A Black Metal band from Olympia, Washington, Wolves in the Throne Room have become one of the U.S.'s most successful and critically acclaimed practitioners of the genre in the last decade. The band's Weakling-inspired mix of Black Metal, Post-Rock, Doom Metal, Folk Metal, Crust Punk, and Ambient has earned them a devoted following. Eschewing a number of traditional tropes in the genre like Rock Me, Asmodeus! and corpse paint, the band has been Trope Codifier for the Red & Anarchist Black Metal subgenre, with the band saying, "We play black metal on our own terms, for our own reasons".
Discography:
- Wolves in the Throne Room (Demo, 2004)
- 2005 Demo
- Diadem of Twelve Stars (2006)
- Two Hunters (2007)
- Malevolent Grain (EP, 2009)
- Black Cascade (2009)
- Live at Roadburn 2008 (2009)
- Celestial Lineage (2011)
- BBC Session 2011 Anno Domini (live, 2013)
- Celestite (2014)
- Turning Ever Towards the Sun - Live at Neudegg Alm (2014)
- Thrice Woven (2017)
- Primordial Arcana (2021)
Members:
- Aaron Weaver - drums, guitars, bass, synthesizers, backing vocals
- Nathan Weaver - guitars, bass, drums, synthesizers, lead vocals
- Kody Keyworth - guitar, backing vocals
Former Members:
- Will Lindsay – guitar, backing vocals, bass on Black Cascade; guitar on Malevolent Grain
- Richard Dahlin – guitar on 2005 Demo, Diadem of 12 stars, Two Hunters
- Nick Paul – guitar on Wolves in the Throne Room
Session Musicians:
- Jamie Myers – Sung vocals on Diadem of 12 Stars and Malevolent Grain
- Jessika Kenney – Sung vocals on Two Hunters and Celestial Lineage
- Will Lindsay (Middian) – bass on Live at Roadburn 2008
- Dino Sommese (Dystopia, Asunder) – guest vocals
- Ross Sewage (Ludicra, Impaled, Ghoul) – bass on 2008 Autumn US tour and 2009 Winter European tour
- Oscar Sparbell (Christian Mistress) – bass on 2009 US and European tours
- Anna von Hausswolf - Vocals on Thrice Woven
- Scott Kelly (Neurosis) - Vocals and acoustic guitar on Thrice Woven
Tropes:
- Album Intro Track: "Dea Artio" for Two Hunters.
- Album Title Drop: "Astral Blood" has one of these.
- Ambient: Celestite is an example of Dark Ambient, and the genre has been an influence on the remainder of the band's works as well.
- Band of Relatives: Aaron and Nathan Weaver are brothers.
- Bilingual Bonus: Anna von Hausswolf's vocal parts on Thrice Woven are done in her native Swedish.
- Black Metal: Except for Celestite.
- Bookends: Celestial Lineage begins and ends with the same sound of a tolling bell and wind chimes. Two Hunters, meanwhile, starts with the sounds of insects chirping at night and ends with the sound of birds singing in the morning.
- Breather Episode: "Cleansing", for at least the first 4 minutes (closer to ten on the vinyl version), and the interlude tracks on Celestial Lineage and Thrice Woven.
- Concept Album: One of the weirdest aspects of this band. Apparently, From Two Hunters up to Celestial Lineage is a flowing concept album trilogy, but yet fans are unable to expand onto what the concept is. The fact that the band haven't released lyrics for Black Cascade doesn't help. At the very least, Two Hunters seems to be about a Crapsack World ruled over by an Evil Overlord that is destroyed and then reborn at the end of the album.
- Crapsack World: "Vastness and Sorrow" describes one.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The packaging for the band's two demos and the 3LP Ván reissue of Diadem of 12 Stars.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first demo is way, way heavier than their later material, though it also features embryonic versions of some songs that later made it onto later releases ("If This Dark Age Conquers, We Will Leave This Echo" corresponds with "(A Shimmering Radiance) Diadem of 12 Stars", for instance). The end of "Womb of Fire" may also be the only time Nathan Weaver has actually sung on a Wolves in the Throne Room recording (rather than screamed).
