Wolves In The Throne Room hail from Olympia Washington and they rip.
First of all they have one of the coolest band names i've heard for a while, especially for a black/doom metal band. I'm sure these guys don't like to be labeled but for the sake of simplicity there it is. I'm not a huge fan of black metal, particularly American black metal. Most of what i've heard is way too raw and slow and repetative for my tastes. I know black metal is supposed to be grim with raw recordings to emphazise the "cold hatred" or whatever. This record on the other hand does have a somewhat raw recording but just raw enough to make it perfect. I do believe that black metal doom and grind should have a certain ammount of distortion to help create the atmosphere and boy does this ever have atmosphere.
Plenty of blast beats and quick picking with slow raging screams. The vocals fit perfectly along with the somber music with female sung vocals used throughout the record. I'm also not a fan of dramatic female vocals in black metal, but this works very well with the album. It doesn't overshadow or overdramatize whats going, just emphsizes it. There are no keyboards to add to the organic feel of the album. There are beautiful melodies within each track as well as almost thrash passages creating an eb and flow of beauty and power. Each track clocks in at least 13 min. but they don't seem long. Each song feels like an album in itself with plenty of tempo and emotional changes. This is one solid record that captures the beauty and savagry of black metal perfectly. I know everything i've described sounds like any other atmospheric black metal and in a way you would be right. But these guys have so much respect for themselves and their audience that they don't allow themselves to do it in a mundane way, rather to try to elevate the genre to a level that few reach. In fact i feel that this album would appeal to a broad metal audience, not just people already into black metal. If only more American bands were trying to be as good as this instead of being "grim" and "kvlt." Buy this.
Overall 9/10
http://www.myspace.com/wolvesinthethroneroom
First of all they have one of the coolest band names i've heard for a while, especially for a black/doom metal band. I'm sure these guys don't like to be labeled but for the sake of simplicity there it is. I'm not a huge fan of black metal, particularly American black metal. Most of what i've heard is way too raw and slow and repetative for my tastes. I know black metal is supposed to be grim with raw recordings to emphazise the "cold hatred" or whatever. This record on the other hand does have a somewhat raw recording but just raw enough to make it perfect. I do believe that black metal doom and grind should have a certain ammount of distortion to help create the atmosphere and boy does this ever have atmosphere.
Plenty of blast beats and quick picking with slow raging screams. The vocals fit perfectly along with the somber music with female sung vocals used throughout the record. I'm also not a fan of dramatic female vocals in black metal, but this works very well with the album. It doesn't overshadow or overdramatize whats going, just emphsizes it. There are no keyboards to add to the organic feel of the album. There are beautiful melodies within each track as well as almost thrash passages creating an eb and flow of beauty and power. Each track clocks in at least 13 min. but they don't seem long. Each song feels like an album in itself with plenty of tempo and emotional changes. This is one solid record that captures the beauty and savagry of black metal perfectly. I know everything i've described sounds like any other atmospheric black metal and in a way you would be right. But these guys have so much respect for themselves and their audience that they don't allow themselves to do it in a mundane way, rather to try to elevate the genre to a level that few reach. In fact i feel that this album would appeal to a broad metal audience, not just people already into black metal. If only more American bands were trying to be as good as this instead of being "grim" and "kvlt." Buy this.
Overall 9/10
http://www.myspace.com/wolvesinthethroneroom
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