WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM — Celestial Lineage (review)

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM — Celestial Lineage album cover

Album · 2011 · Atmospheric Black Metal

5/5 · 2011-09-13
Wilytank

It was back in 2009 when I first got my exposure to Wolves in the Throne Room. I was browsing some website examining illegible band logos. I saw the interesting outlay for WITTR's 2004 demo; and though it wasn't their official logo, it was interesting enough for me to look deeper into this band. Looking them up on Youtube, I listened to the song "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" from their 2009 album 'Black Cascade' and was in love with the band on the first listen. Upon visiting an FYE, I immediately bought 'Black Cascade' and have played it several times. Since then, I've also listened to their other material and purchased another CD of theirs, 'Two Hunters', but my passion for this band was beginning to fade. Then 2011 rolled around with another Wolves in the Throne Room album, 'Celestial Lineage'; and after listening to some teasers, I felt like I was ready to fall in love with this band all over again. When I finally got a chance to listen to the whole album, it felt like my dreams came true.

At first, I felt some concern when I saw the album's track-listing. WITTR was straying from the four song formula that they have worked with for all of their past albums. 'Celestial Lineage', however, had seven. Three songs longer than ten minutes, one just longer than seven minutes, a five minute long piece and two that are less than two minutes in length. But they all work out in the end. The five minute long piece is a beautiful ambient work and the two ones less than two minutes long are barely noticeable. Everything else is atmospheric black metal Elysium.

We start out with the longest song, "Thuja Magus Imperium". Ambient begins the journey with keyboards and chimes. Jessica Kenney, who has worked with the band in the past, returns to provide some vocal imagery to this piece of transcendence. The lead guitar kicks in at the 2:19 mark with the other metal instruments joining it at 3:09 and Nathan Weaver delivering his spiritual vocal passages. The tempo starts out slow, but gets faster after Nathan's first verse is over. Gradually getting different and varied, the builds up to a guitar solo at 5:05 which breaks up the passage nicely. The song then slows down with the keyboards trying to take over. The metal stops at 6:46 giving way to the keyboard and chime ambient that felt like nirvana. The lead guitar comes back in at 8:04 the same way it did earlier in the song; but this time around, the song stays slower. As the song goes onward, it doesn't speed up at all. The lead guitar maintains the atmosphere as the song plays out and ends, particularly at 9:49 where it assumes its most dominant position. "Thuja Magus Imperium" is one of the best songs I've heard released this year and really demonstrates that Wolves in the Throne Room have not lost it at all.

But this is just the first song on the album!

The next black metal song, "Subterranean Initiation", starts off without any ambiance to kick it off. As the song goes on though, the keyboards do make it sound like an Emperor song. There are a generous amount of changes. In fact, at one point, there's a type of break that I've seen Wolves in the Throne Room use that it's basically a signature style for them here. The drums are played by Aaron Weaver in a way that I've never heard Faust or Trym play. The song never goes back to the Emperor style that came before the break. It ends with WITTR's own tone to it, which is very good.

If you enjoyed "Dia Artio" from 'Two Hunters', you don't want to skip the interlude "Woodland Cathedral". It sounds surprisingly similar to it. But what I like better this time around is that the keyboards play a more dominant role, and Jessica Kenney's vocals give a clean, purifying feel to it. That's all I have to say for this primarily ambient piece.

"Astral Blood" is the next black metal piece here. It starts with one guitar, with another joining it, then drums kicking in with double bass for a steady mid-to-fast paced intro before the drums return to blast beating and the vocals begin. Compared to "Subterranean Initiation" the melodic aspect of this song, even while fast paced, was very "WHOA!" worthy to me. Once the song reaches the break, there's acoustic instruments with keyboard and wind sound effects to set the atmosphere. When the electric instruments return in 5:40, a slow and mysterious sounding tone is represented here with the effect on the guitar. One of the guitars keeps that tone even when the song speeds up again. It's gone by the 8:14 mark, but returns at 8:52 to help give this song an atmospheric ending.

And at last there is "Prayer of Transformation"; and as the slowest and most transcendental song on the album, it's the perfect way to end this album. With the guitar pretty much hitting one note per every four beats in the tempo, the intro doesn't do much; but the lead guitar suddenly into tremolos at 3:21, with Nathan's verses starting shortly after. The tone grows calmer at 4:21 with that guitar still maintaining that tremolo. Then, the keyboards come in at the background for added ambiance. More variations come and go, such as the drums disappearing rather early and acoustic guitar taking over some of the rhythm parts. The song begins its outro rather early and draws it out for a minute or so giving you time to reflect over the entire album and evaluate your experience.

And my evaluation is that 'Celestial Lineage' may be Wolves in the Throne Room's best album yet. Though the keyboards are definitely more present here than ever before, they work out perfectly as they really drive home the definition of "atmospheric black metal". 'Celestial Lineage' will definitely be one of the best (if not THE best) releases of 2011.