Of Stone, Wind and Pillor

Of Stone, Wind and Pillor collects material left off Agalloch's first album, 1999's very impressive Pale Folklore. Its first three songs were previously released in a now hard-to-find 7", and sound quite similar to the depressive ambient folk-metal heard on the band's debut. The remaining two cuts offer more of a departure, and include an awkward-sounding cover of Sol Invictus' "Kneel to the Cross" and a low-key ambient instrumental named "A Poem by Yeats." In some respects, this release might have served as a good introduction, even if in reverse chronological order, to Agalloch's challenging sound, but when heard outside a full album context, these brief snapshots come across as simply too scattered and unfocused.