Wolves In The Throne Room - Black Cascade
April 30 2009 at 07:52:37 AM
What polarizes many in the metal community about Wolves in the Throne Room isn't necessarily their music but the band's inconsistent, wishy-washy message. Traditionally a stubbornly apolitical musical form, Black Metal's preoccupation with nihilist, misanthropic, pagan, fascist, anti-Christian and Satanic themes made it abundantly clear activism was best left to the hardcore punk crowd, with most artists focusing more on arresting, poetic imagery laced with blood, hate and profane rites in their often introspective lyrics. When Wolves in the Throne Room came along in 2006, however, the trio of bearded musicians from Olympia, Washington ruffled a few feathers with their fierce environmentalism, tales of living a bogusly self-sufficient life on a farm and a belief that they were the first to promote a shockingly Romantic idea whereby one can use this extremely dark, melancholic style of music to achieve a sort of spiritual transcendence, something that has been firmly entrenched within the confines of the most maligned form of music since day one. For some who choose to adhere to the idea that sticking rigidly within the structure of a specific metal subgenre can in itself be a form of liberation, the notion of these hipster-looking fellas from a liberal arts college town trying to stretch the boundaries of Black Metal was a little too much to bear.
Once you get past the band's rosy-hued views, though (an easy thing to do considering their screamed vocals are indecipherable, and their lyrics are never provided), the impact of the actual music is undeniable; it's rather impotent in the end, sounding like another Emperor wannabe about 15 years too late. In fact, so powerful has their music become that when all’s said and done, we could care less about the band’s tree-hugging tendencies, what the lyrics are, or just what the hell that dude in the leggings is in the album’s elaborate artwork; we’re far too busy being circumcised by weasels.
[Shishya]
Wolves In The Throne Room
Black Cascade
2009
Southern Lord
RSS FEEDS
TWITTER
print
email
list
big
small
Your second problem is failing to understand WITTR dedicates more than 75% of ample interview time to scene stance, world-view policing, shit-talking about shit-talking, and hardly anything to do with the MUSIC it makes.
The writing on this site is "pretty good" b/c is aspires to the likes of Mr. Beckett and is unafraid of referencing things only the most curious and lucky discover.
"Dear incomprehension, its thanks to you Ill be myself, in the end."
Being passive has never been so easy and fulfilling!
A few weeks ago a friend and I were talking about those Mercyful Fate LP reissues and were shocked to find out Roadrunner had dropped them a few years ago. They are still around! Wow. That's crazy. Mercyful Fate is one of the greatest bands ever! But these reissues didn't sell out!
Conversely, WITTR will sell to the nub with everyone chatting up the fucking artwork and vinyl colors and whatever moronic shit about these guys being bearded, live-off-the-land Adbusters, Thoreau etc.
Five years from now, folks will wonder why they even bought this record. Look! It's bright and shiny! Look at this! Buy it! It's great! Look at all the colors! This music is artless, empty, expendable.
yuck.
oh and it's " couldn't care less" isn't it ?
I don't give a fuck if it's helpful to you or not, chief. I never claimed it to be, and I'm not here for your benefit.
Source material for this "review" was a histrionic, glowing appreciation of WITTR written by a "Metal Scribe" at Pop Matters. We just took out all the positive drivel and added our $0.02.
Run along, plz.
which btw you make often. using such phrases as "highest recommendation" and "recommended". in some capacity this site is here to help people wade through all the crap and find the gems, don't take some BS ultra-aloof stance that you do this for you and you alone. you run a record review website, and you've written for other record review websites.
(b) When I like something, it's obvious.
(c) I do this for me and me alone. I like writing about music. It's cathartic.
(d) Yes, I have written for other record review websites.
you said this was basically cut and pasted from a dick sucking popmatters review, so it clearly didn't take all that much thought or effort. the fucking syntax and grammar makes that obvious. I think this site overall is really good, and I thought this review was lame and felt the need to say so. you don't have to give a shit, but you have a comments section so....
Dick sucking?! Who are you, Chaunce? I think I recognize the cut of your jib, the jib of your cut... But I must disagree, respectfully, of course: There is nothing pointless about being mean-spirited.
This one was pretty original.
http://www.myspace.com/xexyz666
A: Blah blah corporations are bad blah blah... [then he comes up with this gem]: To me, there's really a sort of slimy, Satanic energy that surrounds that corporate culture, and I am unwilling to expose myself to [something] like that.
http://invisibleoranges.com/2009/03/interview-wolves-in-throne-room.html
Hilarious.
Apparently WITTR, like our dear Mastodon, aren't responsible for anything relayed by media outlets whether it be review, interview, or band bio.
I wish I could go through life like that..
If those dweebs on teh DFFD bored stopped threading and started reading, maybe they'd be able to poke holes in their cherished WITTR, too.
that Scion shit really made my skin crawl. everybody should look up these Scion shows and take note of who has played. Krallice, Nachtmystium, and just about anyone else Decibel got paid to give a positive review to. i don't care if these guys turn around and make (inexplicably) good music, i just can't support this. they're getting paid to have Scion schmucks hawking Scion schwag at their shows. who's going to buy in next? mountain dew?
Table for two ! Over here ! I'm buyin'.
still, i do enjoy their two demos...