As my recent purchases list should blatantly indicate, I've been on an almost ridiculous black metal kick lately, which happens from time to time. Consequently, one of the only new black metal records that I've encountered in that time is "Diadem of 12 Stars", the debut album from Olympia, WA's Wolves in the Throne Room (on Vendlus Records). All I can say is that not only is this my favorite Vendlus release to date, but in my opinion this release easily solidifies this group as one of the absolute finest American black metal acts, without question. This material simply eclipses a lot of what's inexplicably deemed the "best" in "USBM", there's simply no argument.
The core membership of Wolves in the Throne Room is a trio using only guitars, drums, and vocals, but they really layer their instruments together well so that the material comes across as spacious while still feeling a bit "larger" than it is. The absence of bass really doesn't present a problem at all. Included are but three long compositions (one of which is a two-parter) running from 13—20+ minutes within the total of an hour and traveling well beyond the genre's typical boundaries. They do build upon a foundation of the raw attack and speed expected of the traditional black metal aesthetic, but they also blend in powerful melodies akin to Ulver circa "Bergtatt", or, subsequently, Agalloch's channeling of said Ulver era during the "Pale Folklore" days. And in addition to the sneering screams and snarls, there are also occasional appearances of excellent female singing; not to mention numerous tempo changes that delve into doomier slow to midpaced riffing, expanding an already wide dynamic range that includes some nice acoustic breathers and whatnot as well.
I'm also thrilled to point out another extremely respectable facet of Wolves in the Throne Room's being: No corpsepaint, no stupid pseudonyms, and no satanic bullshit. Finally! Unfortunately, no lyrics are included within the attractively designed CD booklet (just some peculiar photographs), but the band does have a lot of truly interesting things to say. In fact, I would highly suggest reading some interviews with Wolves in the Throne Room, as an intriguing interview and such curious remarks as this excerpt from their "artist statement" are what initially drew me to their music:
Our music is perhaps what happens after the initial, necessary, hateful burst; after the psychic explosion that is black metal wipes away that which came before: the sick and twisted truths of our modern condition. For in black metal, we see great truth, transcendence and power. Black metal is the cleansing fire that frees us from the bondage of rationality, science, morality, religion, leaving us free to choose our own path.
Wolves in the Throne Room "Queen of the Borrowed Light" (excerpt)
Excellent, excellent work. Absolutely recommended, and I can't wait to hear more from this outstanding outfit. I ordered this straight from the label last week and had the CD in my hands less than 48 hours later, which is almost unheard of, so I encourage you to pick up a copy directly from the source as well:
Comments
Not there’s really much competition IMO, but Wolves are easily the best local band here in Oly. It’s pretty awesome that I get to see them play semi-regularly.
8.21.2006 | By Avi
Wow! That’s really good stuff; I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up! Thanks
8.21.2006 | By godless parasite
Dear person of this site,
No offense on this one or anything because the truth to matter I really appreicate this site. But I have to admit that I am not always against downloading music and would like to sharpen up my debate. I have noticed that on this site you buy cds and then you buy more cds. If my calculations are correct you could pay a middle class working persons with your cd fund (like I said no offense or anything just an observation) My question being since you are so anti-downloading is: what is someone that loves this music and it is truly apart of their day to life but actually can not afford to buy new cds supposed to do? Just not listen to music ever? Be damned to listen to radio? Thats a worse fate then that dude getting his sins read to him for eternity in A Scanner Darkly. Dont you think that the bands would understand if you downloaded their music becuase you really actually liked it but could not afford it? I am just curious becuase there are def people out there that actually can not afford to buy music and work 50-60 hours a week. I look forward to your answer. And once again this is not a challenge I am just looking for some reason and I respect your musical views and would like to hear what you have to say.
8.21.2006 | By Anonymous
Anonymous,
I’m not the owner of this site but allow me to say something. I completely see your point and if you can’t afford cds, then fine. The problem I believe the webmaster sees are people that:
1)can afford cds, but still only download
2)don’t support the artist in any form whatsoever (no buying merch, posting on boards, street team, concert, whatever) and only download
3)have a lack of respect or care for the artists and the work involved. These are generally the people that are casual music listeners and have amassed a giant music collection ONLY because it is so easily available, NOT because of a passion for the art.
If you don’t fall into the above category, chances are you have a true passion for the music you listen to - something sorely missing in the downloading age. As a person who downloads and buys a lot of music each week, I can understand why some people download their music. Maybe it’s more the collector in me, but I can’t imagine being the guy that doesn’t schedule every Tuesday at the local music shop to see what’s new. I’m curious what Andrew Aversion has to say about this.
8.21.2006 | By Eric
no corpsepaint, bandoleers, and cranberry juice for blood?! that can’t be. i’m liking these guys already!
