By: Daniel Jackson
Album Type:
Full Length
Date Released:
22/09/2017
Label:
Artemisia Records
There’s a kind of theatrical gravitas throughout
‘Thrice Woven’. It’s supremely confident, gravely serious, and stunning in its
ability to pair serenity and sorrow with pain and anger.
‘Thrice Woven’ CD//LP//CS//DD track
listing:
1. Born From The Serpent’s Eye
2. The Old Ones Are With Us
3. Angrboda
4. Mother Owl. Father Ocean
5. Fires Roar in the Palace of the
Moon
The Review:
It’s human nature to want to have
new experiences. We’re always looking for something different. Whatever aspect
of life we’re talking about, things are always moving. Sometimes the perception
is that we’re moving forward, but there’s almost always movement of some kind. The same is obviously true of
musicians and artists.
Wolves in the Throne Room
took their music in an entirely different direction with 2014’s ‘Celestite’. The album was all over the
place, ranging from light synthy ambient music to caustic drone and plenty more
between the two. The reaction to the album, from fans and press alike, covered
a broad spectrum too. Some hailed the band for their artistic freedom, some
spurned the album for its failure to fall in line with the band’s previous
work, and everyone else fell between those two points.
With ‘Thrice Woven’, Wolves in the Throne Room have
essentially retreated to familiar ground, while bringing back some of what they
found in the great beyond. Were it not for some of the synth work and dramatic
atmospheric elements at work throughout, this album might be Wolves in the Throne Room’s most traditionally black metal
album since ‘Diadem of 12 Stars’. A
lot of the riffs and tremolo leads would feel right at home in a 90s
scandinavian black metal context. “Born
From The Serpent” features a section in the first half of the song that
could have been on any early Marduk or Enthroned album.
The production too feels like
something older. The drums in particular have a very dry sound, which is out of
character for Wolves in the Throne Room. The snare has a
crisp, thin feel to it, like on Sacramentum’s ‘Far Away From The Sun’. The guitars have
a hazy texture to them, though you could call them muted or dull. It would feel
constricted and spaceless if these compositions were any different, but here it
fits surprisingly well. The guitar leads aren’t in a constant battle with
everything else, struggling to shine through in the mix. They’re right up front
and clear as day, pulling everything else along with it. What the production
sacrifices in sounding massive, it makes up for in clarity.
There’s a kind of theatrical gravitas
throughout ‘Thrice Woven’. It’s
supremely confident, gravely serious, and stunning in its ability to pair
serenity and sorrow with pain and anger. It harnesses all the bleak melodrama
that made ‘Two Hunters’ such a
compelling album, and puts it into a universe that’s rooted in a style of black
metal they’ve avoided until now. And yet, it never crosses that boundary into
second wave worship. This album is a testament to just how deep and rich black
metal can be as a genre. I hope they stick around in this space a little while
longer.
Band info: Official Site || Facebook
