I let Spotify pick the album today, and they suggested this because I listened to Horseback and Drudkh. I like those bands. I do not like the band name Wolves In The Throne Room at all. Wolves are cool, and throne rooms are cool, and yes it's cool when wolves are in the throne room, but it's still too much of a name. Throne Room Wolves might have worked a little bit better, but that probably makes for a better basketball team name. Let's check this thing out.
1. "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog". Any sea fog song should start with rain, and this does just that. Then a fuzzy guitar wanders in and plays a riff. A crescendo of screams emerges next, served over drums. The vocals sound good. More dying witch man, than ferocious growl. This song sounds good, but it is also over ten minutes long. My attention is already starting to wane by the 2:30 mark. With this extra time, we can look at the band's Spotify bio. According to Spotify, the band is from Olympia, WA and are inspired by long, bleak winters and pagan legends. These inspirations are both evident in the early parts of this four song album. This song does make me envision pagan winter deathlands. There isn't a lot to do here, so you just kind of sit and wait. If you're looking for decent metal to put on in the background while you space out or work, this could work. Other than that, it's not very exceptional. It's pretty boring and the length is unnecessary.
2. "Ahrimanic Trance". This song starts with feedback, and some screaming and the blast of music. Sounds like evil witch man is conjuring up some evil black magic. I will check google to see what Ahrimanic means. The symphonic music on this song is actually kind of cool. A lot more interesting than the first song. Ahrimanic brought me to this Wikipedia page. "Angra Mainyu is the Avestan-language name of Zoroastrianism's hypostatis of the "destructive spirit". That's cool that the Wolves In The Throne Room are into this kind of stuff. I bet they originally wanted to call themselves that entire quote, but were convinced to switch to WITTR. The acronym is even worse than the band name. Anyway, I guess Ahrimanic has to do with Ahriman, who is the Middle Persian equivalent of Angra Mainyu. Oh man this song sounds like it's ending at the 6 minute mark, but there's still 8 more minutes to go on the track. I wonder if it will be an 8 minute outro. Oh wait, second wind and we're back into what sounds like a brand new song, even though it's the same track. SNAP OUT OF THIS EVIL TRANCE, WANDERER ABOVE THE SEA OF FOG. IT'S A TRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP. As Spotify grays out while you listen to the music, it shows an image of Anchorman 2. I do not want to see that. Back to the Wikipiedia page. This is kind of cool: "The primary guitarist and songwriter of black metal band Dark Funeral is called Lord Ahriman". We listened to Dark Funeral last week, and we liked it. Seems like referencing Ahriman is to metal what incorporating the word ska in your band name is to ska. If I had a ska band it would be called Skahriman. You can't take this band name.
Geico commercial. These are usually tolerable.
3. "Ex Cathedra". More rain. Drip drip drip drip drip. Crescendo of guitars and drum. Very medieval sounding. This song is good. It's also over ten minutes long.
4. "Crystal Ammunition". 14 minute song. Sounds like the previous three. Cool build up of music. I'm not paying attention though, and instead am thinking about food carts in Philadelphia. I'm not sure if there is a documentary about the people who run these things, but if there is I would watch it. If there's not, I would pay a few bucks to get the thing started (like maybe $7). Vocals start at 3 minutes on this song. Pretty good. This song could go on that documentary. Once again the song stops around the six minute mark. It feels like it could (should) just end here. Instead it does a quiet thing, and will probably build into another more 8 minutes of a song. Yup, at the 8 minute mark there is more blasts into a song. It's pretty uplifting sounding too, which is cool. It's the sound of a successfully served food cart cheese steak.
Grade: 2 out of 5 decapitated goats.
Top Tracks:
1. Crystal Ammunition
2. Ex Cathedra
3. Ahrimanic Trance
Imaginary Band Names mentioned:
1. Skahriman
2. "Angra Mainyu is the Avestan-language name of Zoroastrianism's hypostatis of the "destructive spirit"-Wikipedia
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