 Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters Review
by Mark Hensch
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Two Hunters is a glorious album. Taking true black metal's seemingly endless penchant for human conflict and struggle, Wolves in the Throne Room have stripped the genre down to something wonderfully sparse. Out of this barren, empty shell, there sprouts an album not so much conquering a genre, but redefining it. In fact, I promise you that few albums will come within light years of the same emotional weight that Two Hunters carries.
At first, such invigorating feeling will seem hard to bear. The first few spins of this album were difficult for me---where had the band penning 2006's spectacular Diadem of 12 Stars gone? The animalistic, epic rage of old was gone, replaced by a forlorn yet powerful will for survival and quieter, more resonant passages of nature-worshipping USBM. Like dipping my head into a roaring cascade of bone-chilling water, at first the transition was glaringly painful; later, it was refreshing and life-affirming.
And therein lays the charm. Much like early Ulver, there is a fondness here for the entirety of Earth's nature found rarely in current music. Wolves in the Throne Room convey this vibrant, angry and inhuman joy through increasingly original and poignant music---no other band can hope to match the way this album sounds. Though points of reference---including but not limited to Ludicra, early Ulver, Negura Bunget, Agalloch, and Burzum---abide, Two Hunters is a beast all on its own.
By all accounts, there's a reason for this. In recent interviews, Wolves have declared this album a snapshot for man's ascension to power; Two Hunters marks Neanderthal triumph over the monstrous Cave Bear, the only moment in history where man and beast could and did simultaneously prey on each other. As such, the disc raises all sorts of ghostly questions---is Earth better for mankind's superiority? What might we be had we never used our intellect to defeat our predators? Have we lost a respect for nature through being able to subject it so easily? Rather than pointedly answer such tough questions for its listeners, Two Hunters encourages personal reflection on these topics and a thousand more.
"Dia Artio" instantly begins such mental meanderings, the song enfolding listeners in a timeless wall of stunning sound. The sonic hum of a night-lit forest clearing soon transitions into a dull roar of painfully heartbreaking ambient doom. Every bit as shoegazing as it is massive, this grandiose intro invokes the lonely majesty of Burzum's Filosem. As drums plod and guitars throb with slow, slamming sorrow, the song takes listeners through windswept forests amidst the blackest of nights. Treading a fine line between strength and defeat, a piece like this will undoubtedly show the world the beauty and melancholy black metal is capable of.
"Behold the Vastness and Sorrow" quickly reminds listeners that bestial aggression is also part of BM's time-worn formula. Thankfully for us, "Vastness" restates these traditional values of extremity in mind-bending new ways. As the most consistently primal cut on the album, this tune spends 12 minutes racing through manic tremolo-passages that rip-and tear alongside pulverizing blastbeats. The melodies are stark and violent things that claw straight into the heart---every note resonates with power that sinks listeners into the ground. When the climatic center-piece melody shakes it defiant fist in the air, rest assured you'll be right there charging into battle with it. For a trio of musicians, the Wolves are supernaturally adept at crafting intense and complex pieces of music, and this song is proof. I'm calling this one the BM anthem of 2007, hands down.
"Cleansing," meanwhile, takes things in entirely opposite directions. Less a song and more of a purifying ritual, I can honestly (and with a clear conscience) say this song is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. A tribal rhythm slowly snakes through a forest of shimmering, hypnotic guitars, all while Eyvind Kang/Asva's Jessica Kinney sings haunting, mournful melodies that are almost soul-cleaving in their vulnerability. The band attacks with an absolutely annihilating assault rife with cutting undercurrents of unforgettable melody just as its listeners fall into a false sense of despair. The guitars are both abrasive and trance-inducing, almost exploring a dichotomy of pain to bring mind-altering pleasure. Blistering and raw, the song's end is in complete opposition to its beginning.
Ending with a rumbling fade, "Cleansing" leads into the gargantuan "I Will Lay down My Bones among the Rocks and Roots." Lasting over 18 minutes, "Bones" pays homage to all of Wolves' influences, be they black metal, ambient, Goth, folk, doom, or drone. It all starts with a twilight guitar passage, folksy and depressing. From there, an eviscerating stampede of USBM ensues, the break-neck music blistering ear-drums. In a show of expert musicianship, the band seemingly finds hundreds of new ways to add fresh nuances to the same handful of dark melodies, twisting and molding them into a plethora of tortured forms. The song boldly storms through passages of atmospheric dirge, sorrowful strumming, and predatory black metal Krieg just for the Hell of it. Spiritual, uplifting, and expansive, the song's pounding Shamanist climax leads into ferocious shredding not unlike the titular wolves themselves taking down hapless prey.
In many ways, such a feeding frenzy is exactly what Two Hunters is. At times senselessly violent like a predatory animal, at others frighteningly reflective like an early man, the disc shows two polar opposite forces locked in a brutal struggle for life or death. Nothing else matters on Two Hunters, and it is this urgency that will see it on many a writer's "best-of" lists come January 1, 2008. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up ASAP.Wolves in the Throne Room's Two Hunters
1. Dia Artio
2. Behold the Vastness and Sorrow
3. Cleansing
4. I Will Lay Down My Bones among the Rocks and Roots
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Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
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