Wolves In The Throne Room – Black Cascade (2009) [Southern Lord] // Grade: B+

Just like early hardcore and punk, Black Metal’s roots are embedded in its shitty, lo-fi recordings. Overly-produced metal and punk just doesn’t do it for me. Something about polishing something born in a dark and decrepit wasteland just seems sacrilegious! Wolves in the Throne Room’s newest release Black Cascade was recorded using two-inch tape. Randall Dunn, the producer then mixed it on a 1973 Neve console, resulting in the typically flat sound familiar to Black Metal.

The resulting sound makes Black Cascade ambiguously situated within the Black Metal time-line. Mixing spiritualistic and eco-friendly lyrics with organic melodies and brisk collapsing breaks, this album would cater to the post-rock and post-metal crowds as well as the die-hard Black Metal crowd. There are no blast beats and no peaking moments of brutality, just somber and melodic Black Metal laced over 4 tracks, each about 10 minutes in length.

What do you expect? The album’s name is an homage to the Cascade Mountains where the band was born!

- Prolly