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Released on 13 August 2002 via The End Records, “The Mantle” is notable for its all-encompassing range of subgenres within extreme music, blending aspects of folk metal, doom metal, black metal, post metal, gothic metal and post rock to create a unique sound for the time. The album embodies a cinematic feeling, owing to the band's creative process of “thinking in images and how sound might express those images”. Taking a more mellow tone than Agalloch's first full-length “Pale Folklore”, The Mantle still contains heavy electric guitar riffs as well as acoustic guitar portions, however the band actively sought to experiment beyond their extreme metal roots and earlier inspirations such as Katatonia and Ulver. This direction was first explored on the EP “Of Stone, Wind and Pillor” (2001) before being harnessed to its greatest effect on “The Mantle”. Guitarist Don Anderson pointed to the influence of neofolk music, particularly Death in June, as the impetus for using a strummed acoustic guitar in a darker musical context. Also present on “The Mantle” are lengthy, melancholic double bass sequences, particularly observable on the track "I Am the Wooden Doors". Anderson was critical of the 'over-saturated' metal scene at the time, incorporating influences from post-rock, contemporary classical and singer-songwriters such as Tom Waits, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Nick Cave.This culminated in a sense of the band becoming difficult to categorise. The album is also notable for its utilisation of a deer's skull as a form of percussion. Specifically, the skull was struck to create a unique clicking sound, used throughout the album, but especially so in the song “The Lodge”. Agalloch would go on to release three further albums before their initial disbandment in 2016, however they have since reunited as of 2023. Today, they are considered as a cult classic band within the realms of extreme metal, inspiring later US extreme metal acts such as Wolves in the Throne Room, Panopticon, Deafheaven and Cobalt, among others. Metal publication Loudwire named The Mantle as their 13th best black metal album of all time, and in 2021, named it the best metal album of 2002.
Great post metal album. It has a lot of variation with also impressive acoustic bits. You can hear the influence of Godspeed You! Black Emperor in the atmospheric guitar layers. Not similar to Godspeed, but a inspiring reuse of a layering method in another music genre.
Awesome post-metal album. Somehow the massive wall of sound brings callness in my mind
It’s not every day you listen to an album featuring a deer skull as an instrument. I dreaded the “extreme metal” moniker. Never fear, this was a moody, interesting album - great recommendation!
Black metal, folk metal, post-metal, doom metal. Casi todo instrumental. Me ha gustado. Un 4.
I can see the link to 'Godspeed You!' and I do like that aspect of this album- the longer tracks are able to weave a tale rather than conform to the traditional 'song' structure. Not too sure of the Metal influences but I can ignore those. I also like the traditional pagan imagery and song titles. A fine album.
Expansive post-rock LP that reminded me (in a great way) of Deafheaven mixed in with some acoustic and folk elements, clear to see the influence from this in the aughts to the spacey blackgaze and post-metal of today. The LP did feel a bit diffuse throughout its considerable runtime, and I can't believe I'm saying this but I wish there were /more/ vocals to ground the tracks a little bit. Solid listen and an interesting band I'd like to hear more from.
This is a message on behalf of 1001 album users - the thing missing from the original 1001 list was not 1001 of your friend Gary’s post metal band’s albums
I've tried to listen to this a number of times over the years. It was first sold to me as "if you like Opeth, you'll love this". This was just after Blackwater Park came out and I was FROTHING on Opeth at the time. But it just didn't click for me. Too much Post-Rock influence maybe. It's not bad, it just isn't the masterpiece their die-hard fans think it is. Needs bigger HOOKS. 3/5.
I slept through most of this sorry
Not typically my thing but I can appreciate 3.3
Pretty good
Musically it's pretty cool, but overall just not my thing. 3 stars.
This was a pretty ominous and strong instrumental metal album. The lyrics are pretty slim and when they do come in, ai don’t love them. The instrumentals are pretty good though and the dark flow of it has a unique mood. But what’s up with metal bands and Elk or Deer? 4.7/10