Agalloch - Marrow of the Spirit (2010)

This is an F'ed up off way to start a review, but here goes, anyway.

My anticipation and eventual appreciation for the new Agalloch album was completely ruined for the following reasons:

1) The album leaked. Oh yes, like every album these days it leaked a good month or so before its actual release date, thus making it available in mp3 format for all of the degenerates out there that can't support the artists they claim to love. The days of going to the record store or receiving a package in the mail on the day of release are a thing of the past. I mean, fuck, why would you want an actual physical release when you could have a file? Personally I've always preferred physical over files, but that's just me.

2) The Viva Hate Records Fiasco. Although information of its existence was completely unknown to the public, Agalloch released a special version of this album through some bogus German label, which I truly hope goes out of business real soon and their offices go up in flames. Y'see these special versions were supposed to be shipped before the actual release date, but something went wrong and I ended up having to wait no less than two additional weeks before my CD/t-shirt package arrived. Some people waited over a month. Oh, and best of all they sent me a shirt sized for a fucking midget, instead of the large I requested. Thanks, assholes.

I could go on, but wouldn't you rather hear about the album? Nah, you already stole it from the Internet already, anyway, but I'll let you know my thoughts regardless.

The album opens with, 'They Escaped The Weight Of Darkness,' which is an overly long intro that features a cello, birds chirping and the sounds of rushing water, though I'll let my favorite Goonie accurately describe this song for you, "Sounds like my grandfather taking a leak. Thrillsville." This eventually leads into the pummeling, 'Into The Painted Grey,' which although faster and slightly black-ish in style the song reminds me of parts from the last album at times, which may be good or bad depending on how you look at it. Parts of the song are truly great though, its a song to get hyped up for and headbang too, which is weird for Agalloch, but then again these guys are already reinventing themselves. So, why not. The album starts to get really good from here.

Having been an Agalloch fan since the Autumn of 2000 the one thing I've always enjoyed about the band is that they've constantly changed styles and none of their previous releases sound exactly alike. Similar characteristics are surely present, but, 'Pale Folklore,' 'The Mantle,' and 'Ashes Against the Grain' are three very different sounding albums to my ears, but Marrow, as I already said, tends to sound similar to the last album, at least a good portion of it, but that could just be me. And again, that could be good or bad depending on what you expect out of these guys after all these years.

The first truly great song is, 'The Watcher's Monolith,' which again wouldn't have sounded out of place on Ashes at all, but I really enjoy this song; superb riffs, catchy and a good driving rhythm behind the whole thing makes it one of the albums finest moments.

'Black Lake Nidstång' however is the albums most stunning piece and at just slightly over seventeen minutes it packs a lot in. One of the aspects of Ashes I disliked was that it wasn't melancholy in any way whatsoever, which was quite a contrast to their previous releases, but BLN brings back that wonderfully atmospheric misery that I've been loving in Agalloch's music for the past ten years. The song offers up a fair balance between prog, post rock, doom metal and krautrock during its epic duration, which has a mood somewhere between absolute sorrow and vivid physchelia as it unfolds, as well John delivers one of his more memorable vocal performances on this number. Everything about this song is utterly perfect.

'Ghosts of the Midwinter Fires' is the albums other major standout as the intro directly reminds me of vintage Pale Folklore era Agalloch, which eventually segues into more of the bands current sound with glorious results too. Again great riffs pop up, one monumental ending solo, catchiness, a strange sort of springtime renewal like atmosphere and even a brief black-ish section grace this impressive nine minute song. The final song, 'To Drown' is considerably different and although there's something of a melancholic mood to the whole thing it just isn't as convincing as some of the bands older mellower pieces. At least here the cello is put to good use amongst the acoustic and distorted electric guitars, Mr. Haughm's whispers and the ominous piano tinkling, and the cataclysmic outro, which for some reason puts an image in my brain of an empire falling and burning to the ground.

'Marrow of the Spirit' was recorded entirely in analog on vintage equipment at Audible Alchemy Studios in Portland, Oregon, with Steven Wray Lobdell, which is kind of weird since all past releases were recorded by a guy named Ronn Chick, and with fairly decent results too. I don't know much about recording techniques, but apparently analog on vintage equipment is a crafty way of saying that the albums production isn't really that good. Truly even if you do fancy the album you'll have to admit the production is severely lacking and why the band opted for this production is beyond me, but it hurts the album, greatly. As a result of the production the solos are not up front and dynamic enough in their delivery as well the drums sound just awful, tough luck for the new guy, I guess.

In the end my feelings on the album are mixed as there are some truly great songs and moments on this beast, but for the moment I do consider it Agalloch's weakest effort, but then again I said the same thing when reviewing Ashes years ago and that thing really grew on me. Perhaps this one will too. Time shall tell.