The Mantle

The Mantle
Studio album by Agalloch
Released	August 13, 2002 (2002-08-13)
Recorded	November 2001–April 2002
Genre	Folk metal, black metal, doom metal, post-rock
Length	68:25
Label	The End (#TE-028)
Producer	Ronn Chick, John Haughm
Agalloch chronology
Of Stone, Wind and Pillor (2001) The Mantle (2002) Tomorrow Will Never Come (2003)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Chronicles of Chaos	[2]
Dusted	Favorable[3]
Sputnikmusic	[4]

The Mantle is the second album by American metal band Agalloch. The album was released on August 13, 2002 by The End Records.

Overview

Cinema "really emerged as a reference point for how we arranged out music [on The Mantle]," said guitarist Don Anderson. He suggested that the band was "thinking in images and how sound might express those images".^[5] 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.^[4] Guitarist Don Anderson points to the influence of neofolk music, particularly Death in June, as the impetus for using a strummed acoustic guitar in a darker musical context.^[5] Present as well are long and melancholic double bass sequences, such as on the track "I Am the Wooden Doors". A critical influence upon Agalloch during this time period was Godspeed You! Black Emperor, with guitarist Don Anderson remarking

Godspeed, in particular, was the major influence. Their approach to the guitar seemed aligned with black metal. The guitar was no longer a purely riff-based instrument, but provided an ambiguous atmosphere through tremelo-picking either large chords or single melodic lines.^[5]

On March 28, 2005, Profound Lore Records released a double LP version of The Mantle on grey-colored vinyl. Limited to 500 copies, it also featured exclusive cover artwork.

Track listing

All lyrics written by John Haughm, except track 8 which contains an excerpt from Cherokee folk tale "Earth Making".^[6]

Personnel and credits

• Haughm: Vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, percussion, EBow, woodchimes, samples, production, booklet photography & layout
• Anderson: Acoustic, classical & electric guitars, piano
• J. William W.: Bass guitar, noisescape on track 3
• Ronn Chick: Synths, samples, bells on track 8, mandolin on track 9, production
• Ty Brubaker: Contrabass on track 5, 8 & 9, accordion on track 9
• Danielle Norton: Trombone on track 7 & 8
• Aaron Sholes: Sample on track 4, hand-made grim cymbal bell used on track 2, art direction, pre-production
• Neta Smolack: Sample on track 4

Film clips

• A section of "The Hawthorne Passage" (timestamp 7:46 - 7:50) includes a sound clip from the Swedish movie The Seventh Seal:

Antonius Block: Vem är du?
Döden: Jag är döden.

The official translation is:

Antonius Block: Who are you?
Death: I am Death.

• The last few seconds of "The Hawthorne Passage" feature an excerpt of the film Fando y Lis in Spanish.

Lis (singing): Yo moriré y nadie se acordará de mí. De mí…
Fando: Sí, Lis, yo me acordaré de ti e iré a verte al cementerio con una flor y un perro, y en tu funeral cantaré, en voz baja, "¡Que bonito es un entierro!"

Translated to English, the excerpt reads:

Lis (singing): I will die and no one will remember me. Me…

Fando: Yes, Lis, I will remember you and I will go see you in the cemetery with a flower and a dog, and at your funeral I will sing, softly, "How beautiful is a funeral!"

References