Agalloch's 'The Mantle' and T2's 'White Horses'

[yoyiceu]

Recently, when I was hearing again doom metal band Agalloch's 'The Mantle', a disc I really like, I became aware that the chord sequence of the first song -A Celebration for the Death of Man- is exatly the same as T2's classic 'All the White Horses', from that bands' early seventies album, 'Boomland'. Not suggesting anything besides a coincidence, but a curious one anyway. Of course, T2's song is also very doomy and death related.

[mellotron storm]

Recently, when I was hearing again doom metal band Agalloch's 'The Mantle', a disc I really like, I became aware that the chord sequence of the first song -A Celebration for the Death of Man- is exatly the same as T2's classic 'All the White Horses', from that bands' early seventies album, 'Boomland'. Not suggesting anything besides a coincidence, but a curious one anyway. Of course, T2's song is also very doomy and death related.

Never noticed that but those are two amazing albums. Have you heard the cover of No More White Horses by Landberk ? Great version.

[yoyiceu]

Yes, I was familiar with the Landberk cover before hearing the t2 original version, and would even say that I prefer it to the original.

[mellotron storm]

Yes, I was familiar with the Landberk cover before hearing the t2 original version, and would even say that I prefer it to the original.

I heard Landberk's version first as well and also prefer it probably because of that.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Of course, T2's song is also very doomy and death related.

I kinda like Agalloch, although I'm not really sure I'd call it "doom metal". Not that it matters anyhow. One of the distinctions with T2's It'll All Work Out in Boomland is indeed the layers of the lyrics. All four tunes express a sense of existiential despair about the relationship between self-identity and one's surroundings - and not least the power or terms of definition thereof. This continuous topic corresponds very neatly with the overall atmosphere of the music, somehow conveying aggression and melancholy at the same time. "No More White Horses" seems to concern the complete decay of positive illusions in life and the abrupt confrontation with a reality which is all but revealing. I think the tune comes across with a grandness and force which was quite rare even for a 1970 "prog" band.

[yoyiceu]

No question, 'Boomland' is a great album, although my feeling is that the languid, pessimistic feel of the songs -including the great 'No More White Horses''- has its main inspiration in the epochal first King Crimson album, specially a song like 'Epitaph'. Jonesy is another British band of that era that was very influenced (at least at first) by early Crimson, and also uses the Mellotron as typical backing for some of their more pessimistic songs, like 'Children' from their second album.
Of course, that's a mood that decades later would characterize many Swedish bands, starting with Landberk.

[Scrotum Scissor]

No question, 'Boomland' is a great album, although my feeling is that the languid, pessimistic feel of the songs -including the great 'No More White Horses''- has its main inspiration in the epochal first King Crimson album, specially a song like 'Epitaph'. Jonesy is another British band of that era that was very influenced (at least at first) by early Crimson, and also uses the Mellotron as typical backing for some of their more pessimistic songs, like 'Children' from their second album. [...] Landberk.

Might be very true, all of this. But the T2 lyrics tend to omit the overall Rilke'ian (very British) stab at pittoresque or symbolist metaphors, which was quite characteristic of much of what Sinfield wrote during the early 70s. Instead of the overt eschatology that penetrates all of ItCotCK's lyrics (except for "Moonchild"), there's a pronounced material directness to those on the T2 record; they deal very much with "man's thought of himself" rather than "men's thoughts of the universe". As for the early Landberk lyrics in particular, the Swedish words for Riktigt Äkta came across as quite different from the English ones (on Lonely Land); indeed Sweden has an incredibly rich lyrical tradition with celebrated talents like Karin Boye, Gunnar Ekelöf, Göran Sonnevie and Thomas Tranströmer, all of whose visions on the "self" and "fate" or "nature" seem to reappear in one form or another with early Landberk. This was actually one of the reasons why I could never really get into the English rendition of that record, having acquainted myself with the Swedish one from when it was initially released on vinyl back then. Although this may also have had something to do with them aschewing the running order of the tracks, if not necessarily for the sake of the lyrics.

[spacefreak]

To my ears "A Celebration for the Death of Man" has only a very remote resemblance to T2. It sounds -to my ears- very DEATH IN JUNE-ish. Kinda reminds me of Fall Apart from "The Wall Of Sacrifice" (1989).

Additionally I consider AGALLOCH a post-black metal band. With some neo/apocalyptic folk influences in their earlier works. You know, these kind of bands that draw more influences from the post-rock, shoegaze and gothic styles than from the classic black metal sound (FEN, ALCEST, new DRUDKH, MORNINGSIDE etc.). Cannot find the doom metal element in them.