Two Hunters - The Metal Minute
http://rayvanhornjr.blogspot.com/2007/09/cd-review-wolves-in-throne-room-two.html
5/5. by Ray Van Horn,
Proving for the second time after their boundary-smashing Diadem of 12 Stars that black metal isn't confined to just manic guitar strumming and serpentine Satanic love letters, Olympia, Washington's Wolves in the Throne Room comes up with an album even more transcendental and often sonically beautiful, Two Hunters.
Like Agalloch and Nachtmystium, Wolves in the Throne Room have figured out how to breathe American character into a traditionally Scandinavian dirge sound without compromising the core anger and angst that fuels black metal. Rather than dabble on about Lucifer's predicted reign on Earth, Wolves in the Throne Room utilizes the medium to produce cathartic aural baths bred of an earthbound devotion, and while the use of keyboards amidst their gorgeous, echoing guitar lines, Two Hunters, like its predecessor, is organic and faintly orchestral. This is a band that has figured out how to improbably meld Emperor, Neurosis, Boris and Sonic Youth in an incredibly deep, emotional charge that free-floats at times, then runs like a wildebeast at others.
When Wolves in the Throne Room thrashes like hellions, it actually means something because there's been preamble and build-up leading to their punishing tempos. A perfect example is the positively epic "Behold the Vastness and Sorrow," already benefitting from the prelude intro track "Dia Artio," which is hypnotic, alluring and sad, so much mighty he-men can't help but swell inside. By the time "Behold" starts threading its way towards a traditional blast beat rhythm, this becomes secondary to the ultimate steady, pulverizing smash tempo the song belts through in the final stanza, which, after more than ten minutes, is more emotional outletting than should be asked from any band. The aggression of this song ironically scrubs and washes you instead of dirties you like many black metal bands have a tendency to do, proving that there's a residual effect of salvation in such a bombastic sound.
Appropriately titling the third song "Cleansing," the tribal rhythm and cadenced vocals from Jessica Kinney (who also worked with Asva and Eyvind King) provide a cascading sensation of peace before cutting loose like a beserker, and still there's a hopefulness to the high-end guitar lines amidst the destructive tone the song takes.
Everything you've heard to this point is encapsulated in the final song "I Will Lay My Bones Among the Rocks and Roots," which is pretty-well explained in title and further exemplified in song, a return of body to the earth when the final breath is cast, and if Iron Maiden could come up with the perfect power metal epic with "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," consider "I Will Lay My Bones Among the Rocks and Roots" one for black metal. It's a meaningful and triumphant ode to facing the inevitability of death and embracing the notion of reuniting with the ground that essentially birthed you, so much the fading sound of chirping birds produces a whispered and poignant finale far more interesting than the sound of burning, crackling churches.
Ugly and elegant at the same time, Two Hunters is a masterpiece of modern black metal that shields nothing of its duality. Wolves in the Throne Room bravely subjects their listners to sonnets of both acrimoniousness and complaisance and in the end, Two Hunters has declared itself eternal...