While I make no claims as to the validity of my experience with metal--hell, I couldn't name more than a handful of scene-respected metal bands--I do count myself among those who don't automatically dismiss an album because it happens to brandish the usual flourishes common to these albums. And in a genre that is known for its overt predilection for pretension and grand guignol theatrics, knowing which bands may indeed warrant the attention of a listener can seem a collossal endeavour in its own right. Bands like Liturgy, who seemingly draw the ire of hardcore fans, and Krallice, who've developed their own sizable following on the strengths of their live shows and past few records, have allowed an entryway for listeners who aren't intimately familiar with the comings and goings of metal, in any of its complexly differentiated forms.
There has been some headway made though over the past few years that indicates that metal may not be as all exclusive as it once was and including the bands I've just mentioned, there are artists who are enamored with the idea that this music can mean more than just the cliched assumptions of thrown fists and unintelligible lyrics. The latest release from Wolves In The Throne Room makes more clearly the direction that metal may yet be heading, into a still theatric though musically subtle path. Though that's not to say this doesn't sound like metal, it sure as hell does, but the way that Wolves In The Throne Room go about offering their continuation of the assimilation and integration of various metal stand-bys plays more freely with the concepts and rigorously defended constructs which metal purists will say is dilluting the form. That's really just a knee jerk reaction to a band allowing creative movement and room to grow in a genre that can easily collapse and stagnate under its own weight. Celestial Lineage may be the stepping stone for many to finally take that leap into what has normally been an off-limits area of musical exploration, whether by self-imposed caution or by what pre-conceived notions they've had of people who listen to metal. With songs like the thunderously, complex opener "Thuja Magus Imperium", with its multi-part construction, to "Astral Blood" with its ocean of chugging, surging sounds--right down to an acoustic guitar part--which seems to have more in common with its post-punk forebears than any metal song has a right, this album may change the long held beliefs and attiudes toward what metal can be, and should be. Wolves In The Throne Room have been heading in this direction for some time and with this album, the closer in a self-styled trilogy of albums, they've broken free of the rules and barriers of their particular genre of music and created an album which shows, through its use of creative tonal arrangements and brutal guitar attacks, that metal can be more than what we know, that it is whatever the listener needs it to be.
Tracklisting:
01. Thuja Magus Imperium (listen to the mp3 below)
02. Permanent Changes In Consciousness
03. Subterranean Initiation
04. Rainbow Illness
05. Woodland Cathedral
06. Astral Blood
07. Prayer Of Transformation
No comments:
Post a Comment