8.22.2006 | By chris
Anonymous-
Your calculations must be incorrect because I can certainly assure you that my “CD fund” would not even be enough to pay a lower class working person, ha, ha.
But anyway, I know what you mean, and I don’t really have a problem with people downloading music under certain circumstances. There are always exceptions. Like you, I know that there are honest music fans out there who do what they have to do to get by in this world and literally cannot afford to buy a lot of the music that enjoy listening to, and if those people were to download albums as a last resort, I would understand that and don’t really have a problem with it. I, too, would hope that bands and labels would empathize with those circumstances. I also don’t have a problem with people downloading rare, out of print releases. I do this from time to time myself, as I’m sure most everyone who visits this site does. Of course, I always still look to buy those rare records when I can find them, because I simply hate mp3’s and always want the artwork, lyrics, and a tangible item that I can hold in my hands, but unfortunately there are just too many great records that are truly hard to find these days. I would hope that bands and labels would be okay with these instances of downloading as well.
But, as Eric touched on above, there are shitloads of freeloading parasites out there who download music for free like there’s no tomorrow, while pissing their money away on useless bullshit – be it cigarettes, fancy clothes, whatever – and they never really support the artists, the labels, or the art in any way, shape, or form. I hate that, and I hate the fact that all of that bullshit just feeds into the industry’s slant towards legal download services like iTunes. I think iTunes is all fine and good for the most part, but I fucking hate the notion of paying to download music. Why the hell would I want to pay $10 to download an album when for the same price (or a couple of bucks more) I could have a tangible CD in my hands with the artwork, lyrics, etc. that I could then rip into mp3’s myself? I know a lot of people disagree with me on that, and I can understand the speed and convenience of services like iTunes, but I myself will never use them until I absolutely have to – I’ll stick with “old fashioned” CD’s!
Basically, I just don’t want any bands or labels who stumble onto this site to think that I’m encouraging the free download of their music over the purchase of their music, as I most definitely am not. A lot of the mp3 blogs out there put up complete albums on a daily basis with no links to purchase or anything, and while I admit that I do use those sites from time to time to sample music or get advance tastes of albums that I’m interested in, I always go buy the records when they come out if I enjoy them, and I wish more people would do the same.
8.22.2006 | By Andrew Aversionline
Yeah good debate. I buy a lot of CDs, maybe too much. I listen a lot of music too, e.g. i downlaod it… I came to the point when i got a lot CDs (still not so many, but the collection is expanding almost every week). I had around 200 CDs. Some of this CDs I dont listen much, because i prefer lsitening those (or MP3s) which i like more. I said to myself i will buy only things which are very good. Of course i cant know which CD will I listen over month or half of year or smthng. There can be possibility to buy a little used CDs from others. I got all CDs i buy in a very good shape, but unfortunatley i live in a country which dont support all PayPal features - that means I can send money but I cant receive it (yeah its pretty stupid and damn sad). But from the other point of view, the musci industry totally sucks. Some of bands are on a very big labels which are acting like the biggest capitalistic assholes. I prefer buying CDs from a band that is not so well known. And the CDs are much cheaper. I couldnt believe when i gave 25 € (around 30 $) with shipment for 4 CDs, with booklets and all that. Also there are some (metal) CDs which are very expensive in my country. This is so damn stupid. OK the cigaretts go up, but instead of buying 4 packs of cigaretts or more buy one CD. Then I come to this,little sad thing if we talk about hardcore “scene”. OK i i dont have anything against supporting bands, going on concerts and so on but if you think, man what about those poor people everwhere aroun on the globe. If we are into this “scene” i think we can do a lot more for the others, like some sort of helping them a bit. OK maybe it sounds strange but we support scene and we dont gave even a penny for those in Africa or Asia. Also the principles of DIY are almost dead, giving so much for the CD and then some shitty label cut itself very big piece. Man if you start to think about buying music, scene and so on you come to the reilisation that we dont do almost nothing for those poor out there. OK probably we can live better because of them, some strange principles of human being, one must be poor that others can live better. I think that there is time to somewhat bring from the dead DIY and help more the others.
Bottom line, ok i totally lost myself but i think that in this crapy world everyone tries to fulfill his own hapiness. One CD more, is something other less.
8.22.2006 | By El Diablo
Quite possibly the best band name ever. Oh yeah their musics cool too heheh.
8.22.2006 | By Adrianoso
Cool band, I don’t like that much female vocals, but this guys handled it fine..
