THE GREY

Since AGALLOCH took three years between their albums 'The Mantle' and 'Ashes Against The Grain,' the band released two short EPs in their stead. The first, 'Tomorrow Will Never Come' in 2003 and the second THE GREY EP in 2004. This one was a released with only 1000 copies and contains a mere two tracks of reinterpreted mixes of two tracks from 'The Mantle.'

'The Lodge (Dismantled)' takes extreme liberties by adapting the 4 minute and 40 second track into a 13 minute and 4 second noisefest. With a basic tripling of time length one would expect more variation but the track is very repetitive and quite uninteresting outside of the original album context. It does however prelude the harsher noise style that would define 'Ashes Against The Grain' with the extremities that end it similar to those that would develop into 'Our Fortress Is Burning' III - The Grain.'

'Odal (Nothing Remix)' is perhaps the greatest deviation from an original song ever. It is literally indecipherable as the track that appeared on 'The Mantle' and is basically a 7 minute and 47 second electronic drone track that starts out with a receptive 'washing machine' groove. It cedes into more of an industrial type of track with a haunting atmospheric organ and some clanging on some sort of metallic objects reminiscent of early Einst'rzende Neubauten. This is the more interesting of the tracks if you like nebulous industrial noise sounds, however it is completely devoid of any of AGALLOCH's signature sounds and doubtful that fans will be interested.

THE GREY EP was technically designed to complete a trilogy that included 'The Mantle' and the the 'Tomorrow Will Never Come EP' however i find the two EPs that follow 'The Mantle' rather pointless as they convey nothing extra to 'The Mantle's' magnificent mix of cross-pollinating musical styles nor does it convey anything lyrical at all. This one is nothing more than a couple of experiments that probably would've been better to release years later as a compilation of weirdness after the band broke up. This is only for hardcore completists.