THE MANTLE

Of all the album's recorded in the annals of time, few would be able to compete with Agalloch's The Mantle in terms of musical imagery. While the band's debut Pale Folklore was able to paint the picture of a cold winter's day in the northern woods, The Mantle is capable of actually transporting you there and immersing you in this wilderness. When you're listening to this album, it's just you, the earth, and that moose on the cover. The atmospheric quality of this music is so incredible, it's almost as if the music isn't even there. You won't be picking apart the notes being played, or worry about the dexterity of the musicians. The sound coming from your speakers is a single aural being that takes you to another place.

In order to approach The Mantle, you must forego any preconceptions you may have about it, and ignore your musical biases. This is nothing like anything you've ever heard, and it's like that it's nothing like you ever will hear afterward. Surely many have passed this off because of the black metal vocals, but surely when you hear the opening track, in its acoustic glory, complete with timpani, you'll know that this has got to be something beyond black metal. Soon after, you'll realize that this is beyond music. This is, much like all of the other great records in history, an experience.

All I know is that when I don The Mantle, I don't feel, I just am. And I am cold, lost in a desloate earth, in a snowy woods where I am the last man on earth. I'm trying to find peace and resolve before I too will pass, and the earth after me.

This album is simply amazing.