Album Review: WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM – ‘Thrice Woven’ [Album Stream]

 

I’m going to be perfectly blunt: American black metal bands aren’t supposed to be this damn good. While black metal is a dark, brooding, and relentless musical style that has cultivated a reverential following in Europe, it’s also a genre that truly lacks a thriving North American music scene that is comparative to bay area thrash metal or Floridian death metal, and great American black metal bands are few and far between.

Thankfully, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM is one of those rare and exceptional black metal bands from the good ole US of A who have attained a level of excellency rivaling that of their European counterparts. After over a decade since releasing their punishing yet atmospheric debut ‘Diadem Of 12 Stars’ in 2006, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM have unveiled their newest record ‘Thrice Woven’: an album that is a masterpiece of thematic musicianship that intellectually moves the listener into a spellbinding trance from start to finish. Sure, it’s not necessarily news to say that WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM have crafted a truly excellent album (again), but even at just five tracks in length, it still needs to be said that vocalist/guitarist Nathan Weaver, vocalist/guitarist Kody Keyworth, and drummer Aaron Weaver have created an album of the highest quality.

Continue reading

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM Unveil Music Video For “Born From The Serpent’s Eye”

Since their inception in 2002, over the course of 5 studio albums and hundreds of live performances, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM have refracted Black Metal through their own cascadian prism.  Their songs explore the hidden world of magic that one accesses through dreams, visions and music and the resulting sounds are intimately linked to the wild lands of the Pacific Northwest.  Now, a portal into the dreamworld of WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM opens again with their forthcoming sixth LP, ‘Thrice Woven‘ –  a glorious return to the blazing and furious Black Metal that they alone can create.  Today, the band has unveiled a magical new music video for a segment of the album’s first single, “Born from the Serpent’s Eye.”

Continue reading

REVIEW: LEGACY OF EMPTINESS – ‘Over The Past’ [Official Song Stream]

What is it that invades the sanity in your mind once when you stumble across the word, ‘Norway’ ? If you’re a trve bred metalhead, ‘black metal‘ is the only thing that will take over your mind. The grim, dark and blasphemous genre has a really deep connection with the country of Norway and why not, that is where the genre started to sprout into a global epidemic of unholy cacophony. Bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, Enslaved, Burzum, Dimmu Borgir etc have created a niche for the genre so deeply engrossed, it’s almost like Norway is the face of the genre. Whether be it an old band or a new kid on the block, they surely know their black metal very well. It has also seen the face of diversification and a lot of experimentation, many bands have taken a different approach than the genre flag bearers, incorporating elements of majestic symphony, eerie surrealistic ambience, or just adding folk elements indigenous to their viking and pagan heritage. Whatever blend of black metal they churn out, it’s always great to listen to and connect.

Today I bring to your notice an excellent album by one of the rising symphonic black metal bands from Norway, LEGACY OF EMPTINESS. As the name suggests, they are a three piece band playing the blend of black metal I love the most, i.e., ‘Symphonic black metal‘ or ‘Ambient Black Metal‘ with a lot of folk and avant garde elements sprinkled here and there. The founding members Eddie and Kjell-Ivar formed this group as a “tongue in cheek” BM-project previously known as ‘Permafrost’, back in 1995. Recording a couple of demos for their self interest just like the way many bands start out, a few years later Øyvind joined in on keyboards and completed the line-up. They went on to record a couple of more demos, and disbanded in 2000. 2010 saw them make a comeback and gel up together again, as they realised the previously recorded songs were “too good to be left behind”. So they re-recorded them and released it as their debut in 2011.  Continue reading