Agalloch – Faustian Echoes

July 11, 2012 • Licht von Dämmerung Arthouse

I have barely had time to dissect Marrow of the Spirit yet (yeah, I have a big backlog) and then Agalloch dumps a new EP on me. I love their albums but their EPs are usually not worth it, so I was a bit wary of this one, and rightfully so. It's not bad but it's a bit generic and forgettable. Of course it's interesting to hear them do something not-very-experimental on an EP—in fact the music is very typical of Agalloch, sounding mostly like the atmospheric black metal they did on Marrow of the Spirit combined with the slightly paganistic / folky side of their very early material. It's a sound many fans will be very familiar with.

Unfortunately this also means that there's nothing new to hear on Faustian Echoes. Honestly, for me, the only things keeping this EP interesting are the spoken word segments and the dark folk segments—hey, that sounds like I just described The White, doesn't it? Okay, so I do like the brand of black metal they play here as well, but again I might as well listen to Marrow (or, to be fair, any one of the dozens of US black metal albums that came out in the last ten years). It's something I like but enough is enough, you know? I really love the ending, though, both the metal outro and the spoken word / folky part. Obviously they are still talented songwriters, even if this particular release doesn't do a lot for me.

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