Looking back now, even if the band knew The Serpent and the Sphere was going to be the final Agalloch album I don’t think they could have crafted a more full expression of what the band encompassed as a sonic entity.  Rich and cold, bursting with full and lushly sculpted songs, it returns the band to its roots even as it points to how far the band pushed the limits of what you could do with a clear vision and unique perspective on how Black, neofolk, and post/progressive metal can blend while maintaining a singular identity.  Continue reading “Agalloch: The Serpent and the Sphere (2014)”

The first thing I remember thinking was, “This is black metal?  It’s so slow!”  I was still dipping a tentative toe into whatever “extreme” metal was, and after some hesitant purchases into the genre, starting with Cradle of Filth’s Dusk and Her Embrace and Emperor’s Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk I approached Agalloch expecting something similar.  What I got in Pale Folklore was something completely different: metal that reaches into both post-rock and black metal to pull together a tapestry of ideas incorporating folk, doom, and everything in between.  Continue reading “Agalloch: Pale Folklore (1999)”