# Stuff and Things > Sights and Sounds >  Agalloch: Maybe the Most Hauntingly Beautiful Metal I've Ever Heard

## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

This music is so difficult to pigeonhole...overall, it's Doom with a strong progressive bent, but there are a lot of [actually subtle!] Black Metal passages and what is called 'post-metal'[never really understood what that meant, stylistically] and a certain 'je ne sais quois' I can't pin down.

It all is seamlessly wrapped up in a sound such as no other band has even come CLOSE to duplicating. 

It's PERFECT music for this time of year and the dark feelings that can accompany it: bleak, snowy, icy coniferous-wooded wastes with a chill, death-like wind blowing through it, but with a solemn and introverted majesty to it all. Anyone who's been alone in the deep woods in the middle of winter will know what I mean here. THAT'S what this music sounds like. And Haughm's very understated and restrained guttural vocals reminds me more than anything else of a skeleton in a tattered shroud singing among the bare branches of a tree in a January twilight. 

Enough useless talk from me...time to listen:

----------


## fyrenza

Where's svante for this???

Metal Heads, UNITE!

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

Who's svante?

----------


## Trinnity

I will listen. Let ya know later what I thought. I'm on the first one now, but I have GOT to get some sleep.

----------


## fyrenza

He might be carlsen, here.  It's the first name I knew him as,
and he's so FAB,
but he just hit High Level puberty,
and lives in Switzerland,
so I'd imagine he's got "other" things to do, for a while!

There IS a "Group" called Metal Heads, 
though I'm not sure about the spelling, right now.

The thing is, HE has to "approve" you to it,
because I think it's by invitation, only.

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

This one is simply EPIC:

----------


## fyrenza

<~ listening, now

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

And more:

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

> He might be carlsen, here.  It's the first name I knew him as,
> and he's so FAB,
> but he just hit High Level puberty,
> and lives in Switzerland,
> so I'd imagine he's got "other" things to do, for a while!
> 
> There IS a "Group" called Metal Heads, 
> though I'm not sure about the spelling, right now.
> 
> ...


Oh yeah, I joined that, but I haven't seen him around lately.

----------


## fyrenza

<~ fav'ing now

and blowing some killer smoke up in your face, @Ghost .

Right about ...

now.

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

Two more to dream on before I turn in...

----------


## fyrenza

Sweet dreamers, @Ghost !

----------


## catfish

LOL!..it's Snow Patrol on steroids….

----------


## Trinnity

Lordy - listened to the first one - nice. 

Will listen to the EPIC one.

----------


## Muninn

They're pretty good. Love the progressive elements.

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

> Lordy - listened to the first one - nice. 
> 
> Will listen to the EPIC one.


I like to tell people not to listen to this band if they have any suicidal tendencies whatsoever.... :Smiley ROFLMAO: 

Not the cheeriest music, for sure, and in that way comparable to Pink Floyd's depressive classic 'Dark Side of the Moon', but SOOOOO damn beautiful and haunting!

----------


## Muninn

Can't have a thread on dark, depressing music that suicidal people shouldn't listen to without mentioning Cryptal Darkness:

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

Never heard of these guys...must investigate further.

----------


## Brewski

One of my favorite bands.  Been a fan of theirs for years.

----------


## Muninn

> Never heard of these guys...must investigate further.


You won't find much, I think they only released a couple of albums. They're from Australia and once collaborated with Martin Powell of Cradle of Filth fame. Most of their songs are tediously slow but if you're in the mood for dark, chilled out metal, they're awesome.

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

A band strongly influenced by Agalloch was 'Woods of Ypres', whose lead singer and songwriter hailed from my town and was tragically killed in a car accident not long ago--too bad, this band had simply MASSIVE potential...a prescient song:

----------


## Brewski

> A band strongly influenced by Agalloch was 'Woods of Ypres', whose lead singer and songwriter hailed from my town and was tragically killed in a car accident not long ago--too bad, this band had simply MASSIVE potential...a prescient song:



If you want a carbon copy of Agalloch, check out Gallowbraid.  One-man band, by the way.

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

Must have been very recently formed, as Allmusic only lists them as having an EP out so far.

----------


## Brewski

> Must have been very recently formed, as Allmusic only lists them as having an EP out so far.


It came out a few years ago, but yeah an EP only so far.  Still a decent amount of music, considering the length of the songs.

----------


## Network

Agalloch is probably my favorite band

Me and a metal-loving coworker listened to _ashes against the grain_ over and over again while taking notes about land cover on the NC coast while wildfires were blocking off our roads.  I'll never forget that.
_
Marrow of the spirit_ with the blastbeats is an epic album. And I already liked the older ones before anyone else I know.  Ready for the next one.

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

Next one should be coming out soon, the EP 'Faustian Echoes' has been out for some time now.

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

> Agalloch is probably my favorite band
> 
> Me and a metal-loving coworker listened to _ashes against the grain_ over and over again while taking notes about land cover on the NC coast while wildfires were blocking off our roads.  I'll never forget that.
> _
> Marrow of the spirit_ with the blastbeats is an epic album. And I already liked the older ones before anyone else I know.  Ready for the next one.


Here ya go...from 'Marrow of the Spirit'...

----------


## Network

> Next one should be coming out soon, the EP 'Faustian Echoes' has been out for some time now.



Cool, hadn't heard about the EP.  Been listening to comedy and talk-radio instead of music lately for no apparent reason other than the fact I'm cube-trapped most of the time and mix it up.

----------


## Network

> Here ya go...



I know that one just from the cover, man.  Hell yeah!

----------


## Network



----------


## Network

_God of Man is a Failure
Our Fortress is Burning against the grain of a shattered sky
_

takes 4 minutes until lyrics begin, but Agalloch is epic.

----------


## Brewski

> Next one should be coming out soon, the EP 'Faustian Echoes' has been out for some time now.


Like Marrow of the Spirit, it hasn't been my favorite, but unlike Marrow of the Spirit, it hasn't grown on me.  I wish they would get back to the direction they had on the Mantle, which is my favorite.  The experimental stuff on Ashes was great though, and Pale Folklore was solid all the way around.  Mantle just sums the band up the best for me, out of their full releases.  As for their EPs, I'm a big fan of Of Stone, Wind, and Pillor, as well as the Gray/White EP.

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

Here's a band Agalloch acknowledges as a HUGE influence, and whose early albums are among my favourite Norwegian Black Metal productions with a proggy feel, alongside Arcturus, Peccatum and Ihsahn.:

----------


## Brewski

> Here's a band Agalloch acknowledges as a HUGE influence, and whose early albums are among my favourite Norwegian Black Metal productions with a proggy feel, alongside Arcturus, Peccatum and Ihsahn.:


I thought Nattens Madrigal was a little TOO much, but Bergtatt is one of my favorites.

----------


## Ghost of Lunchboxxy

Thanks be to HEAVEN!!!

Agalloch will release a new album THIS SPRING!!!!!!!

I was getting antsy!:

http://www.metalcallout.com/news/aga...new-album.html

----------

