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S orget what you think you know about
metal: its shlock, its dark mythology, its
either dumbed-down LCD pander, or its
hyper-intellectualized pretension. If you
are willing to go to the dark side, there
dozens of bands that are vaguely acces
sible and postmodern in their synthesis of
sound, that are making some of the best shit
out there right now. At the top of the heap of
septic flesh and rotting corpses is green black
metal band Wolves in the Throne Room. Rad.
Vocalist/guitarist Nathan Weaver and his
brother, drummer Aaron Weaver, anchor WITTR,
joined by new(ish) guitarist Will Lindsay.
Since 2004, Wolves in the Throne Room's
brand of metal has been affixed with a ter
restrial and subterranean patina, oxidized by
rust, cow shit and sustainable farming. This
is to say, WITTR is very much influenced by
Olympia, WA, and the band's stronghold at
Calliope—a farmstead situated inside 1,000
acres of protected forest in the Cascade
Mountains.
"We moved to Calliope six years ago. I
often say that WITTR is the artistic manifesta
tion of the farm and vice-versa. We bought
that piece of land and started Wolves in the
Throne Room in the same month. It is part of
the same process," says Aaron Weaver.
For the most part, WITTR has removed
itself from the modern world in favor of a
back-to-basics lifestyle. For instance, Aaron
and his wife grow their own veggies and
slaughter most of the meat they eat.
"We should think about the way in which
the technologies we use transform our con
sciousness... It is the choice that I made that
I'd like to remove myself from the technologi
cal industrial world. It is a slow process to
achieve that. Obviously, right now I am talk
ing on a cell phone, we have a DSL connection
on the farm, we tour around the country in
a van. It is more of a mindset and taking as
much action as possible."
Of course, WITTR's a gra rian/neo-pri mi -
tivist way of life only adds to its mythology.
"Oftentimes people think that all the members
of WITTR live in a one-room shack on some
secluded farm, and when we're not playing
guitars together, we're out hoeing the field.
This is not true," says Weaver.
Their new album Black Cascade fucking
slays, takes names, kicks you in the balls
and, naturally, patches you up with some
organic aloe vera by the end of it all in a
post-Aghast dark ambience. With the right
lighting, "Ahrimanic Trance" is a fugue state
waiting to happen, while album-closer "Crystal
Ammunition" is a leviathan levitated.
Black Cascade is a very different album
than, say, the last one, Two Hunters, mostly
because it is so metal, growling, haunting and
heavy. WITTR made a point this time around
to be more concise (whatever that means for
an album with two 14-minute epics and two
10-minute ones) and closer to its live show.
You know you're doing something right
when the purists do nothing but hate on you,
and when non-card-carrying metal-listeners
start to take note. True, if you're looking for
"TrOO Kvlt" black metal, this is not that black-
body, but Wolves in the Throne Room couldn't
care less about the USBM (United States black
metal) label or the implications of it.
"As Wolves in the Throne Room progresses,
I think that black metal is not the best genre
to place our band within. In the beginning,
there was more possibility in black metal to
try different things and explore the ideology
and philosophy behind that kind of music.
Black metal has become very dogmatic. BM
nowadays has to be satanic, there is a certain
aesthetic and hairstyle, and we're not inter
ested in that. We're outsiders. I can take or
leave the black metal label," Weaver says.
Of course, for WITTR to reject wholesale
the USBM scene would be blasphemy, espe
cially considering the looming influence
Burzum clearly has on the band: "The early BM
bands tapped into a deep, uncompromisingly
transcendent spirit. BM is a call to destroy
modernity in a complete and total act of
annihilation. It's an apocalyptical art form,"
Weaver says. "I'm not interested in Satanism
or the childish, cartoonish horror aspect of
BM. I like BM as transforming consciousness."
Yep, WITTR is able to stand above its peers
in the USBM scene. And while you're pre-gam
ing and clutching that 22 oz. Fat Tire beer,
happy as hell that Georgia's one of the lucky
six new states to sell it, get over it, chug,
and come early to check out opener Krallice's
special reinterpretation of the black metal
sound, too.
Christopher Joshua Benton
eateikr art
Green or black, Wolves in the Throne Room
is not a dilution or distillation of the black
metal sound as much as a total annihilation of
the black metal enterprise altogether to recon
struct the edifice in the image of the Weaver
Brothers or, at least, the Weaver Brothers' hoe.
( ^
WHO: Wolves in the Throne Room,
Krallice, A Storm of Light
WHERE: Caledonia Lounge
• WHEN: Monday, June 1
HOW MUCH: $10(21+), $12(18+),
$9.50 (adv.), www.ticketalternative.com
v /
The Chris DeMarco Band /
Leaving Araby / Megafauna
Morpheus Movement
UTAH / Bohdi Zaffa / Burden
American Encore
Bunny Carlos / Samurai Trout
COMING 500N —
S 6/6 Bridges / Teahrax /
The Desarios
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312 EAST BROAD STREET • 706-543-0797
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Water, Gas, Trash included
On site Laundry
706-353-6868
www.joinermanagement.com
50 GAINES SCHOOL ROAD • 706.543.6368
www.caledonialounge.com
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UIQH 0. i chunkiet presents
wolves in the throne room’
a storm of light
krallice
iued 6 □ no Hes
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256 west dayton street 706.549.5577
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