Album review: Wolves In The Throne Room “Primordial Arcana”
Atmospheric black metal from the wild forests of the State of Washington.
Wolves In The Throne Room serves up excellent atmospheric black metal from the wild forests of Olympia, Washington, USA with influences from death metal, symphonic black metal and folk metal. The band uses keyboards to great effect in creating the epic atmosphere of a mythical world on this album. The band’s music paints a dreamy, haunting and bleak picture full of despair. There’s a touch of goth rock here and there, not least because of the inclusion of a lot of synthesizers. The synths and the way that they are used in the music make this different from many other bands. I dig it. The band was founded in 2002 by Aaron Weaver (drums and synths) his brother Nathan Weaver (vocals and guitar). They are joined by the guitarist Kody Keyworth in the current line-up of the band. On this album, the core trio of the band is joined by Galen Baudhuin on bass (and melodic vocals on “Through Eternal Fields”) and Yianna Bekris plays acoustic guitar on “Masters of Rain and Storm”. The album is solid with no dips. My favourite track is the terrifically sinister and uncompromising “Underworld Aurora” which drowns in the keyboard-driven soundscape (no, that’s a good thing). What a splendid album!
Wolves In The Throne Room’s album “Primordial Arcana” is out now via Relapse Records and Century Media Records.
