Agalloch’s The Serpent & The Sphere wasn’t the Agalloch album I was expecting. I didn’t really know what to expect after the unbridled tour de force of Marrow Of The Spirit and the consuming and long-winded-in-a-great-way saga that was Faustian Echoes … but it wasn’t this. From song structure to the mix, The Serpent & The Sphere is for the most part incredibly functional and poised, but still gorgeous. It’s clean. Whereas Marrow was an excursion into raw, dark beauty — think about the insane blasting of “Into The Painted Grey” that started the album off like a tornado — Serpent has slightly different aims. Even on tracks that creep toward ten minutes in length, everything feels so carefully planned, confident, and cleanly executed — precise, a comparative economy of riffs spotlighted by the clear production from Billy Anderson. Another thing to note: The average song length on Serpent is shorter than any other Agalloch full-length, considerably shorter than Marrow, and closer to the song lengths on Pale Folklore. I don’t mean for any of this to sound like I didn’t absolutely love The Serpent & The Sphere. I do. I just feel like we saw a different side of Agalloch on this record, one that is as emotionally powerful and incredible as ever, but refined and with a greater focus on efficiency.

It may be refined, but The Serpent & The Sphere is gargantuan. While Agalloch have long drawn inspiration from nature, The Serpent & The Sphere is cosmic in scope, reaching into cold depths of space to call upon a different kind of natural beauty. I couldn’t name a favorite track; the strutting “Vales Beyond Dimension” sometimes seems to be the one, but then I love “Celestial Effigy,” too, which, to me, vaguely recalls another Agalloch classic, “Hallways Of Enchanted Ebony.” Don Anderson’s sweeping guitars are as powerful as ever, hitting those tones that run through Agalloch’s catalogue like arteries. When Agalloch played here in NYC back in August, they closed with “Plateau Of The Ages,” the album’s penultimate track, a hammering monolith of a song that is emotionally — and for the band, physically — exhausting, a 12-minute builder that ends with a glorious, banged-out crescendo. It was stunning. That finale is a moment of transcendence, and hearing it on the album makes you feel like Agalloch have outdone themselves this time around. But I’m sure they haven’t, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store. –Wyatt [LISTEN]