FROM WHICH OF THIS OAK

"From Which of This Oak" is a demo release by US post black metal/ doom metal act Agalloch.

On this demo Agalloch plays some doomy dark metal. The vocals are very harsh as raspy. There are some clean singing on the demo too, but those vocal parts are hidden in layers of chorus and reverb. There are also some female singing which adds to the diversity of the demo.

It´s obvious that the band have some great melodic ideas and the songs are often led by melodic lead guitar themes. Out of the 4 tracks on the demo, one track is an atmospheric mostly instrumental track ("Foliorum Viridum"), while the remaining 3 tracks are much longer blackened doom metal tracks.

Considering that "From Which of This Oak" is a demo the sound quality is pretty good, but not of a professional standard. As far as demos go it´s always interesting to hear where it all started for an artist that have achived quite a lot of artistic success since then. A 2.5 - 3 star rating is warranted.