Pillorian is the side project of John Haughm of Agalloch fame. Agalloch while they were together were one of my favorite metal bands out there, blending Black Metal, Folk metal, Doom Metal and plenty of other genres. Sadly as you probably know, Agalloch have since broken up. This is his first real released with his new band Pillorian, we're just gonna dive right in!
The album starts off with “By The Light Of A Black Sun”, which really doesn’t waste a single second bringing in a thick atmosphere. To be honest, most of the elements that made Agalloch such a force to be reckoned with are here on display. There’s a little folk metal element in that intro, later on there’s some slight progressive rock influence, and the thunderous atmosphere that follows is absolutely tremendous. The drums are intense, the main riff is solid too. The atmosphere could have been a little darker for my liking, but to honest the biggest element here is just how great John Haughm sounds. As far as his performance goes, he doesn’t miss a single beat. I love all of the muscular breakdowns on display here and the winding feel all of this has. Listening to this track honestly reminds me of every I truly love about black metal. When I hear tracks like “By The Light Of A Black Sun” I can’t help getting swept up these gigantic atmosphere’s and imagining riding into some great battle full speed. To be honest this is a little slow for black metal standards, but it makes up for that with raw power. Even the much more atmospheric last 3 minutes of so go over really well, and bring in that hulking feeling that was missing for the first few minutes. So overall, hell yes this is a great start to the album. That last 40 second blast of every is pretty insane. Some of John Haughm’s vocals get a little cheesy and less harsh towards the end, but when it comes to Metal you have to be willing to look over some cheesiness sometimes. “Archaen Divinity” is up next with another fairly slow intro. There’s a little doom metal thrown in this one which has showed up in Haughm’s earlier projects, so it’s not too shocking. But it certainly brings up an issue that I had with Agalloch so many years ago. One too many times, I felt like Agalloch just tried to bring in one too many sounds into their music, and that’s what quickly is happening here with Pillorian. We’re only on the second track here and they’re already drifting away from the black metal sound that they started off with pretty well. As the track rolls on Pillorian bring in some thrash metal sounds that they pull off OK, but this one continues to seriously fall flat. The riffs continue to be ok, but John quickly sounds like he’s running out of steam. His vocals just end up sounding passable over some of the smoother riffs. For me, I like my Black Metal to be a little less clean sounding a whole lot more epic. “Archaen Divinity” is neither of those. Also, while I did say earlier that sometimes in metal you have to be more inviting to some of the cheesier elements, John’s whispered vocals here are just too much even for me. Hell, even when he goes back to his usual tortured screams they don’t come off nearly as interesting. More than anything, they make this track goofy. After the explosive intro this album had, I can’t shake the feeling that Pillorian are taking it easy on us. “The Vestige Of Thorns” at the very least shows some promise from its intro. No, it’s not THAT intense or anything, but man some of these riffs are raw power. Here, Pillorian are showing off their doom metal chops and it’s coming off great, and it’s really bringing the atmosphere back in. On top of that, the acoustic guitar plucking away in the background brings in that folk metal element that I’ve been dying to hear. Overall, “The Vestige Of Thorns” is a great sound for Pillorian. Haughm’s vocals are right back to where they should be, and he sounds fantastic. You see, Pillorian certainly have a good sound and solid ideas, but they really need to stick with them and try not to be too overly ambitious with their sound. The drums are thunderous, the chords are HUGE, and Haughm as the track goes on sounds like an absolute monster. Tracks like this here are structured so fantastic, as “The Vestige Of Thorns” has a few different passages but they all come off pretty solid. Not to mention the imagery here is fantastic, of course it’s a little over the top but man is it every fantastic. But Pillorian quickly throw all of that away with “Forged Iron Crucible”. To be honest, this intro really doesn't fit with them at all, it doesn’t even sound like the same band. Hell, I feel like I just tuned into some nu metal record. The atmosphere here is weak, and the instrumentals while they’re certainly heavy are lifeless. Even when things here speed up and more thrash elements roll in nothing sticks. While there certainly has been some good tracks here, this album is inconstant as anything. Every time I feel like it’s really getting going, it stops dead in its tracks. Haughm’s vocals on “Forged Iron Crucible” are the only thing that’s seriously pure. Everything else about this track is honestly one big let down. I feel like here most of the atmosphere sounds seriously forced between the obnoxious chanting (which usually works wonders) and the roomy riffs. Once again, Pillorian have great ideas, but have some serious issues with capitalizing on them. Not to mention, I have no clue why the outro on this one needed to be over a minute long.
“A Stygian Pyre” is up next, and from this intro alone I already have mixed feelings. While I love the opening vocals, I feel like instrumentally Pillorian are getting further and further away from where they should be. They continue to be a black metal project at heart, but they also continue to bring in way too much of everything else. The bizarre thing is though, that’s what always worked for Agalloch. Here, it just seems like Pillorian take on all of these extra elements and eventually it just overwhelms them until these tracks literally get messy right underneath their feet. At the very least on “A Stygian Pyre”, the vocals continue to be very solid. But everything else is just a complete wash for me. There’s tons of potential here, but none of it is taken advantage of. However, I do have to say some of the ending guitar solos are pretty epic, but even that is cut short by a VERY awkward ending. Strangely enough, “The Sentient Arcanum”, the three minute interlude that follows, is actually seriously impressive. While it’s by far the shortest track here, instantly this track works so well as far as an atmosphere goes. This one is just twisted, but those strings in the background make this truly unsettling. Overally, this track is DENSE, in the best way possible. “The Sentient Arcanum” is just fantastic proof that when Pillorian really take their time with these instrumentals, they can make something very memorable. Which leads us to the finale here, “Dark Is The River Of Man”. The intro here is seriously massive. Nothing here is too immediate, but the atmosphere here works so well with their sound. This is by far the most abysmal and truly dark sounding track here, but it’s also gigantic and epic. The distant guitar licks actually work fantastically, even though they’re far from what I expected. Everything about “Dark Is The River Of Man” is so distant sounding, and when that main riff finally comes down the rest of the instrumentals work wonderfully with it. The vocals on this track might just be the most pleasant surprise of the album. John Haughm’s vocals here is basically just straightforward singing, compared to his usual screams, but wishing this atmosphere is all comes off mesmerizing. The sound on “Dark Is The River Of Man” is THE sound I want to hear from Pillorian in the future. They prove here that they can take numerous influences that are outside of their comfort zone and make them into something special, it’s just all about structure.
Rating: 6.7/10
Give A Listen To: “By The Light Of A Black Sun”, “The Vestige Of Thorns” “Dark Is The River Of Man”
Overall Thoughts: Ok so it's not like Pillorian don't have great ideas, trust me they do. There are tons of great Black Metal moments on here that will give you the chills. But it's all the other stuff they feel the need to pile up on top that makes matters really messy for Pillorian. They don't take nearly enough time with the great sound that they DO have, and continue to branch out into other genres. Which is fine, John Haughm did it for years in Agalloch. But the structure of these tracks is all over the place and often messy. Pillorian have TONS of potential, but this was a rocky start.
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