Like most serious music fans, self-titled spends most days devouring records across hard drives, streaming services and our trusty office turntable. That’s why we’re devoting the next month to deconstructing LPs we loved from throughout the year. Here’s one of them…
Continue reading »
While we haven’t heard it yet, Wolves In the Throne Room‘s fourth LP has been set for a September 13th release through their longtime label Southern Lord. Details are slim at the moment, but the reclusive black-metal band have revealed the following:
In celebration of the new album, Wolves In the Throne Room will take to the road throughout North America in several waves to kick off the touring cycle in support of ‘Celestial Lineage’. With very D.I.Y. ethics fueling the tour dates, the horde will perform in many wooded locations and smaller, off-beat venues along the way. Some of these specific locations for the shows won’t be announced until just days before some of the shows, where fans are urged to reference WITTR’s official website for exact show locations and/or directions. More dates are being added and additional tours will follow, but at press time the confirmed routing is posted below.
Check out Celestial Lineage‘s cover art and tracklisting below, along with a month of tour dates…
Continue reading »
[Text/Photos by Andrew Parks]
When it comes to Wolves in the Throne Room, we could care less about how ‘true’ the band is to black metal‘s 101 Unholy Commandments. (Our personal favorites: [58] When referring to sex with a Metal Chick use only the terminology “sticking my clouded frost-spire into her gates of attrition”and [101] You mean to tell me you read this whole thing when you could have been prancing about in the forest with an axe? For shame! For shaaaaame!)
Let’s be real here: the BM scene’s collective corpsepainted head is stuck so far up its own ass it makes aging hardcore addicts—guys who still get excited about new Madball albums—look civil. Thankfully for us, the Brothers Weaver (drummer Aaron and frontman Nathan, as backed by guitarist Will Lindsay and bassist Ross Sewage) have always distanced themselves from gross assumptions and unfair expectations in interviews and on record, including the poignant one-two punch of this year’s Malevolent Grain EP and the recently-released/wholly recommended Black Cascade.
Continue reading »
Words and Color Photos by Aaron Richter / B&W Photos by Austin L. Ray
There was a moment this past Saturday in Atlanta, as I emerged from the crowd at the Scion Rock Fest, when I exhaustingly checked the time and realized there was still seven hours of metal to be had, seven more hours of deepening quick-mud, seven more hours of beard-watching, seven more hours of stage-hopping, seven more hours of my face, ears and brain being destroyed. And I got excited.
I’d entered the festival with reservations. Could they really pull it off? Would everyone really behave? Who would be left standing outside the gates once The Masquerade reached its capacity? Despite threats of rain, a steady flux of 4,000 fans filled the festival grounds (capacity 4,700), spread across four stages, one tent-covered outdoor behemoth and three of varying size inside the dilapidated Masquerade. Highlights included co-headliners Mastodon and Neurosis as well as Baroness, Wolves in the Throne Room, Boris and an unreal set by a fully corpsepainted 1349. Jumping from stage to stage, I caught 13 bands in less than 10 hours—eat that, Coachella!
Music aside, kudos to everyone involved for putting together one of the most chill, contained and well-organized music festivals I’ve ever attended. You proved that a massive rock event can occur (largely free of incident) without resorting to police-state tactics. The general pleasantness and courtesy of the fans was remarkable, not to mention an event staff that proved it could think for itself, assess situations, problem solve and alter protocol on the fly. But enough pussy gushing. Without further ado, here are the Scion Rock Fest Superlatives.
[Photo by Ryan Russell]
In a move that’s left the crossover metal scene—okay, maybe just us—wondering about a potential turf war, Southern Lord has snagged Pelican for their fourth full-length and a soon-to-be-completed EP. That means the Chicago-based quartet finally left their longtime label, Hydra Head. In some ways, the deal makes perfect sense (both imprints appeal to the curious hipster market; Pelican’s drummer, Larry Herweg, used to play in Lair of the Minotaur, another Southern Lord band), but it seems odd that one of Hydra Head’s flagship artists flew the coop just a year after shooting this video with their owner, a certain “Juan Perez.”
As the winter of our discontent settles in along with a deep, deep frost, we’re thrilled to hear that Wolves in the Throne Room have two new releases on tap over the next couple months. First up: a vinyl-only EP called Malevolent Grain. Due out in two editions (a 180-gram black pressing from Southern Lord, an import-only pic disc from Conspiracy Records) on February 17, it features a pair of new earth-scorching jams. A limited CD version will also be available on the trio’s upcoming European tour.
The big news, however, is the band’s third full-length, Black Cascade. Set to hit the streets on March 31, it was tracked to 2-inch tape by Randall Dunn and Mell Dettmer in Seattle over the past few months. This is the first Wolves release to feature guitarist Will Lindsay (Middian). The former touring bassist rounds joins brothers Nathan and Aaron Weaver on what’s been deemed a “wholly organic black-drone masterwork.”
Metal fans who dig the scene’s melodramatic logos are encouraged to check the Christophe Szpajdel (Emperor, Moonspell) design after the jump, along with a track from Wolves’ last LP.
© 2012 Pop Mart Media | Find us on Twitter & Facebook Site Built by PAPER TIGER
