YMMV / Agalloch

• Awesome Music: So much of it. Pretty much everyone agrees that The Mantle is amazing, but more or less all of their stuff is worth checking out.
• Creative Differences: What lead to Agalloch's break up. Long story short: John wanted to continue the band full time, but Don and the others didn't as they wished to focus more on their lives (families and careers and such). The group did agree to break up since they all wanted to take different paths and not ruin what Agalloch made, but due to the confusions of the statements regarding the split caused people to get the wrong idea, especially when some thought John was gonna continue the project as a solo band. Years later however (especially after John's infamous insensitive comment about Facebook...), Don had acknowledged that he and John had mended their friendship, as they all did but have since been rather mince about whether or not Agalloch will reunite.
• Epic Riff: Most of their songs have one. "I Am the Wooden Doors" is a good example.
• Genius Bonus: A niðstång is a pole used for cursing an enemy in Germanic pagan tradition. Some neopagans have used them in modern days to cast curses against white supremacists.
• Narm: The awkward, hammy, out of place spoken word bit on "She Painted Fire Across the Skyline Part 3", which is otherwise a beautiful song.
  "I SAW THE NIGHTFALL, IT CALLED TO ME LIKE A RIVER OF SHADOWS! IT SANG TO ME WITH THE CRIES OF A THOUSAND RAVENS THAT BLACKENED THE SKY AS THEY TOOK FLIGHT!"
• Signature Song: "In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion."
• Tear Jerker: Quite a few. It's arguably the point of the band.
  • Almost all of The Mantle could count, but the first three tracks in particular stand out. "A Celebration for the Death of Man" is a gorgeous, epic intro to the album which then flows seamlessly into "In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion", which, between its sweeping, majestic sound and poetic lyrics about nature and death, is one of their most tear jerking songs. "Odal", which follows afterwards, is a simple but beautiful post-metal crescendo reminiscent of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. There's a reason most people think it's their best album.
  • The White has a few moments of this, but the best are "Sowilo Rune" and "Summerisle Reprise", which are made all the more poignant by samples of dialogue from The Wicker Man.
  • Birth and Death of the Pillars of Creation", ever so much.
  MY WORK HAS BEGUN!
  • The first half of "Black Lake Nidstang" and all of "To Drown" are incredibly depressing.
  • The entire "Our Fortress is Burning" suite on Ashes Against the Grain, particularly part 2. It's simultaneously one of their bleakest and one of their most beautiful songs. Even moreso is "Scars of the Shattered Sky", a 19 minute instrumental bonus track to the album that builds slowly from mellow ambience to passionate black metal, ending with a gorgeous guitar solo.
  • The band's abrupt break up comes off as this, considering how out of nowhere it happened, especially with the misinterpretation that lead to the end of John and Don's partnership.

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