Agalloch - The Serpent & The Sphere

Got my copy in the mail earlier today and have given it a spin, in addition to the listens I've already given to the online stream, in the car as I was out on a drive tonight. Gotta say that I'm really impressed with the album. It's just a solid album with good songwriting. It may not be another envelope-pushing album from Agalloch, but it is them showing that they are masters at what they do, crafting dynamic and engulfing music.

That Insomnium fanboy again...

Written by God Alone on 13.05.2014 at 11:36

That Insomnium fanboy again...

It's getting ridiculous.

Written by X-Ray Rod on 29.04.2014 at 08:36
But I really like this one. I'm thankful my cd copy has the second one on front.

Yeah I love this one too, I always loved to have a t-shirt with this on it.

Written by God Alone on 13.05.2014 at 11:36

That Insomnium fanboy again...

He's not even discreet about his vote abuse.

Insomnium fanboy dealt with. Votes nuked, perms revoked.

Go Agalloch. Have a nice day.

Damn, now that's justice....nice review

Hm this is probably their worst album

Written by Troy Killjoy on 13.05.2014 at 17:14

Insomnium fanboy dealt with. Votes nuked, perms revoked.

Go Agalloch. Have a nice day.

Now take care of this vote abuser, who's trying to disguise his vote abuse by not handing out 1's yet still handing out a ridiculous amount of 10's.

Written by Hex_Omega on 13.05.2014 at 21:57

Hm this is probably their worst album

Possibly so... I know I've said I still prefer this one to MotS, but at least that one has an awesome creepy, cold atmosphere going on. This one lacks in atmosphere, and it lacks clean vocals, which are my main two issues with it.

I just downgraded it to an 8. I simply don't feel like it's worthy of a 9, because it honestly disappointed me quite a bit.

Written by Erik M. on 14.05.2014 at 01:28



Now take care of this vote abuser, who's trying to disguise his vote abuse by not handing out 1's yet still handing out a ridiculous amount of 10's.

Doesn't look nuke-worthy to me. Troy may disagree though.

Written by [user id=4365] on 14.05.2014 at 01:32

Doesn't look nuke-worthy to me. Troy may disagree though.

Why not? Simply because he's not handing out 1's? He still handed out a shitload of 10's and quite a few very low scores as well (anything below a 5 is "very low" in my opinion). I mean, check out his low ratings and you'll see ALL of them are given to 2014 albums, which is definitely suspicious and to me it seems like vote abuse for sure.

Written by [user id=4365] on 14.05.2014 at 01:32
Doesn't look nuke-worthy to me. Troy may disagree though.

Nah, you're right. Nowhere near bad enough to nuke. If we're going to request user votes to be deleted in an album thread, at least make it worthwhile/relevant.

Written by Erik M. on 14.05.2014 at 01:36


Why not? Simply because he's not handing out 1's? He still handed out a shitload of 10's and quite a few very low scores as well (anything below a 5 is "very low" in my opinion). I mean, check out his low ratings and you'll see most of them are given to 2014 albums, which is definitely suspicious and to me it seems like vote abuse for sure.

Seems suspicious but I've seen worse, and on the whole his votes are balanced on other years.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 14.05.2014 at 01:37

Nah, you're right. Nowhere near bad enough to nuke. If we're going to request user votes to be deleted in an album thread, at least make it worthwhile/relevant.

Well it's your call at the end of the day, but I think nuking stuff like that would open the door for nuking a considerable amount of other spurious-but-not-clearly-abuse votes, which might be a bit overzealous.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 14.05.2014 at 01:37

Nah, you're right. Nowhere near bad enough to nuke. If we're going to request user votes to be deleted in an album thread, at least make it worthwhile/relevant.

So the fact that literally ALL of his low ratings (4 and lower) are handed out in 2014 and not any other year, doesn't seem like vote abuse?

Written by [user id=4365] on 14.05.2014 at 01:38

Seems suspicious but I've seen worse, and on the whole his votes are balanced on other years.

Every other year than 2014 his votes are balanced. The fact still remains that he handed out all the low votes in 2014 and not even in ONE other year. To me that's obvious vote abuse. If he had given 3's and 4's every single year, you would've been right, but now you aren't.

Written by Erik M. on 14.05.2014 at 01:42

To me that's obvious vote abuse.

Well thank God you aren't a mod then

Written by [user id=4365] on 14.05.2014 at 01:43

Well thank God you aren't a mod then

If those 3's and 4's were 1's you'd agree that it's vote abuse. You're falling for his trick in disguising himself as a vote abuser. It is vote abuse (fact), just not extreme enough for you to consider it as such, apparently.

Written by Erik M. on 14.05.2014 at 01:47

It is vote abuse (fact)

Prove it then. Prove that it's vote abuse and not a case of the user just happening to not like those albums.

Erik for fuck sake get a life.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 14.05.2014 at 01:50

Erik for fuck sake get a life.

I have a feeling Erik sees votes in his sleep, instead of sheep.

What Joe said. Case closed. Let's talk about the actual album now please. If you have any questions or issues about how we decide which votes to delete, feel free to send me a PM.

EDIT: Erik, I will continue to delete all of your subsequent off-topic vote abuse comments. Give it a rest. Take it to private messages if necessary.

I have given it a rest, because I've already proven that I'm right.

Anyway, after 7 spins I'm not really feeling it, hence why I downgraded it. I feel it's on par with MotS, so 8-8.5 material (R'Vannith's review score is very accurate in my opinion) and therefore a lot worse than their other 3 albums.

OOOOOooooooo it's at the top of the year chart!

Let the downvoting battle of the fanboys begin!

It's all subjective, of course, but I really don't feel like this deserves to be number 1, it was just pretty standard as far as I could tell. I applaud them for always releasing slightly different sounding albums but somewhere in evolving that sound they seem to have lost a lot of the dark, folky atmosphere that was present in the previous releases.

Nice album.

Though i kept waiting for another song like Fire Above, Ice Below or Our Fortress is Burning... No song of the album actually made me feel. technically, instrumentally good, but just not enough emotion in there.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 14.05.2014 at 01:50

Erik for fuck sake get a life.

This made me laugh way too much.
After way too many listens this album is still holding up to my absurdly high rating and love of it. 2014 is an awesome year so far

Uptill 2011 I think the top 20 albums were usually between 8.9 and 8.5 approx.

After that it's between 8.5 and 8.2 approx. Either the music has really lost it's touch, or too many people are downvoting bands and spoiling all the stats.

PS. I hate admins who threaten to delete comments or block people when they've got a point

Written by The Melting Snow on 14.05.2014 at 21:57
Either the music has really lost it's touch, or too many people are downvoting bands and spoiling all the stats.

PS. I hate admins who threaten to delete comments or block people when they've got a point

In all honest it's probably a combination of the two.

PS. I hate users who continuously go off-topic about vote abuse when warned not to, especially after the user has been told their opinions are more than welcome in the form of a private message.