Sound Advice: Wolves in the Throne Room (Oct. 16)

When one hears the words “Black Metal,” it conjures up the sound of demons writhing in a pit of brimstone, the smell of corpse paint and smoldering Norwegian churches and the pulse of an addict with a turkey baster full of meth and gorilla adrenaline. Only some of that is true of Wolves in the Throne Room. Brothers Nathan and Aaron Weaver formed Wolves in the Throne Room in 2003 around various extreme influences, including Crust Punk, Doom and typical Black Metal along with elements of Folk and Prog. From the beginning, the Olympia, Wash. trio (the second guitar slot has rotated regularly since then; it was filled earlier this year by Kody Keyworth) has turned its back on traditional Dark/Black Metal tropes, preferring to blend their inspirations into a symphonic and atmospheric dirge of epic proportions.

Nathan’s howling vocals are clearly drawn from the template of Metallurgists before him — not guttural, dirty vocals but the shriek of the willingly damned. And Aaron’s double-clutched drumming — he also provides bass and synthesizers in the studio — is the imminent heart attack that propels Wolves in the Throne Room at a breakneck pace, but not to the exclusion of subtlety and nuance in the appropriate moments. They’ve also worked with vocalists Jamie Myers and Jessika Kenney, who have contributed heavenly choirs to Wolves in the Throne Room’s hellbound soundtrack. Wolves in the Throne Room also eschews modern technology to achieve their signature sound, relying on vintage amps on stage and recording gear in the studio.

Since their formation, Wolves in the Throne Room has released six studio albums, including the just-released Thrice Woven, which the band has characterized as their first true Black Metal album since 2011’s Celestial Lineage; their 2014 album, Celestite, was an Ambient work that served as a companion piece to Celestial Lineage. In addition, Thrice Woven is the concluding recording in a trilogy that began with 2007’s Two Hunters and continued with 2009’s Black Cascade, and is also Keyworth’s studio debut.

In the Black Metal community, Wolves in the Throne Room are revered as classicists with an appreciation for the past and innovators with an ear toward the future. The Weavers have taken what they love best about Black Metal and forged it all on their anvil of experimentation and invention to arrive at Wolves in the Throne Room’s singular sonic vision.