Wolves in the Throne Room
BBC Session 2011 Anno Domini
Southern Lord
Street: 11.25.13
Wolves in the Throne Room = Agalloch + Drudkh +
Samothrace
Shortly after releasing 2011’s Celestial Lineage, Wolves in the Throne Room hit the BBC and recorded two tracks from their then-recently-released album. These tracks command over 20 minutes of your time and show how different this band is in the live setting. Ethereal as their studio recordings are, the BBC Session provides a different and equally as compelling experience. “Prayer of Transformation” is a slow and whispered black metal trek on Celestial Lineage, but in the live studio setting it shares a kinship with the patience-testing doom of Bell Witch and Samothrace. Devoid of most reverb, vocals punch harder and are humanized, and the number of sounds these guys can generate without studio magic is impressive. Although a different side of these USBM purveyors from the Pacific Northwest, the BBC Session is as riveting as any album release and stands as more than novelty. –Peter Fryer