Irish Black Metal troupe Altar of Plagues had, in debut full-length White Tomb, one of the best albums of 2009.  Pastoral elegance transposed with a vicious harshness to create a truly beautiful experience.  The Tides EP followed, and found the band delving into a darker, moodier area while also largely expanding the ambient quotient of their sound resulting in a well-crafted, if less immediately enjoyable affair.  2011 sees the release of new full-length album Mammal, and finds the band furthering, and improving on the directions explored on Tides while ultimately failing to recapture the grandeur of White Tomb. 

Altar of Plauges exists among a small group of similarly-minded, somewhat stylistically linked bands specializing in sprawling hymns of monumental length.  It's almost become the de facto style for American Black Metal-as- “High Art” Bands like Wolves in the Throne Room, Krallice and style forebears Weakling who all write (or wrote in the case of the latter) marathon length black unorthodox sagas that pass through multitudes of evolutions and themes over the course of their mammoth durations.  To many fans of the style, this is simply how things must be done while others, and admittedly increasingly myself might find such songwriting excess to border on the ponderous and perhaps unnecessary.  Album opener “Neptune is Dead” for instance, clocks in at nearly 19 minutes.  The track features some dynamically impressive atmospheric prowess, and its melancholy is palpable, so perhaps my attention span is degenerating as I age, but I just can’t manage to remain engaged throughout.  “Feather and Bone” showcases the smoother edge to Altar of Plagues sound both in its tone and sections of clean vocals.  The vocals as a whole on Mammal are quite different than on White Tomb, as they’ve moved away from the more traditional black metal rasp towards a more hoarse shouting style similar to Mick Barr of Krallice.

“When the Sun Drowns in the Ocean” is a highly skippable, odd sort of ambient track that while certainly of an artistic nature, doesn’t really rouse, unlike album closer and highlight “All Life Converges to Some Centre”, a very WITTR sounding song that lays the dark, oppressive emotion on pretty damn thick.  A very strong sense of loss permeates the main theme of the track, weighing the psyche down with a blanket weaved of remorse before a shred of tentative hopefulness emerges on the truly beautiful second half of the song.  Fans of this long-form style of black metal song craft will undoubtedly love this release, and it’s a very well-recorded, full and organic sounding album that definitely grew in my opinion over multiple listens.  Unfortunately I don’t see myself revisiting it as often as I do their superior debut.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Neptune is Dead
2.  Feather and Bone
3.  When the Sun Drowns
      in the Ocean
4.  All Life Converges to
     Some Centre

Total playing time:  51:59

Release Date: April 25th, 2011
Label: Candlelight Records

Altar of Plagues - Mammal

Reviewer: J. A. Burt

September 13, 2011