WOLVES IN THE THRONEROOM
Black Cascade
Conspiracy
CORE091
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€20.00 |
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It has been five years since Wolves in the Throne Room emerged from the rain-soaked Cascadian underground with a singular musical alchemy. The band’s previous two studio albums, Diadem of Twelve Stars and Two Hunters, in tandem with their incendiary live performances, have unquestionably established the band as a swiftly rising force in the extreme music world.
Their latest meditation, cryptically titled Black Cascade, was released by Southern Lord in the Spring of 2009. With this record Wolves in the Throne Room wholly transcend the limitations of the black metal label to be reborn as an entity entirely unto themselves. The energy conjured by the music is a distinctive manifestation of a personal vision that is not beholden to the rules of any genre.
Black Cascade is characterized by a heavy and powerful analog sound and a deft touch with songwriting and arrangement. The crumbling roar of decidedly old-school tube amps unite with layers of mossy analog synthesizer and cataclysmic percussion. Blazing and crystalline Metal riffs slowly collapse and shift into ritualistic dirges that invoke endless rain falling upon the ancient cedars of the pacific North West. It is as if the instruments are controlled by shadowy and elemental forces of nature rather than three forest-dwellers from Olympia,WA.
This record is an analog monolith that does credit to an intricately layered and ever-shifting psychedelic soundscape churning beneath the unrelenting blast beats and tremolo guitar. Recorded onto 2 inch tape and mixed on a 1973 Neve Console by Producer Randall Dunn (SUNN O))), Earth, Grails), Black Cascade captures the energy of a band who has said that they would prefer that the audience at their concerts would prostrate themselves on the floor and cry.
Intense album photographs, were created by the band deep in the Cascade Mountains. Wolves in the Throne Room do not publish their lyrics, but the images – intricate tableaus of owl-visaged emperors, wraith beings and mysterious sylvan rituals - hint at the shrouded intent of the band.
A mythic space is conjured were the everyday is stripped away to reveal something ancient and transcendent.
