Agolloch is an avant-garde black metal band from Portland, Oregon, that utilizes elements of everything from folk music to shoegaze to prog rock. The band has been active since 1995, but has only released five full-length albums preferring to focus on quality, not quantity. Unlike many black metal bands that find their formula early on and stick with it, Agolloch is constantly experimenting and growing their sound. This has resulted in each of their albums bringing new and exciting surprises.

The band’s most recent offering, The Serpent and the Sphere, was their finest work to date and I’m still kicking myself for forgetting to include it on my Best Metal Albums of 2014 list. It should have had a place in the top 5 of that list and I can’t, for the life of me, imagine why it slipped my mind.

Let me make up for it by giving you a listen to the album’s awesome opening track, “Birth and Death of the Pillars of Creation,” right here below.