Ashes Against the Grain | ||||
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Studio album by Agalloch | ||||
Released | August 8, 2006 | |||
Recorded | December 10, 2005–January 2006 | |||
Genre | Doom metal, black metal, folk metal, post-metal | |||
Length | 59:49 | |||
Label | The End | |||
Agalloch chronology | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
AbsolutePunk | 91% |
Chronicles of Chaos | 9/10 |
Exclaim! | favorable |
PopMatters | |
Pitchfork | 8.0/10 |
Sputnikmusic | 5.0/5 |
Ashes Against the Grain is the third full-length album by American metal band Agalloch, released by The End Records four years after the critically acclaimed The Mantle. It has been described as incorporating black metal, folk metal and post-metal.
Following the release of The Mantle, Agalloch performed their first live shows. Due to the number of instruments and effects used on that album, the band had to make some changes to the arrangements of the songs so they could be more easily replicated when performed live. When it came time to record their next album, the band decided that a more stripped down approach was necessary, as they wanted to emulate the feeling of performing live on the new songs. Ashes Against the Grain focused more on electric guitars and metal elements, and had less of the neofolk influence that was prominent on The Mantle.
In an interview on the Silence of Forgotten Landscapes DVD, John Haughm stated that the album was recorded during a time when he had renewed his liking for metal, after taking a break from it and focusing on other musical influences during the Mantle sessions. Lyrically, Haughm took a more simplistic and abstract approach, in contrast to earlier albums.
Haughm had played drums on the previous albums, but for Ashes Against the Grain, Haughm wanted to concentrate more on his songwriting and guitar parts, and drummer Chris Greene was brought in. Greene had joined the band when they began playing live in 2003, and played drums on all the tracks except for "Falling Snow" and "Not Unlike the Waves". Greene parted ways with Agalloch following their 2006 European tour, as the band felt that he was not developing well as a live drummer. He was replaced by Ludicra drummer Aesop Dekker.
The recording process was described by the band as "hell from start to finish". A number of production problems were encountered, including a computer glitch which resulted in the Wave files being lost. Many of the songs ended up being reworked from the original demos, in particular, "Fire Above, Ice Below", about which Haughm said "something got lost in the transition from the demo recording to the album recording".