ASHES AGAINST THE GRAIN

When I saw this album among the collaborators top albums of 2006, I decided to check it out. I was sorely disappointed. First of all, I must say: this guys are very good musicians, they play their instruments masterfully, and the instrumental music is good, but not great, not the best it seems they can do.

From the first few songs of the album, I disliked it, I just couldn't help it, there was missing from this album anything that made me "click" with it, it failed to capture my attention. The music starts off well, with soothing instruments, then it hits vocals. The vocals completely ruined the experience of this album for me. They lean far into the chart of doom metal, and leave many of their folk and prog roots in the dust. The heavy, scratchy, dark lyrics are not only extremely hard to make out, they just get annoying after awhile. The last three songs on the album, the Our Fortress is Burning Parts One through Three are much more enjoyable, but attempt to save the album to little to late.

Agalloch just tried to hard in this one to be different from their other albums, while progression is good and the heart of progrock, it is generally good to explore in a direction that keeps a band faithful to making pleasing music that does not simply assault listeners with its bizarreness. I don't recommend it, not the best example of Progressive Metal.