Sometimes it seems that Wolves In The Throne Room can’t do right for doing wrong to the Kvlter Than Thou crowd and this release, as it dares to be recorded at the BBC at their Maida Vale studio probably won’t help. So yeah, they are never going to be trve for them. For the rest of us? We’ll for me it’s not WITTR’s fault that a bunch of hipsters and Guardian readers began to turn up at their gigs (never harmed SunO))) ), they have little to no post-rock phrasing in their sounds and they don’t even have an official Facebook page (community page, fan page, auto generated page yes; official no)! More importantly their music, the stuff we should care about, continues to be thoughtful, emotional, searing, aggressive black metal with reclaim the earth lyrical concerns that would do any forest haunting Norwegians proud. And this is a vinyl release.
This recording is no different: Total physical and spiritual commitment to their music. It has that live feel to the drums and the vocals, though beautifully captured, and so an extra thread of energy runs through even from the versions of these two tracks on Celestial Lineage. This should also be a very good way of finding your way into thus complex, introverted music as at two tracks and twenty odd minutes it is not as daunting as an album but gives you a full and perfect taste for what they are all about.
‘Prayer Of Transformation’ is a slow, dark, brooding space; their trademark majestic, black cascade of riffs crashing waterfall like and with a touch of that eerie treble melody over the top which have the finest black metal credentials. Here it is soul wrenching, calming into the utterly wild blast section and out into the period but far reaching atmosphere the other side. A combination of the best of raw and atmospheric black metal, cold and untamed as a winter’s hillside. ‘Thuja Magus Imperium’ begins more quietly before almost drifting into a bass heavy rumble and snarl. The vocals as ever are harsh, snarled sounds that are like the teeth in the storm; violent, unapologetic and the heart of their sound. If ever the sound of The Wild Hunt was committed to music only early Emperor has as good a claim. In fact if you’ve never heard the band, find the space between ‘In The Nightside Eclipse ‘ and ‘Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk’, remove the keyboards and head of at a strange and solitary tangent and you may find yourself here.
Yes it is an oddly timed release (filler because they have no new album? Page marker that they are still a going concern? I have no idea) but it is a worthy one and unexpectedly, as I say, possibly the perfect way to finally give them a listen if you never have. Put your preconceptions aside and give them a go. And if you already like them, then yes a worthy purchase for you too.
(8/10 Gizmo)
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