryonic Cells' with 'Laboratory sickness/Infects humanity/No hope for cure/Die by technology' is another hit against the posers and dumbs ruining the humanity and yus what they said, happened and happening like Union Carbide incident, Chernobyl disaster and countless. Children 'born with pain/Suffer remains'. Here I hail 'Desperate Cry', powerful yet exposure of anger, nocturnal intro with rhythm that besiege heads, strong alternate picking and what we here is 'Desperate Cryyyyy'. Followed by 'Murder', 'Subtraction' and 'Altered State' with some traditional tribal elements that can contrast the cultural impact and some 'experimental' tone that you may feel. 'Under Siege (Regnum Irae)' is where I find that there is something lagging here with most of the usual rhythm patterns and less vocals but overall not that bad. 'Meaningless Movements' & 'Infected Voice' are the last two closing tracks. Many say that the album in whole have a usual pattern which they follow and so I completely disagree. Technically speaking, Igor has a vast range of gallop patterns blended with the tribal style, Max's rhythm stuff is broad each have a different pattern, Andreas' usage of scales like the minor, Locrian mode, harmonic minor etc. with chromatic notes and a very good right hand technique makes each solo lustful.

The epilogue is without Cavalera - there's no Sepultura. No offence!