Black metal is a genre of music which is thought off as solely coming from its bleak homeland of Scandinavia, far in the north and cold. Wolves in the Throne Room have set out from Olympia, Washington to disprove this theory and they do it with gusto, whilst also incorporating other elements into their music.
For example, take the opening track Thuja Magus Imperium which has a beautiful melodic opening with some clean singing before kicking into a ferocious attack of Black metal. The two styles of music weave together brilliantly and create a sonic landscape of a bleak winter night.
There are a couple off odd little filler tracks spread throughout this album though, such as Permanent Change in Consciousness and Rainbow Illness which seem to break up the flow and could really have been left off this album as there isn’t much purpose for them to be there sonically and at 1 and a half minutes each, they just seem to be put on to reach the requisite number of songs needed.
The majority of the songs on this album however is absolutely brilliant with tracks such as Woodland Cathedral and Subterranean Initiation creating some amazing sonic landscapes that just drag the listener into the music.
Wolves in the Throne Room are a band that have taken Black Metal rule book that the majority of bands live by and ripped it to shreds and then progressed onto making their own form of Black Metal the way they want to. By doing this they have escaped the usual limitations of the genre and managed to push through and become something more akin to Opeth than Emperor or Immortal. (8/10)
James Merrett
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