THE MANTLE

The only reason i went near this album in the first place is because a year ago(maybe more) "The Mantle" was featured on the top.20 Prog.Metal List, and so i decided to give it a try and went out and got it

at first, i really really did not like it at all, i could appreciate the acoustics at first etc. however once i discovered there was death growls and the singer seemed to only sing in the 'death' sort of tone (from what i briefly heard at first) i was very much turned off by it, so i just threw the album aside and forgot about it

as time passed i was looking for another album/music to listen to, and i came across this again, so i decided to re-listen to it properly to give it another chance, and on the 2nd time i still really wasnt feeling it

this process repeated itself week after week, month after month untill i truly did start to click, and i got a better feel for the album and discovered many beautiful sides and genius parts to it, this encouraged me to get deeper and deeper into the album

so now a days, i love it so much to a point i could possibly place it in my top 5 albums of all time

if theres anything holding me back from putting it on the prestigious list, its the death growl parts, in fairness though there are not alot of these parts, and there are other times where the singer does sign properly, and he does have quite nice and fitting voice

the whole mood and overall tone of the album is very much so melancholic, however its presented in a almost organic, nature like beautiful way

I wouldnt go sayings its a depressing album by any means, its just the music is beautifully melancholic, as they are melancholically beautiful, if that makes any sense...

The thing about this album is, some people may complain about the fact that some songs could go on for 6mins straight without really changing any part to it, almost like its repeating itself, this is a huge underlying factor that makes this album what it is, Agalloch use this technique in such a way that they build a song up and up, they may have 1 riff running through a song that goes on for 5mins straight, but as the song keeps playing it starts to progress with all these small little subtle changes, and these changes keep building and building becoming more and more dramatic and eventually all come together for a beautiful dynamic ending,

To me, its these small subtly that make this album what it is

To me this album is alike Terria by Devin Townsend, in the way that they are both true gems, however they are gems for the fact that they are once off albums by the artist/band, since the mantle ive gotten 2 of agallochs other albums and so far they've completely failed to click with me, i dont find them anyway as attractive as i find the mantle, because i feel with they'er other efforts they are more so death oriented, and less on the acoustic side(as seen mainly in the mantle) Same goes for Terria and Townsend, though i enjoy some of his other work, nothing compares to the amazing Terria, and sadly i dont think either will ever be able to match them

I must say im quite sadden to see The Mantle nowadays doesnt even make the top 100 prog.metal albums anymore...

To me this is the sort of album thats great to listen to when you may be feeling a little down, or want to just relax and put on something easy enough to listen to, or even just background music at times

excellent stuff ^_^

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