Full Album Stream: Agalloch: Faustian Echoes – new EP

We Israelis love AGALLOCH and those of us who have witnessed their epic and impeccably performed three hours long gig here in Tel Aviv, are certainly not surprised the band’s managed to come up with ‘Faustian Echoes’, AGALLOCH's longest ever written song. ‘Faustian Echoes’, a single, nearly 22 minutes-long two-part song based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's “Faust”, is being streamed in full here (BandCamp), courtesy the band, and below. The EP will be available as a digital download at AGALLOCH's BandCamp site starting July 11th, 2012, while the LP and CD versions will be eventually released through the band's own imprint, Dammerung Arts. Shop AGALLOCH here (AGALLOCH store) and enjoy even more of AGALLOCH's dark music here (BandCamp). ‘Faustian Echoes’ were recorded at Jackpot Studio in Portland, Oregon by Billy Anderson, mixed by Anderson and mastered by Justin Weis at Trakworx studio:

 

AGALLOCH: Faustian Echoes

 

AGALLOCH was formed in 1995 by vocalist, guitarist, an artist and graphic designer John Haughm. The band has thus far released four EPs, three full-length albums, two demos, one split album, one compilation album and one live DVD. Their debut for a major record label, The End Records, came in 1999; ‘Pale Folklore’ was described “as important a black metal album as any American band ever produced” by AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia (more here). AGALLOCH's critically acclaimed second full-length, ‘The Mantle’, came next in 2002:

“It is not just the range of sounds that’s impressive, though, but rather how smoothly they are woven together, creating an album that flows from beginning to end, using its entire 68-minute running time to make its point without wearing out its welcome. AGALLOCH's biggest strength, much like the early work of ULVER and KATATONIA, is their ability to create an epic type of listening experience without resorting to bombast or heavy-handedness, and that quality is plainly evident here,” [added his William York, AllMusic – more here]

2006's ‘Ashes Against The Grain’ prompted the knowledgeable one, AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia, to exclaim:

“Quite possibly the greatest American black metal band ever, or at the very least, the first American black metal band that really mattered! Such claims should not to be thrown about lightly, its true; but why measure words when faced with the worshipful fervor with which extreme metal fans embraced the enigmatic quartet's inspired creations, featuring corrosive black metal spliced with delicate folk music into arrangements improbably fluid, majestic, and avant-garde? Oh, and the torturously long waits in between their releases didn’t hurt matters either, only fueling the notoriously withdrawn band's budding cult legend, while their supporters dug in their heels for what wound up becoming an anxious, four-year vigil leading up to the arrival of AGALLOCH's third magnum opus [‘Ashes Against The Grain’]”, [read more here while you listen to the album's 18 minutes-long bonus track ‘Scars Of The Shattered Sky’ here (BandCamp) or below:]

 

AGALLOCH: Scars Of The Shattered Sky

 

AGALLOCH's fourth longplayer entitled ‘Marrow Of The Spirit’ was issued via Profound Lore Records in 2010. The album was recorded entirely in analog on vintage equipment at Audible Alchemy Studios in Portland, Oregon, with producer Steven Wray Lobdell and had featured new drummer Aesop Dekker who replaced Chris Greene. ‘Marrow Of The Spirit’ was celebrated enthusiastically by music press, being named among NPR's Top 50 albums of 2010 and taking the first prize among the albums released that year according to Decibel Magazine.

AGALLOCH features: John Haughm – vocals and guitar, Don Anderson – guitar, Jason Walton – bass and Aesop Dekker - drums