This is the one album of 2011 that I consider an absolute masterpiece. My original review follows...There is something intimidating about reviewing the new Wolves in the Throne Room record. For one, "Celestial Lineage" is the final cumulative installment in the band's trilogy that started with the much loved "Two Hunters" and continued with the brutal but anthematic "Black Cascade." That fact alone is not what makes approaching the album so daunting, but doing justice to the unique world that WITTR have created over the course of these records is no small task. Part of that is because in many ways this is religious music, as much as it is an exceptional black metal release. For those who don't know already, WITTR live on an organic farm outside of Olympia, Washington where they focus on sustainable growing practices informed to some degree by pagan lore. Their interest in ecology and nature-based spirituality is well documented, and their music is a reflection of both. Their lyrics have focused on pagan primitivism, humankind's connection to nature and man's destruction of himself in losing that connection. While the trilogy's first two records focused on the feral naturalistic side of things, "Celestial Lineage" is a more stately vision of the nature-based spirituality that has always been present in the band's work as it evolves into something more ritualized and refined. In that context the band also explores the contradiction between the order of religion and the chaos of nature, and by extension the tension between civilization and primalism, making for a record that alternates between ethereal beauty and grim darkness. There is really no way I can do justice to everything that is going on throughout "Celestial Lineage," it is an epic record that marks the end of an even grander trilogy, and one that could very well act as holy art for a new world beyond our crumbling one. In fact, you would do better to just read Amy Miller's excellent interview with drummer Aaron Weaver and then go lose yourself in the band's trilogy than read anything I have to say about this record. Yet, I can't help myself but to say something to try and capture that which is ultimately inexplicable, which is the essence of this great work.
Unlike the more straightforward "Black Cascade," "Celestial Lineage" sees the return of heralded classical vocalist Jessika Kenney. Her ethereal voice introduces the record, giving it the air of religious ceremony before the band breaks loose with the grandiose atmospheric black metal that has become their trademark. Yet, there is something more massive in the band's sound and approach here than anything they have done before, which is really saying something for a band who has never sounded anything less than epic. Part of that is due to the marrying of the supernal with the grimness of the cold earth and forest simultaneously. While there are distinct moments of beauty and ugliness present on the record, much of it is spent blending the two, as if to reflect the contradictions, and possible dissolution of tensions, between the rawness of nature and the organization of society and ceremony. For instance, the second-half of opener "Thuja Magus Imperium" sounds a bit like Popol Vuh if they were a black metal band. This seamless blending of disparate tensions is found even more so on "Subterranean Initiation" and "Astral Blood," arguably the band's two most cumulative pieces, running the gamut from Xasthur-like blackened atmospherics to muscular metal to transcendental cascades of sound, all often played out simultaneously. One cannot help but be enraptured by the profound and brilliant execution of the band's ideas throughout "Celestial Lineage," but these tracks in particular are the perfect distillation of everything WITTR has been working toward.
Elsewhere the band focuses on ambient interludes, such as "Permanent Changes in Consciousness" and "Rainbow Illness," the former which sounds like metal being sharpened for a ritual and calls to mind the naturalistic experimentalism of the Bay Area's Thuja, while the later sounds like a kosmische interpretation of technology in decline. Then there is "Woodland Cathedral," a doomy and stately vehicle for Kenney's voice. There is an inescapable religious feel to the piece, making for WITTR's most refined production to date.
The record ends with "Prayer of Transformation," a piece that finds the band branching out in new directions and mining a sound that is more majestic than grim. There is both a victorious and elegiac quality to the number, as well as a overwhelming sense of finality. It is a fitting end not only for the record, but the trilogy as a whole. It is the sound of culmination and transformation, containing within it the sadness of death and the joy of rebirth. There has been much speculation as to whether this is not only the final album in the trilogy, but the final album by Wolves In The Throne Room entirely. From what I have read that does not appear to be the case. Instead it seems that the band will be moving on from black metal to create something new. Intentional or not, "Prayer of Transformation" seems like the perfect bridge toward a new sound for the band, and one that holds much promise. Whether it is or not, it is a perfect ending for one of modern music's most auspicious body of work.
"Thuja Magus Imperium"
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