8.22.2006 | By Anonymous
about the buying cds topic i think things are gonna change a lot in the forthcoming years and they are already doing…i still buy cds of the bands i really like and whose cds have a good design and really worth it, but not that much as i used to be…i’m getting more and more the kind of downloading parasite that you refer…
but the moral and fairness issues of this thing get more and more confused when you see all the details…bands usually gets a 5%-10% of the final price of the cd, that is, unless you are a billboard band the money that they finally received from the sells of their album divided by the members is ridiculuos and many times don’t even cover their expenses of equipment and the rental of a rehearsing room. The main income of a band are shows and merch(and sometimes not even the merch, as many labels hold it in their contracts), so if you really wanna support a band go to the show and spread the word about them so that more people will go…
So actually buying cds is good for the label, not for the band…and until recent years it was still good for the band, as the label payed the production of the album(or part at least), promoted them and get tours and shows for them…so it was a fair deal between the bands and the labels, as labels risk money and time to raise a band and both parts got their profit, maybe the band didn’t receive almost any money of the sells of the album, but in the other hand they got other valuable things ...
But production costs are lowering and lowering as technology improves, traditional promotion of bands through radio stations, festivals, videoclips and magazines and even websites is becoming more and more corrupted and biased towards the “big labels” which could afford it and at least in europe(and even more in my country, spain) people goes way more to shows that it used to be, thanx to the “illegal” downloading…I remember a few years ago when small bands couldn’t get more tha 30-40 people in the audience and nowadays almost every fuckin show is sold out in madrid, and i bet that only the 20% or even less of the people actually have the cd of the bands playing…So that “illegal” downloading is bypassing labels and bringin’ bands directly to the audience, and many times that’s good, very good, for the bands, at least the ones who are not that big…
So i think that model of business of the music industry(from the big ones to underground labels) is gonna change a lot and is gonna become similar to the one in books, at least in what cds refer: that is luxury editions of albums in cd for the diehard fans or just for xmas presents and budget editions(in downloads, paying them or just for free, as you don’t have any expenses of distribution with mp3’s), and then the core of the music business wil be located in live shows…
complicated topic, but i think that for the weakest part(the bands) things are changin for better…
8.23.2006 | By desintegrado
Yeah i agree with you disintegrado. There is also one problem i can think off. There is a lot of so called non profit distros but they had very expensive prices. Old style non profit distros are dying, and then you have to pay 15 or more € for CD. This is way to much for me. And the other thing that really piss me off sometimes is “hunt” for limited editions. Some vinlys or CDs are selling on EBay or Amazon for very high prices. I think, there wont be much people who will give 100 $ for CD. Man this is strange, and is exploiting of people who lives with their hearts for music . . .
8.23.2006 | By El Diablo
Small distros are gonna die…they were a really good thing in the past. You could rely on the stuff that a certain distro sold, you knew what to expect, and you could buy random bands just to check out, because by the way they also had low prices because many labels couldn’t reach their audience out of their home location(i.e. american hardcore labels who wanted to sell cd’s in europe) without them and so they sold it for low prices to the distros. Me and my friends used to do that when i was a teenager. Really good and really bad surprises because of that, ha, ha…but ok, it was just 6-8 euros for a cd. But know you can check the cd before buying, labels can get agreements with big distros for overseas distribution(which is, like it or not, the best deal for the label) and you can order through internet directly to the label or the band…all the advantages of buying cds in a small distros are gone.
And i think that’s also another good thing, i remember in the late nineties in spain how many people who wanted to get involved in hardcore, metal, emo or whatever other “alternative” genre started distros, and how most of them ended with a whole stack of cd’s in their mom’s house(we live with our parents until we are 25-30 years old :) )and nobody to buy it. Now people can go straight to play in band, help other bands, edit webzines, organize venues, etc…they finally can do more productive things instead of wasting time with a distro…
And limited editions suck. If you are a collector of cds like other people are collectors of stamps, notes, dolls, etc…ok, that’s your choice, go ahead if you like it, you are gonna make other people rich because of your hobby(like usually happens when you have a hobby), but it’s your choice. But if we are talkin about music, if a label sold out all the copies of a cd in a short time, just press more copies, but please no bonus tracks, no special cover, no shit(in the other hand i support remastered versions of sold out albums if they really improve the original, that’s just a better sample of the original music and it worth it, like it did with the remastered version of petitioning the empty sky, when forever comes crashing or the give them rope 2.0 of coalesce, just to name a few…)...
8.23.2006 | By desintegrado
Des you raise a good point and I agree with you to a point…but labels are very responsible for bring us the music. I can’t imagine how many bands that I love I would have no idea about if they hadn’t been signed to a label like CM, Nuclear Blast, or Relapse. Regardless of their business dealings or giving bands a raw deal, they at least give bands a chance to get their name out. If I’m buying a cd from a label like that, or even really underground labels like ones on this website, then I’m increasing my chances of finding more bands I like in the future.
So it’s not only about the band, but the industry/business in general. Although with myspace/purevolume, who knows where the music industry will be in even 10 years.
8.24.2006 | By Eric
This shit is so good and I’m a hc kid not a metal dude, damn man, review that new one ‘Black cascade’...
5.1.2009 | By olber