THE DEMONSTRATION ARCHIVE

'The Demonstration Archive' - Agalloch (Compilation)

Now considered one of the premier acts of underground metal in North America and around the world, this compilation shows the band when they were at a more unpolished, rocky stage in their development. Taking some rare and unreleased demo material and compiling it together, 'The Demonstration Archive' is a rough combination of the first 'From Which Of This Oak' demo, the 'Of Stone, Wind & Pillor' EP, and a couple of demos from 'Pale Folklore' to top things off.

The music aside, it seems a bit odd that this compilation wouldn't opt to simply include the entire demo and EP, at the loss of the Pale Folklore demos. The great Sol Invictus cover 'Kneel To The Cross' is not included here for example, and as uncommon as the EP it's played on is, it would certainly have been nice to see it included here. In terms of the actual music itself, there are plenty of flaws to speak of here, but the band shows great chemistry early on. The production and some of the performance sounds amateurish, but the songs here have a very primal sound to them that Agalloch would sacrifice once they moved on to greater things.

Agalloch's 'Demonstration Archive' is meant for fans of the band. There is some great early material here, but one of the legitimate releases might be better for someone who isn't so familiar with the group.

Agalloch, The early years.

The Demonstration Archive is a collection of material from the youngest days of Agalloch from 1996 to 1998. This includes the most of From Which Of This Oak, the first 3/5 of Of Stone, Wind And Pillor and a demo from 1998 containing two early versions of songs from their debut CD Pale Folklore. Right off the bat this seems perfect for fans of the band who are unable to acquire the bands early material as it was first released. And in that sense this is an excellent compilation album. Not surprisingly the material here is rawer, rougher, less polished, and less brilliant than their later works, but there are still some gems to be found.

The main feature here is the two epic pieces The Wilderness and This Old Cabin, both seething with typical Agalloch features in their embryonic stage. The metal factor of Agalloch's music is also on the forefront throughout most of this release, with the folky, ambient bits more or less constrained to the shorter songs. Having said that, This Old Cabin is an excellent song that holds the listener in from the beginning and it is a shame that this song was never included anywhere else other than their first demo. The material from Of Stone, Wind And Pillor isn't bad either, showing a slightly different side of the band, and certainly alluding to the progress they made from their earliest of days. As the reviewer above me I would have loved to have Kneel To The Cross and A Poem By Yeats included on this CD (as they were the two songs left off from Of Stone, Wind, And Pillor). Alas as they say. The album finishes on a bit of an average note with two demo versions of songs fans know from the Pale Folklore album. Both of these songs (as well as As Embers Dress The Sky) do differ from their album counterparts, however I do believe I like the true album versions better.

All in all, this is a fine compilation of some of the rarer Agalloch material. The main downside should be obvious...this is essentially for the most part a collection of demos which means there are plenty of "rough edges" around the music and production. (Having said that the sound quality of the album is surprisingly good for this type of material.) The drums in particular come off as being full of awkward sounding fills and a bit amateurish. However, there is some good stuff covered in the dust of time. For that I'll rate this with 2.5 stars, rounded down being this one really is for the dedicated fans of the band, even though the material itself is closer to three stars.

First of all, this is a five star release for any fan of Agalloch. I can't say that it will be of much interest to anyone else, though, unless you're some sort of demo tape aficionado. Included are their first demo, From Which of This Oak; an unreleased 7-inch better known as an extended EP (more on this later) entitled Of Stone, Wind & Pillor; and their second demo, Promo 1998. These tracks are all taken directly from the master reels and sound about a thousand times better than those crappy cassette rips you pirated five years ago. Really, they sound great.

It's fascinating to hear tracks that we know and love from Pale Folklore ["As Embers Dress the Sky" (FWoTO), "Hallways of Enchanted Ebony" and "The Melancholy Spirit" (both from Promo 1998)] here in their nascent stages. The other tracks from the first demo ("The Wilderness" and "This Old Cabin") demonstrate the earliest roots of Agalloch's sound. The tracks from latter demo exhibit the band as being right at the cusp of the timeless sound found in Pale Folklore. The Of Wind, Stone & Pillor 7-inch represents a link between the two.

And now to clear a couple of things up:

It seems that a lot of people hold it against this album that From Which of This Oak and Of Stone, Wind & Pillor are incomplete; this is untrue. This release is intended to be a compilation of material recorded between 1996 and 1998, as evidenced by the title. The "missing" track from the first demo, "Foliorum Viridium", is still here as part of the Of Stone, Wind & Pillor portion. Having it twice would be superfluous; it is now in what I assume the band sees as its proper place in their discography. This brings us to the next bit: the version of OSW&P here, as explained in the liner notes, is the original 7" EP that never got released. The tracks purportedly missing here (our beloved cover of Sol Invictus's "Kneel to the Cross" and "A Poem by Yeats") were never intended to be a part of the original release and in fact not even recorded until May 2001 and September 2000, respectively, specifically as bonus tracks for the CD edition released in 2001 by The End Records.

... some also seem to think that "Foliorum Viridium" got butchered here and had a good three minutes or so cut from the end of it. this isn't the case. the observant listener will have recognized those same three minutes as being the beginning of "This Old Cabin". blame the gracious soul who provided the aforementioned cassette rip for this error.

good day.