Review by Adam M on December 14, 2025.

This is a great album that has the right atmosphere to capture your attention. It is really subtle in nature and has a great folk-like feeling to it. There are many moments of beauty and rapture to be found and this is perhaps the calmest of the entries in the band’s catalogue. Those looking for a subtle type of metal release will be pleasantly surprised by what is to be found here.

The musicianship on the album is quite stellar with a punchy production job that makes the sorrowful songs come to life. There is a real connection made with the listener. The music has a calm aspect that is wonderful to behold and one of a kind. The guitars resonate with emotional poignancy and the vocals are beautiful and appropriate for the music at hand.

The problem with the album lies in its quiet nature. Albums by bands like Primordial are more powerful and resonate more strongly with the listener. There is a feeling that the outfit is not quite producing powerful enough music and lapses into a bit of an overly relaxed feeling that brings them down a shade.

Overall, this album was stellar and a very nice gentle release that makes for great relaxing music. There is very little to dislike and it is one of the more powerful emotional metal releases to be found. Fans of bands like Alcest will find a lot to like here and dwell in the sorrowful atmosphere created.

Rating: 7.9 out of 10

Review by Jack on August 14, 2002.

This is a pretty solid record; there is no doubt about it. Agalloch are very accomplished musicians, who have some pretty fine ideas for songs and melodies. “The Mantle” is their latest effort and comes riding along and ultimately having to live up to the high quality ‘The End Records’ name that bands like Winds, Arcturus and Virgin Black have recently pushed into the metal stratosphere. Normally speaking, if you like one of The End Records’ bands, it is probably a safe bet you could really get into other The End Records bands and have some real fun in record stores piling up CD after CD. Agalloch, however may be an outfit who just slightly dampen the high standard of The End Records with “The Mantle”. It is not a meager album though, Agalloch this time around just lack a little spark and a little fire that could ignite them and turn “The Mantle” into a great record.

Thus to my problem with “The Mantle”. Creativity. Agalloch have a good formula going for the tracks on “The Mantle”, and I truly am a believer of the acoustic guitars to bring melody to songs and create a bit of diversity, but not to the extent that Agalloch bring on “The Mantle”. The winding acoustic passages on tracks such as ‘The Hawthorne Passage’ and ‘The Lodge’, for example could perhaps use a little bit of spice to up the tempo from pedestrian and subsequently make for a more interesting listen. Agalloch seem content to ponder and soak up their musical deluge of acoustics without really challenging themselves to bring out more thought and clarity to create something with a bit more substance.

That being said there are some great moments on “The Mantle”, the non instrumental tracks are really a shining feature of the album (funny that, eh? Usually a weak instrumental track makes no difference to an album, but in Agalloch’s case there are 4 instrumentals, which may be construed as half a good album). The vocals give Agalloch another dimension and through the clean and harsh vocals of Haughm they are able to create some inspired and ‘interesting’ songs. Pity this is not a consistent effort.

Some folks may say I am being harsh on Agalloch, but I say I hate to see talented wasted, which Agalloch have in abundance. “The Mantle” is recommended for any fan of Agalloch’s past work or fans of folk/rock.

Bottom Line: “The Mantle” seems to be only half full of dynamic songwriting and half full of monotone instrumental acoustic pieces. This could spell doom for less accomplished artists, but Agalloch is far from that category and succeed with “The Mantle” to an extent.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 6
Production: 8
Originality: 7
Overall: 7

Rating: 7.2 out of 10