- Epic Instrumental Opener: Several songs have these. "Cleansing" has an even longer one on the vinyl version.
- Epic Rocking: Nearly every song. Most of the band's songs take up an entire LP side, with the longest being the demo version of "(A Shimmering Radiance) Diadem of Twelve Stars", which goes on for nearly twenty-six minutes. If counted as one song, "Face in a Night Time Mirror" is even longer at over twenty-seven minutes long (this one is divided over two LP sides). It is pretty rare for a song of theirs to last much less than ten minutes.
- Evil Overlord: "Vastness and Sorrow" is about a "Black Rider" who reigns over the world as a tyrant.
- Fading into the Next Song: "Cleansing" and "I Will Lay Down My Bones Among the Rocks and Roots" do this on the CD of Two Hunters. They're separated by an LP side division on the vinyl. The ambient interludes on Celestial Lineage also do this, as do the final three songs on Celestite (final two on the LP). Finally, on Thrice Woven, we have "Born from the Serpent's Eye" -> "The Old Ones Are with Us" and "Mother Owl, Father Ocean" -> "Fires Roar in the Palace of the Moon".
- The Great Flood: Alluded to in "Cleansing" on Two Hunters.
- Green Aesop: Most of the band's works have environmentalist themes.
- Heavy Mithril: Their lyrics contain heavy elements of mythology and fantasy, although these elements are more grounded and serious than most examples of the trope.
- Indecipherable Lyrics: Usually. Not helped by the lack of printed lyrics on many releases.
- Loudness War: Thanks to the band's fondness for analogue recording techniques, they don't engage in this much, and as is usual, the vinyl versions are even more dynamic. That said, some of the band's works are borderline cases at DR7 on the CD versions, but these are levels of compression that probably won't bother most listeners. Live at Roadburn, at DR5, is less forgivable.
- Mind Screw: The concept album nature of Two Hunters through Celestial Lineage has been very confusing to fans, especially since we still don't have lyrics for Black Cascade.
- Miniscule Rocking: There are a couple of ambient interludes on Celestial Lineage that don't even reach two minutes. Of course, a six-minute song is Miniscule Rocking by this band's standards.
- New Sound Album: Celestite again.
- Norse Mythology: An influence on Thrice Woven, whose cover art depicts the binding of Fenrir.
- Post-Rock: An influence on the band's song structures.
- Precision F-Strike: There is one of these towards the end of "Queen of the Borrowed Light".
- Rearrange the Song / Sampling: The songs on Celestite are based on/inspired by tracks on Celestial Lineage, only tremendously overhauled and performed in a completely different genre. Additionally, three of the songs on the self-titled demo were rearranged for later releases; for example, "If This Dark Age Conquers, We Will Leave This Echo" became "(A Shimmering Radiance) Diadem of 12 Stars".
- Shoegaze: Not usually, but "Dea Artio" could be considered an example of this genre.
- Shout-Out: "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" is named after a famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich.
- Siamese Twin Songs: The two halves of "Face in a Night Time Mirror" are this on the CD. Once again, they're separated by a side division on the LP version.
- Soprano and Gravel: They frequently include guest female vocalists to contrast with Nathan Weaver's Harsh Vocals.
- Subdued Section: Several songs have these. An excellent example is at around 4:30 into "Astral Blood".
- Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Dea Artio", the first half of "Cleansing", "A Looming Resonance", "Woodland Cathedral", all of Celestite.
- Title Track: Diadem of 12 Stars has "(A Shimmering Radiance) Diadem of 12 Stars". "Astral Blood" could be considered a stealth version of this for Celestial Lineage since the two titles are more or less synonyms. Celestite has "Celestite Mirror". And of course, the band's self-titled demo has a song of the same name. Apart from these four examples, this trope is averted.
- Vinyl Bonus Content: The vinyl edition of Two Hunters includes an extended version of "Cleansing" and an entirely new song, "To Reveal", which is not available anywhere else. Ván Records also released a three-LP version of Diadem of 12 Stars which included the track "Dagger of Amethyst Crystal", which at the time was not available on vinyl in any other release (although they eventually pressed the 2005 demo, which includes it, on vinyl; however, in this release the track wasn't given its own side, meaning the quality was slightly lower).
