Ashes Against the Grain is an album by American metal band Agalloch under the Brooklyn, New York-based label, The End Records. It is Agalloch's third full-length release, four years after the critically acclaimed The Mantle.
Before the release, the track "Falling Snow" was made available in its entirety on the label's website and on the band's MySpace page. Reports indicate a version of the album was leaked on the web in May 2006.
A pre-release review in the July 2006 issue of Toronto-based Exclaim! magazine described the new album as a "departure and an extension" from the band's previous work:
- The songs tend to move with restraint, as Agalloch's characteristic threads of black metal, folk and ambient sounds coalesce with more doom and art rock.
Three versions of the album were released: a slipcase edition, a deluxe wooden box version (limited to 500 copies) and a vinyl version (limited to 1000 copies).
The vinyl version was released on March 2, 2007 through The End Records' Infinite Vinyl Series. It was pressed in three different colors:
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- A clear/orange splatter edition limited to 200 copies.
- A black edition limited to 400 copies.
- A clear orange edition limited to 400 copies.
All three vinyl editions include an exclusive bonus track, Scars of the Shattered Sky (Our Fortress Has Burned to the Ground)
[edit] Track listing
| 1. |
"Limbs" |
9:50 |
| 2. |
"Falling Snow" |
9:38 |
| 3. |
"This White Mountain on Which You Will Die" (Instrumental) |
1:39 |
| 4. |
"Fire Above, Ice Below" |
10:28 |
| 5. |
"Not Unlike the Waves" |
9:15 |
| 6. |
"Our Fortress Is Burning... I" (Instrumental) |
5:25 |
| 7. |
"Our Fortress Is Burning... II - Bloodbirds" |
6:20 |
| 8. |
"Our Fortress Is Burning... III - The Grain" (Instrumental) |
7:09 |
| 9. |
"Scars of the Shattered Sky (Our Fortress Has Burned to the Ground)" (Limited edition bonus track, Instrumental) |
19:38 |
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Total length:
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59:49 |
[edit] Personnel
- John Haughm: Vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, Drums (on "Not unlike the Waves" and "Falling Snow")
- Don Anderson: Acoustic & electric guitars
- Jason William Walton: Bass
- Chris Greene: Drums (all tracks except "Not unlike the Waves" and "Falling Snow")
- Ronn Chick: E-Bow on "Fire Above, Ice Below", Piano on "Limbs" and "Our Fortress Is Burning... I", production, mixing, engineering, editing
[edit] Music video
A music video was recorded for the fifth track on the album, "Not Unlike The Waves". Despite strong opposition from the band, an abridged version of the song was used. Juan Mosqueda was the cinematographer for the video; he had shot a sample of footage that, although the band liked, was not used in the final version of the video. This sketch of Mosqueda's version was later included as a bonus feature on Agalloch's 2009 DVD, "The Silence of Forgotten Landscapes", with an introduction by Mosqueda and Haughm.
[edit] External links
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- John Haughm
- Don Anderson
- Jason William Walton
- Aesop Dekker
- Shane Breyer
- Chris Greene
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| Studio albums |
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| Demos, EPs, splits |
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| Compilations |
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