WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM -

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM - DIADEM OF 12 STARS - VENDLUS  
As you can imagine from the band’s name and the album’s title this Washington-based band is not about taking the easy route. On the surface, the band is a plain chocolate black metal band with four songs, with titles like Queen Of The Borrowed light and Face In A Night Time Mirror, on this 60-minute disc, but repeated listen moves one away from simple Darkthrone or Burzum comparisons. The production has a thing or two to do with the whole affair coming across as rather flat and bare when, in fact, there is a lot of complexity and layering below the surface. The screams, the backing vocals, the tempo changes and, of course, the aggression, are veiled by technology. Female vocals exist, but are not used to weaken the heaviness or assuage commercial hounds. It sounds like Mayhem’s Mysteriis Dom Sathanas were it damned, gone to hell and come back to tell the tale. - Ali “The Metallian”

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM - TWO HUNTERS - SOUTHERN LORD  
Here is an irony for you. Wolves In The Throne Room members claim to live semi-independently in the splendid isolation of nature in Washington and to be opposed to modernism and technology. Exemplifying the contradiction that is the root of much of what maligns this world the band has chosen to pick up instrumentation, recording gear and enter a studio in order to embed its music on a technological marvel. There is no compromising with the system. For one to win the paradigm has to change not tweaked with or compromised with. Wolves In The Throne Room is being hypocritical of course.
Moreover, the claim that "black metal...frees us from the bondage of rationality..." is again questionable. No matter what legions of Dimmu Borgir groupies might claim due to basic ignorance and stupidity black metal is the genre that takes one away from religion, promotes the worship of Satan and despises Christ and his counterparts. That sounds rational and scientific. Even if it does not for some, the music concocted to promote hellfire and brimstone can hardly be construed as appreciative of the harmonious nature.
Wolves In The Throne Room is no different from the many releases of the past few years given its longer tracks, inclusion of female vocals and black and white aesthetics. Southern Lord itself seems to have a department dedicated to just such releases. Having said that, the band is impressive in its musical delivery. Not in terms of convention, technicality or superlatives, but rather how it delivers music that maintains continuity, interest and appeal in its duration. The album starts with an intro akin to the soundtrack to Eyes Wide Shut, but save the female vocals of guest member Jessica Kinney, this is distorted belligerence as atmospheric as the boreal forest. The band's music is hardly puritan black metal, yet is far superior to the group's statements or logic. - Ali "The Metallian"

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM - MALEVOLENT GRAIN - SOUTHERN LORD  
Lots of buzz on this Pacific Northwest band, as Wolves In The Throne Room is adept at creating black metal that is both purist-ready and hipster approved. Issued as a vinyl only release, Malevolent Grain is a record that sees Wolves In The Throne Room fully explore its post-punk influence, the group fully immersed in spheres occupied previously by The Cure circa its early '80s black-on-black phase. That said, Wolves In The Throne Room does interesting things in its own right, forging ahead in infuriated tones all the while exploring the boundaries of black metal and how far those perimeters can be stretched, a phenomenon that is yielding explosive results for those immersed in the process (i.e. several other high-profile American black metal bands). Malevolent Grain is the sound of a band slowly reaching towards its peak - when Wolves In The Throne Room gets there, we’ll all be damned. - James Tape

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM - BLACK CASCADE - SOUTHERN LORD  
It’s fitting that Black Cascade begins with the sound of rain as opposed to the usual Scandinavian snow/ice wind-storm: a rural farm in the American Pacific Northwest is where Wolves In The Throne Room resides, and that area’s ecological effect has always been at the heart of this band, both thematically and aesthetically. On Black Cascade Wolves In The Throne Room has taken the foundation laid by its wildly expansionist Two Hunters and pushed it even further, the band still merging its penchant for post-punk and shoegaze moments amidst its pure black metal but now sounding like a collective that has done this before and is going to one-up itself, thank you very much. Wolves In The Throne Room has never been known for its brevity and here the group stays between the 11 and 14 minute mark for its songs and, as usual, the material doesn’t suffer any sort of lag nor does it become tedious. Instead, there really is a sense of being swarmed by the thick fog of the group’s native Washington state as the majestic guitar swells do their work alongside the cold chord patterns of the Norwegian variety. The production here is to be commended as well, the record sounding gloriously old school as a result of the band’s decision to record on 2-inch tape a mixed on an early '70s console. Now, if only the Pitchfork/Vice-reading hipsters would go away and stop pretending to like this band (as well as Nachtmystium, Boris and Mastodon), those annoyances flooding recent black metal shows and generally causing a surreal sense of who-the-fuck-are-these-hipster-douchebags-and-why-the-fuck-are-they-here? while the band is on stage raging. - James Tape

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM - BLACK CASCADE - SOUTHERN LORD  
Wolves In The Throne Room is gradually becoming both prolific and Southern Lord Recording’s main band. These are not bad things given the album’s music and the group’s penchant for independence of thought. Black Cascade features the duration of a full-length album, but only four tracks with Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog, Ahrimanic Trance, Ex Cathedra and Crystal Ammunition. As abstract and ominous as the titles are it is the music that rises to the occasion and fulfils part the black metal spheric orbit of the group and the biography-mentioned “Pacific North West” vibe. The simulated rain is dubbed amidst a rumbling of pounding chords versus acoustic and atmospheric ambience. No matter which, the trio is passionate and exudes it. With the variation in tone comes a certain degree of adulteration, but the key to this band, the fervour, the care, the steadfastness, comes through nevertheless and does so consistently. As simple as the chords and notes are it is the arrangement that proclaims the band’s dedication and ultimately meaning.
Even with the abundance of instrumental passages foregoing the harsh vocalizations Black Cascade is obviously too extreme for the average Joe. Nonetheless, in terms of ambience or tonality there is hardly much out there with equal amount of passion. The more listens the better and more of the same please! - Ali “The Metallian”