THE MANTLE

Forget everything you know about (extreme) progressive metal... Agalloch's "The Mantle" is the album that surpasses them all. Dark, melancholic, poetic, yet heavy at times, this album blends perfectly many styles: doom metal, acoustic rock, folk, extreme metal. Half of the album is instrumental, and more than half uses mainly acoustic guitars. I could give a lot of similar band names, but Agalloch's music is an experience of its own. The only thing that annoys me is the growled vocals (I cannot stand black metal/death metal vocals for more than a minute), but the music is so captivating that after a few listens you almost forget them completely.

Add to this beautiful epic listening experience an excellent production, artwork and packaging and you probably have one of the best albums of the decade.