xdevx – cd & live reviews

Wolves in the Throne Room (click to resize)

In fact, Wolves in the Throne Room were my very first black metal experience. But as greenhorn as I am, I dare say that this one kinda blew me away and changed my perception on this very dark and gloomy sub-genre of extreme metal. After eventually 40min of sheer raw an honest shredding, often not that metal at all, but rather razor-throated postrock in a drone disguise (hence the hater’s nickname Puppies in the Living Room) all was said and done an I couldn’t care less about the band’s tree-hugging tendencies, what the lyrics are, the saturnine stage design with 40 lit candles and dense swathes of fog or just what the hell that bass dude in the skinny leggings was representing – I was too busy being awestruck by the music. Far beyond any cliché of misanthropic hatred, religion, satan, war or similar mundane superficiality, Wolves in the Throne Room actually felt trve in the original way – spiritual and pure.

Wolves in the Throne Room – I will lay down my bones among the rocks and roots