Agalloch "Pale Folklore (USA, The End Records, TE-010)"

Pale Folklore is the debut studio album by American metal band Agalloch. The album was released on June 6, 1999 by The End Records. It featured an eclectic mix of acoustic folk reminiscent of Scandinavian bands such as Ulver; doom and black metal-esque riffs; growled, clean, whispered, and shrieked vocals; and a production style and atmosphere that borrowed heavily from black metal. The lyrical themes focused mainly on depression, nature, folklore and the supernatural. It featured the roots of a post-rock influence which was greatly expanded on with Agalloch's second studio album, The Mantle.

Vocalist John Haughm said that Pale Folklore was influenced by his upbringing in Montana, where bassist Jason William Walton also lived. While Haughm lived in Seattle during the making of this album, he would make several trips back to Montana per year.

Guitarist Don Anderson said about the album's sound, "We basically mixed Fields of the Nephilim with Ulver and early Katatonia". Haughm said the band wanted to distinguish itself from the American black metal and death metal scenes, and noted the influence of Cocteau Twins and Lycia.

Agalloch signed to The End Records and was given a budget of $1000 to record the album, but the band spent three times that amount, frustrating label founder Andreas Katsambas.

The album cover was taken at the Timberline Lodge in Mount Hood, which was also featured in the film The Shining. The band shot several photos of the lodge's walls, doors and woodgrain interior.

Track listing

All tracks are written by John Haughm, except where noted

1. "She Painted Fire Across the Skyline I" 8:35
2. "She Painted Fire Across the Skyline II" 3:09
3. "She Painted Fire Across the Skyline III" 7:10
4. "The Misshapen Steed" (instrumental) Breyer 4:54
5. "Hallways of Enchanted Ebony" Haughm, Anderson 9:59
6. "Dead Winter Days" Haughm, Anderson, Walton 7:51
7. "As Embers Dress the Sky" Haughm, Anderson 8:04
8. "The Melancholy Spirit" 12:27

Total length: 62:10

"She Painted Fire Across the Skyline" is counted as one track on the release (18:54), therefore some sources may say the album only has 6 tracks.

It depends from person to person, site to site.

Released on vinyl in October & November 2005 via Profound Lore Records. The standard vinyl blue DLP release in November was preceded by a commemorative ultra-limited edition collectors vinyl release sold exclusively at the Day of the Equinox Festival.

White/Blue splatter wax limited to 100 copies (including those featured in the wooden box), blue wax limited to 400 copies.

Wooden box edition limited to only 60 hand-numbered (by Agalloch mastermind John Haughm) copies. The details for the special vinyl edition are as follows:

- Wooden jackets are made of fresh fine pine wood

- 30 Wooden jackets are personally stained with Olde Maple Gloss

- 30 personally stained with traditional Classic Oak Gloss

- The “Pale Folklore” insignia laser-etched in lavish Fette Fraktur font on the front of the wooden case

- Double LP presented in a limited white vinyl with a wintery-blue splatter (as opposed to the regular blue vinyl released early November)

- Six original and authentically developed photo prints chosen by John Haughm himself. Each photo represents a song on the album, is personally labeled, and is paired up in two’s and presented in different print sizes (5 x 7, 4 x 6, and 4 x 12 panoramic format).

Recording information:

Recorded between January-February 1999 at Soundtracks.

Mixed in March 1999 at Soundtracks.

Produced by Ronn Chick, John Haughm and Shane Breyer

Engineered by Ronn Chick

Artwork by Dennis Gerasimenko and Sergey Makhotkin

Band photography by Aaron Sholes

Anderson's girlfriend (at the time) performed the operatic female vocals heard on "She Painted Fire Across the Skyline" and "As Embers Dress the Sky".

Agalloch "The Mantle"

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

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". 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. 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. 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 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 tremolo-picking either large chords or single melodic lines.


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.

"Trudging Through Deep Snow" sample created by Aaron Sholes and Neta Smollack.

The ending sample used in "The Hawthorne Passage" is an excerpt taken from the film Fando y Lis by Alejandro Jodorowsky. The film itself is based on the play Fando y Lis by Spanish Theatre of the Absurd author Fernando Arrabal. 


"...and the Great Cold Death of the Earth" contains lyrics adapted from Earth Making, a Cherokee folk tale.

Recorded in several separate sessions between November 2001 and April 2002.