Playing blackened-forest metal from the pits of purgatory, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM live up to the doom-laden majesty of their name. This is the soundtrack to a cold dark winter, the perfect storm of snow from heaven and black ice from hell. The way the rolling guitars and lost-soul vocals merge into one dense wave of tumult brings to mind an otherworldly sheet of hail descending onto the mortal plain. Atmosphere is the aim, despair sublimated into a sonic expanse of crushing night. Sometimes it can be called ambient, but ambient in the most menacing sense - between BATHORY and JESU perhaps.

The songs are layered, epic and about as varied as can be expected within confines this bleakly uplifting. Sound effects from nature, shoegazer passages, symphonic female vocals and acoustic interludes all make an appearance before being swallowed in dark walls of sound. Obviously the band are unafraid to challenge genre conventions in achieving their aim of evoking a primordial dark utopia. Containing four tracks ranging from six to eighteen minutes, "Two Hunters" journeys to the limits of black metal and brings back a twitching deer carcass within its saber-toothed maw. Recommended for the faint of heart, just to be sadistic.

- Shragge

OFFICIAL SITE: www.wolvesinthethroneroom.com

RELATED ITEMS: WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM - "Diadem of 12 Stars" 2006