THE MANTLE

An album I've owned for quite a while that at first I disliked because I thought it's songs long and boring--as well as due to the fact that this was my very first acquisition that contained growls for some of its vocals. I was put off by this, especially. Now, four or five years later, I've grown accustomed to growling in prog music and The Mantle has become one of those albums whose songs always interest, surprise, and, yes, I have to admit, excite me when they come onto my iPod shuffle's random play. The acoustic guitar-based music has always been attractive to me, I just resisted its magic because of the vocals. Now as I listen to these songs I am always surprised to check later and be reminded that these great songs so full of subtleties were from AGALLOCH! (Like tympani, double bass, horns, and Italian and Japanese sound bytes.)

Favorite songs: "...And The Great Cold Death Of The Earth" (7:14) (10/10) "The Hawthorne Passage" (11:19) (9/10), and; "In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion" (14:45) (8/10)

A solid album--one of the best from a . . . well, a pretty poor year, in my humble opinion.

Solid 4 star effort.