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| 1998 The End Records |
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Pale Folklore
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She Painted Fire Across the Skyline
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The Misshapen Steed
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Hallways of Enchanted Ebony
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Dead Winted Days
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As Embers Dress the Sky
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The Meloncholy Spirit
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Line-Up
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John Haugm - Vocals, Guitars, Drums
Jason Walton - Bass
Don Anderson - Guitars
Shane Blyer - Keyboards |
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| Remember how, for a time, you were perfectly safe to buy anything off
a certain label, for you knew that the bands were quality? Earache was
like that in the late 80s/early90s, Roadrunner kinda picking up where they
left off during the great death metal surge. Well, now we have The
End Records. My only problem is really that I can't pigeon hole this
label into something as concrete as others can be be catagorized.
I guess that with The End, expect the unexpected in terms of genre-twisting,
but whatever this label has to put out, I've come to love. No exception
then is Agalloch's Pale Folklore. It's funny, just as Epoch of Unlight
makes me yearn for Caress of Stel-era Rush, Agalloch reminds me of
(if anything) Animals-era Pink Floyd. And that is not said lightly,
Animals easily being one of my favorite albums of all time, period. There's
a lot of heavy delay guitar (ala The Edge), but everything is just so steeped
in sadness, it's almost unbearable at times. I'm not even going to
dare pulling out the old "drums sound great, fills abound" or "guitar riffs
from hell here!" to try and describe this, for that would be an insult.
Maybe think Opeth for the breadth of scope and heaviness in emotion, but
Agalloch really transcend a lot of traditional restrictions here. Simply
put, it's just a killer album that demands to be listened to as a whole
body of work. No, there's no hit song, and you probably won't want
to throw this in to start the day, but when you want an album to remove
you from the confines of youe everyday existence, this is the one. Highly
recomended.
9 1/2 out of 10 |
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