Warthur On Wolves In the Throne Room's second album the group amp up the shoegaze elements in their sound - check out opening number Dea Artio, in which their buzzling wall-of-guitars sound is more reminiscent of the gentle textures of Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine than the harsh, abrasive sonic universe of Burzum. Of course, things soon get a bit more varied and the Wolves do show their fangs on occasion, but equally there's also moments of gentleness spread out here, particularly when Jessica Kinney's vocals come into the equation. On the whole, Celestial Lineage takes the innovations of this album and ramps them up to the next level to a sufficient extent to leave Two Hunters in its dust, but taken on its own Two Hunters is still a very credible artistic statement.

Phonebook Eater 8/10

"Two Hunters" provides an image of the dark corners of the world.

Along maybe with bands like Agalloch, Wolves In Throne Room is now one of America’s most recognized Black Metal bands: in 2007, they released “Two Hunters”, so far the absolute pinnacle of their career and one of the best albums of the scene.

“Diadem in 12 Stars” was their debut album which had a very unique take on Blackgaze; the sound was very ethereal and harsh at the same time. “Two Hunters” perfects that atmosphere by a whole lot, with much more brave, shoegazey and unearthly passages soaked in reverb, which gain a touch of beauty when female vocals, that seem to come from heaven, are added. Then we still have the grim, electric passages. But, despite the great amount of Black Metal in this release, everything sounds much more clean and less raw than in “Diadem”: the reverb is possibly the greatest reason why it doesn’t feel that heavy, but it’s also the fact that WITTR on this one decided to focus much more intensely on the atmosphere.

The lyrics are probably the most enigmatic and fascinating aspect of the album: “I Will Lay Down My Bones Among the Rocks And Roots” is a sort of a dying wish of the persona: he wants to be left in the woods, so that he becomes one with nature, entering, this way, into a new life. Then “Vastness and Sorrow” is more complex: it involves a dark rider who rules the world, as he is the only living being there. The world moves to his horse’s steps, as he passes through ruins of a once great civilization, a symbol of failure of mankind. “Cleansing” seems to describe an encouragement to have a ritual act of purification through singing, in order to be saved from the dark rider, who is mentioned.

With only four tracks, “Two Hunters” provides the listener, in less than fifty minutes, a vivid image of dark, hidden corners of the world where man has not yet visited; A damp, black cave, in which there is a waterfall of the purest of waters. “Dia Artio” is the intro the starts off this unique journey, where the reverb-soaked clean guitars set the stage. The twelve minute “Vastness and Sorrow” is a gloomy Black Metal piece that finds no pause, no mercy, managing to be the darkest track on the album. “Cleansing” starts off with a vein similar to the intro, but then explodes into yet another Black Metal passage. The final, eighteen minute track is home of a bunch of solid, solemn and somber riffs, occasionally purified with the watery clean moments. As the music dissolves, at the end of the album, the sound of birds comes in , giving more coherency to the lyrical concept of the song, by this point of view one of the great closers of Black Metal history.

“Two Hunters” will be remembered as a Black Metal landmark album, an album that will be, over the years. a point of reference for many bands; even today, the Blackgaze movement is, although mostly underground, increasing exponentially, and will possibly domain most of future Black Metal. When that happens, Wolves In The Throne Room have a reserved place in the Olympus of legendary Metal bands.

Conor Fynes 'Two Hunters' - Wolves In The Throne Room (8/10)

Although the sound of black metal is most typically associated with the icy landscapes of such Scandinavian territories as Norway and Sweden, this deeply atmospheric and emotive sound for metal has since spread across the far reaches of the world. While it may have been the Euopeans that started things off along their however, the reins have seemed to be passed onto a more recent wave of North American black metal groups, seeking to take the style to new heights. Most highly concentrated in my own home of the Pacific Northwest, the so-called third wave of black metal has found a new home. Among the giants of the Cascadian black metal scene are Wolves In The Throne Room, who- like many of their contemporaries0 stay true to the roots through low fidelity production, blastbeats, and nearly inhuman vocal shrieks. With the band's second album 'Two Hunters' though, Wolves In The Throne Room do make it clear that their sound entails quite a bit more than the earliest innovators of black metal may have had to offer.

Closely resembling the sound of fellow Northwesterners Agalloch, Wolves in The Throne Room open this album with 'Dia Artio', an ambient piece that almost acts as if it were an overture for what is to come. Although the only major instruments at use here are electric guitars and a minimalistic drum pattern, the sound is riddled with overdubs, very gradually switching between massive chords. The impression is that of something close to an orchestra; a vast experience of aesthetic beauty that sets the stage perfectly for the sound to come. 'Vastness And Sorrow' is arguably the most straightforward track here, although being a good twelve minutes long. The grief-stricken guitar harmonies and higher pitched vocal rasps make themselves clearly through, and each riff in the song is very well put together, always favoring an emotional reaction over any technical complexity, of which there is none to speak of. Although a twelve minute track, the piece generally follows the same mood throughout, but while quite repetitive, the listener is never left hanging without a brilliant resolution at the end of each segment.

The second half of the album gets even more drawn out, to a mixed result. 'Cleansing' is the most melodic track here, with the vocals now being led by traditional Celtic singer Jessica Kinney. Here, the heaviness of the last track is absolved for a very ethereal piece of work. Pagan war drums batter eerily in the background under a wave of ambient guitar fog and the beautiful vocals. Although Wolves In The Throne Room are not considered to be a pagan metal band perse, there is a certain feeling of Celtic ancestry here, of course then followed with the equally atmospheric metal assault. While a return back to the black metal is welcome by this point after five minutes of ethereal mellowness, it does feel as if the transition between the two dynamics could have been a bit smoother.

Lastly is the eighteen minute black metal epic 'I Will Lay My Bones Among The Rocks And Roots', a fitting way to end the album by any stretch. Here, the band takes their vast sound and puts it to the test. Although parts of this epic do get exhausted before the end, Wolves In The Throne Room are sure to feature everything in this massive piece that defines them as a group. Ambient soundscapes, intelligent harmonies and powerful build ups make 'I Will Lay My Bones' the certain highlight of the album. A perpetual ebb and flow of melancholic chord changes, howls and mellow moments, the album ends with the listener certainly feeling something.

There is very little to Wolves that is technical in nature. However, Aaron Weaver's drumwork here is some of the best that the Cascadian black metal scene has spawned. The vocals here are all very good, with a special emphasis on Jessica's brilliant guest vocals on the two final tracks. As for the guitars here, it can often feel as if Wolves In The Throne Room would have done well to have a little more variety in their playing. The drums may alternate between the ancient battering of pagan hymns and faster blastbeats, but the majority of what Nathan Weaver or Rick Dahlin do with the guitars is almost entirely based in burstfire tremolo picking, with only few precious moments of clean playing to cherish. For a band that professes themselves to be taking black metal to new heights, this does feel somewhat self-defeating.

The effect of the music on the album is undeniable though, regardless of the repetition and lack of variety. Possibly most surprising here is the effectiveness of the lo-fi production, which manages to keep a vast sound to it, with plenty of details and a sense of ambiguity that only raw, noisy bliss could convey. Although Wolves In The Throne Room may be outdone by some of the stronger acts in nature-inspired atmospheric black metal these days, 'Two Hunters' is an excellent piece of work.