MARROW OF THE SPIRIT

Actually it was first Agalloch album I've listened to, and it took some time to get into its atmosphere. The music here is pretty bleak and cold, a bit of monotonous, but excellently done with some good melodies and sheer winterish atmosphere (which is maintained by slow guitar parts, whicpered/screeched vocals and nature soundscapes).

It opens with a short folk rock instrumental called 'They Escaped the Weight of Darkness'. It's not really sets any moods here and excellentely different from all the rest on this record, but it's still a very nice and interesting thing.

The real Agalloch comes with the second track 'Into the Painted Grey', which is in that gloomy doom/black metal vein which fills the whole LP with its bleakness. This mood continues on the next tracks, 'The Watcher's Monolith', 'Black Lake Niðstång' (which is a perfect 17 minutes long prog metal epic, the highlight here) and 'Ghosts of the Midwinter Fires' (some excellent bass parts here).

The record closes with more mellow track, 'To Drown', which is pretty far from metallic taste of previous songs. Very dark, and so very beautiful track, it ends with lovely, almost symphonic melodies on kinda marchy attitude.

The atmosphere here has really got that kind of beauty and immersion, so you shall be at least intrigued with this work even if you dislike this kind of music. In general, it's a solid album highly recommended for those who are into the experimental side of progressive metal.

9/10

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