Wolves In The Throne Room

I mean I guess my issue was that I kept waiting on the blast beats or howls or something resembling a guitar riff but instead it was just this wash of earcrushing sad static. Not that I have a problem with that as a matter of course, but it just wasn't really what I expected or wanted. As it stood I kept going "is that the drums? are there beats somewhere behind the squall?"

maybe the mix wasnt great? the seperation was great when i saw them (admittedly, the club they were at is by far the best venue in town as far as sound goes)

Hmm I bet every one of these shows sounded better than the time I saw them in a bowling alley in 2004.

Wow that sounded pompous and wasn't meant to.

hahahahahaha

ok its official i'm goin next sunday

u down ilxor moniker man or

I always hear this band name to the tune of Adolescents' "Kids of the Black Hole"
Also, I love these guys

hoos i feel strong positive about your next exposure to these guys

seeing them saturday night. two-hour drive to the middle of nowhere, which seems appropriate.

Every time I see this thread title, I sing it (in my head) to the tune of "Thieves in the Temple."

xpost: "just this wash of earcrushing sad static."

My kind of BM action - I definitely have to seem them live.

Just picked up Black Cascade on vinyl (Southern Lord do a great package!). Seems a lot straighter than Diadem of Twelve Stars (the only other WITTR album I have), if that's the right word. I'm not sure yet whether that's a good thing.

it is, the ep before it had stuff more like the last album.
It is great though!

Initial reaction is good -- the problem to my ears is that, if it's too straight it can quickly descend into goth-ness à la Nephilim (if you know what I mean), which is a bad thing. The first track especially had some slower guitar riffs that got me worried.

I'm with Herman on this. The preceding e.p. is the best thing they've ever done.

I was actually meaning the album is great, but yes, the ep is great too and I prob do prefer it!

duke you need to listen to two hunters

had never heard of these guys, and accidentally went to a show at the empty bottle (free mondays, yay!) and they R00L3D, and then I promptly forgot they existed.

will def see them if/when they come back

I probably booked them on that. Love the Bottle.

They opened for Sunn0))) at a place 2 blocks from my house. This was before Two Hunters came out and I skipped them entirely, because I didn't like Diadem (and still don't). Heard Two Hunters a week later and kicked myself.

I'm liking Black Cascade just fine. Two Hunters definitely on my vinyl buy-list.

Two Hunters is excellent. And it has much much better cover art than Black Cascade.

funny, I just listened to black cascade over the weekend. since it came out, I've listened a few times now. always a pleasant enough listen, but doesn't make much of a lasting impression.

so, should I keep at it or call it a day? if so, what do you like about it? (just curious.)

and I really like two hunters and the EP a bunch. never liked diadem much at all.

btw, my favorite thing about this band is drumming. very much the foundation of their sound. tranced-out, heavy, driving. (much like filosofem.)

Will Lindsay (current 2nd guitarist in WITTR) is also playing with Indian, Storm of Light, and Nachtmystium now. Saw Indian in Chicago recently and it was pretty devastating.

Persevere with it

but why?

cuz I say so.

well, ok dude. was just hoping to get an actual discussion of the album going...

heh, actually that was more passive/aggressive than I meant for it to sound.

I'm just curious about what people see in this album that I have no recollection of the second it goes off!

Not all black metal has hooks, Alan. But I feel you on this. Their first two albums did...

yeah, this is obviously a matter of personal preference, but I certainly don't think I NEED hooks in black metal. but after a few listens, black cascade doesn't seem to have the variety of their last album, the trance-inducing quality of something like filosofem, the catchiness of late immortal, the gut punch of transilvanian hunger, the epic feel of early emperor, etc.

but there is SOMETHING there and I don't dislike it. I just wonder if it will ever click and I'm genuinely curious about how to approach this record.

The only song I really like a lot on Black Cascade is the last track. I doubt I'll be putting it on any best-of lists this year... definitely kind of a yawn compared to Two Hunters.

Pitchfork really slammed it. I was shocked.

pitchfork dont have a clue

they should just have Brandon Stosuy write all of their metal reviews imo.

btw, my favorite thing about this band is drumming. very much the foundation of their sound. tranced-out, heavy, driving. (much like filosofem.)
― picture me lolin' (Alan N), Monday, 21 September 2009 22:57 (Yesterday)

I must say the intensity of the drumming is one of the things I noticed on Black Cascade (in comparison with Diadem). Seems higher in the mix, much more of a driving force.

Could you say why you didn't care for Diadem, Alan?

they should just have Brandon StosuyDrew Daniel write all of their metal reviews imo.

― A polar bear you can see in a snowstorm (rockapads), Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:05 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

^^ fixed

Alan is contrary!

Diadem is great but it is so derivative of Weakling. The other two albums are much more the evolved WITTR sound.

they should just have Brandon StosuyDrew Daniel write all of their metal reviews imo.

― A polar bear you can see in a snowstorm (rockapads), Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:05 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

With mad respect to Drew Daniel Cosmo Lee is the man for this imo

i like all three of those dudes actually. i read invisible oranges on a fairly regular basis. didn't even realize he wrote for p-fork. ok all three of those dudes, but nobody else!

Respect to Brandon Stosuy too, obv!

It's great that pFork has those guys. They are responsible for some really thoughtful metal criticism on a site where you'd never expect it.

Going way back, but I am ready to hear some new stuff from Indian.

me too. Indian are terrific.

Better than ever as a 5 piece. The guy who builds Emperor cabinets is running their visuals and ultra-modded analog synth from the sound board.

I think I like Diadem the best, followed by Black Cascade and, last, Two Hunters. Why? As I wrote on a different thread, one of my favorite things about traditional metal is how the end of a song is just a killer hook repeated over and over again (examples: Thin Lizzy's Roisin Dubh and Iron Maiden's Hallowed Be Thy Name). Norwegian black metal seemed to skip the song to immediately start at the outro (prime example: the Transilvanian Hunger album). This brings me in a trance lake state, which I love. If it was up to me, it would last forever. Unfortunately the average black metal song doesn't last long. Enter Diadem by WITTR. Derived from Weakling for sure, but as Weakling didn't care to exploit their sound into a vast collection of music, more power to WITTR (someone has to do it!). Bonus points for making their songs very varied within the given genre boundaries and for making the drums almost the most important voice within the music. Two Hunters was a whole different beast. Way more shoegaze than metal, way more more drone than buzz. I liked it, in the name of progress. But it could never top what Diadem did for me. The Malevolent Grain EP was an interesting release, as it showed a band at crossroads. The title song progressed from the Two Hunters sound and added the dreamy esoteric female voice from the shoegaze genre; it didn't do much to me. The second song was a ferocious return to the Diadem form. A style the band opted to continue on Black Cascade, mixing it to a certain extent with the ambient drone of Hunters; so that it isn't a carbon copy of Diadem and, therefore, a disappointment. I'm willing to admit that the songs and hooks on Black Cascade are a tad less memorable than what came before. But it is still one hell of a ride.

for me it's the opposite. On Two Hunters seemed like the band was focused on telling an epic story. Instead of losing myself to the repetition (which I also love to do), I got lost in the dreamlike ebb and flow of Two Hunters. I didn't really think of it like 'goth/shoegaze there', 'depressive black metal there', until after I had heard the album a million times and read a bunch of articles about it. The last song on Two Hunters is what holds the whole thing together for me. The final battle. That stomping beat as two enemies meet, is some transcendent shit. The second song on Malevolent Grain and the last song on Black Cascade are also huge favorites of mine. These guys finish albums very well.