Agalloch - The Mantle

"A celebration for the death of man..."

"...and the great cold death of the Earth"

The names of the first and eighth tracks come together to create a perfect description for the mood of this album: It's harrowing, it's dreary, it's the soundtrack to the world slowly dying.

The Mantle is the second studio album by the American blackened post metal band, Agalloch. If you want to know what blackened post metal sounds like, imagine black metal, way slowed down, and with some doomer guitars thrown in. Agalloch is especially good at throwing doomer guitars, and as a result has created some of the best music in the genre. The band created five great albums, but their pièce de résistance is The Mantle. The songs on The Mantle sound desolate and mournful in a way that feels almost terrifyingly relatable. Chilling song titles such as "A celebration for the death of man...", "In the Shadow of our Pale Companion", "You Were but a Ghost in My Arms", "...and the great cold death of the earth" add to the experience.

The album opens with the quiet beat of sullen drums and "A celebration for the death of man...". This track is instrumental and primarily serves as an opener for "In the Shadow of our Pale Companion", but also acts as the perfect opener for the album. This song is not just sad, it has long ago accepted that all hope is lost.

Agalloch's greatest masterpiece is "In The Shadow of Our Pale Companion". This song beautifully and sullenly describes the journey of a man as he looses faith in the world. The man hopes to find "God, in spite of man" and reflects on the world as he walks down forgotten paths through the wilderness. In the song he seems to eventually find God in the beauty of the wilderness, far removed from civilization: "Here at the edge of this world/ Here I gaze at a pantheon of oak/ A citadel of stone/ If this grand panorama before me is what you call God/ Then God is not dead". However, if you listen carefully, you can hear the line, "Where is the god?/ Has he fallen and abandoned us?" whispered quietly during the first chorus, before the "God is not dead" line, and the line "Where is the god?/ Has he fallen to ruin?" during the second chorus, close to the end of the song. These lines suggest to me that man either doesn't agree with "what you call God" or believes that the wilderness is falling to ruin, and therefore so is God. As the song goes on, he becomes more and more suicidal, which is represented by the appearance of "Our Pale Companion", or death. Early on, our pale companion brings depression: "The nothingness that we feel in the arms of the pale/ In the shadow of the grim companion who walks with us". The narrator feels the weight of inescapable death following him everywhere. Later in the song, death becomes an immediate danger, indicating that he is becoming suicidal: "I'm stalked by the shadow of death's hand". Finally, the narrator kills himself, slitting his throat and letting the blood flow into a river: "An offering of crimson flowed into the water below... from my will, my throat, to the river, and into the sea". But, this is just my interpretation of the lyrics; listen to the lyrics yourself, and comment your own interpretation.

Musically, this song is also breathtaking. It has a beautiful folk melody backed up by dark, drony guitars and soft growly vocals. This results in an almost mystical sounding song, like you are being told a scary story by an old wood spirit. At key points in the song, clean, powerful vocals chime in, giving some nice variety, and adding emphasis to certain parts of the song. Halfway through the song, there is a sudden breakdown followed by dramatic psychedelic guitars as the narrator kills himself by the river. The song ends with the sound of wind blowing on a microphone, which continues into the next song.

Another great, and chilling track on this album is "You Were but a Ghost in My Arms". This song is about a man who's house is apparently haunted by the ghost of a woman he loved and left to die, although it is unclear whether this is just a product of the man's delusions. The man hears the woman's voice when he tries to sleep, and sees images of her in the patterns of the oak boards that make up the walls. Water dripping down the walls is her tears. In an attempt to escape the spirit, the man burns down his house, but he still sees images of her in the flames, and still hears her voice when the building is reduced to ash. 

Man, Agalloch has good lyrics. 

Musically, this is one of the more intense songs on the album, with driving black metal guitars and blast beats. However, the blast beats are fairly quiet, keeping the mellow, mournful tone of the album.

"...and the great cold death of the earth" continues the themes of depression, self destruction, and the destruction of Earth/nature by humans found on "In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion". In a way, I consider this song to be a spiritual successor. This song contains some of the best lyrics, on an album full of amazing lyrics, and is where the title of the album comes from: "Life is a clay urn on the mantle/ And I am the ashes on the floor/ We are the wounds/ And the great cold death of the Earth/ Darkness and silence, the light shall flicker out". This passage is describing the fragility of life, and how in one instant, everything can come crumbling down. The narrator is the ashes on the floor, suggesting that his life has already crumbled, and is metaphorically over. He sees the world dying around him, and identifies humans as the cause: "We are the wounds". However, he realizes that we will never change, and cause our own end: "the light shall flicker out". This song also references a Cherokee myth about the creation of the world. In this myth, the Earth is an island hanging from 4 rawhide ropes. This song uses the myth as a metaphor for the fragility of Earth: "When the ropes break, this world will come tumbling down".

"...and the great cold death of the earth" is a very slow and atmospheric song, primarily using clean vocals to create a humbling and haunting melody. Growled vocals are only used for the section talking about the Cherokee myth. There is also a really cool breakdown in this song with a double bass.

This is one of those albums that everyone needs to listen to at least once. It'll humble you and depress you.

Rating: 10/10

Favorite tracks: All

Listen to Agalloch - The Mantle on Spotify!