Agalloch

Agalloch is an American band from Portland, United States, active from 1995 to the present. The group works across atmospheric black metal, avant-garde metal, black metal, dark folk, doom metal and folk metal, and is identified in particular with a blend of heavy metal, folk and atmospheric styles.

Formation and lineup

The band forms in Portland in 1995. Its members are John Haughm, Shane Breyer, Don Anderson, Jason William Walton, Chris Greene and Aesop Dekker.

Albums and releases

Agalloch releases two demos in the late 1990s before its first full-length album, Pale Folklore (1999). It follows this with The Mantle (2002), Ashes Against the Grain (2006), Marrow of the Spirit (2010) and The Serpent & the Sphere (2014).

The Mantle becomes especially notable for combining black metal with neo-folk, progressive rock, post-rock and ambient music, and it influences later post-black metal bands. The band also releases a series of EPs and related recordings, including Of Stone, Wind and Pillor (2001), Tomorrow Will Never Come (2003), The Grey (2004), The White EP (2008) and Faustian Echoes (2012). Other release titles include A Fragment (Second Phase), Nebelmeer, Fragment 4, Scars of the Shattered Sky, Where Shade Once Was, The Death of Man III, The Wolves of Timberline, Nihil Totem, The Weight of Darkness and Alpha Serpentis (Unukalhai).

The band also issues the compilation The Demonstration Archive 1996-1998 and The Compendium Archive.

Label activity and side material

In 2008 Agalloch begins reissuing demos, B-sides and EPs through its own Dammerung Arthouse label, and Faustian Echoes also appears through Dammerung Arts. Profound Lore Records is listed among the band’s labels.

Live performance and status

Agalloch earns a reputation for intense live performances and plays major festivals including Roadburn, Inferno, Ragnarok, Tomahawk, Noctis, Asymmetry Fest, Maryland Deathfest and Scion Fest. The band is known for staging shows with wood, incense and imagery associated with the northwestern United States. It announces a breakup in 2016, but later reforms in 2023 with the intention of playing limited shows.