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Mammal is a perfect title. The album (Profound Lore/Candlelight, 2011) is warm-blooded, a deceptive predator. The more you listen, the more you realize that it doesn’t seek to render you numb, but rather to make you feel. It’s moving because it speaks to what makes us human.
There’s something daunting about albums with four songs. I remember when the longest songs in my collection were “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Warning”. In less than a year, several of the best metal albums (Grayceon and Salome) have songs that flirt with the 20-minute mark . I approach such length with the question: is this time earned? On Mammal, it is.
Altar of Plagues is frequently compared to Wolves in the Throne Room. There’s a palpable difference. Wolves compress every possible note into songs. It’s like running through a dense forest with brambles hitting your face. Mammal offers an opening in that forest. Altar of Plagues plays with space and depth, alternating between blastbeats, screams, and emotive sections on “Neptune Is Dead”. On “Feather and Bone”, simple riffs and staccato cymbals trade off with a Phil Spector-worthy wall of sound. “When the Sun Drowns in the Ocean” features the Irish vocal lament known called “keening”, traditionally associated with funerals and mourning.
Parts of Mammal remind me of the Washington, D.C. hardcore band Rites of Spring. There are differences: Rites wrote two-minute songs and are credited with creating the much-derided emo genre. Altar of Plagues plays with lush soundscapes, as if in ’60s Haight-Ashbury. But both bands have a vulnerability missing in so much modern music. They don’t deny the world but seek a way to live in it.
Many rewards await those willing to spend time with Mammal. Listening to it is like walking down an empty street with a friend after a blizzard. It looks like the end of the world, but there is an anchor.
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HEAR MAMMAL
- Full album stream -
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BUY MAMMAL
Amazon (CD)
Amazon (2LP)
Amazon (MP3)
Profound Lore (CD)
Plastichead UK (CD)
Plastichead UK( 2LP)
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I’ve tried to get into Altar of Plagues. I want to like them, but I can’t find enough to latch onto in the music. It’s too remote, too staid, not viscerally or emotionally engaging enough to interest me. I don’t hear anything fresh or personal or challenging in their songs.
Then again, I found that Grayceon album to be overlong and underbaked and tediously self-indulgent, so personal tastes are obviously a factor.
A very well written piece. Exactly my emotions and thoughts from listening to this album. One of my favorites of this year for sure.
Nice review. Loved this album, possibly more than White Tomb. I think Cosmo described it as Isis gone Black Metal, or something like that. I don’t think he meant it as a compliment, but for me, it’s a great pairing. Really dig these guys.
Thats a good review. I like what I hear so far.
Fantastic record. So good…
I can’t really get into this either. I want to, but I can’t. It’s like WITTR before their newest album, I couldn’t really make much out, at least as far as guitars go. It just sounds like one persistant noise to me that has very little variation if any. Maybe time will help me with this release.
i like this album and their last, i’m not head over heels into them and in awe but they are good albums. i did not expect to read about rites of spring in a mammal review so that was kinda cool, i should listen to them again sometime it’s been years.
(you mention that salome album, i feel that was an album that actually could have been really good had most of the songs not been so long.)
Loved it. Length does not matter when the idea and execution keeps you gripped throughout.
Cosmo, i must say i’m hooked on to invisibleoranges. Your posts go beyond most of the tripe that pass of as reviews or as an analysis of what makes a certain music work. Full power to you.
Oops. Just realized this was a Norton post. What i said about the site holds true for all its contributors.
One of the Best albums that came out this year so far… “Feather and Bone” intro is fucking EPIC!!
Got my white, 180g vinyl in the mail a few weeks ago. Not only do I love this album, but it will be near-impossible for it to get knocked out of the Top 5 section of my end of year best-of list.
I can see this being an album which will divide people, but repetition, drone and minimalism incorporated into any style of music always wins me over.
Amazing album
Nice to learn something about the “keening” section. On first listen it felt almost middle eastern, and struck me as an odd but interesting choice. That third track, the experimental one, might be my favorite.
A friend and I made the argument that Altar of Plagues has incredible bookends to their records: the first and last songs are always intense, beautiful, well worth their length, etc. The problem is the middle tracks. I haven’t played the middle parts of this record more than twice I think. Maybe I should. Good review.
This album means so much to me for personal reasons, and is an absolute musical triumph as well. Having heard it grow from rough demos and drum tracks into its final, gorgeously complete form has been an amazing experience, and I couldn’t be prouder of the lads.
Fucking love this album.