Audio By Carbonatix
According to Nathan Weaver, guitarist for Washington-based Wolves in the Throne Room (joined on this bill by Gojira and Krallice), his band combines “Cascadian eco-spiritual awareness and the misanthropic Norwegian eruptions of the ’90s” — a description that could hardly be more pretentious. And yet, surprisingly enough, a listen to Black Cascade, the group’s latest recording, suggests that he’s not entirely delusional. Much of the group’s sound conforms to the extreme-metal template: a malevolent wall of noise made up of growling guitars, panicky drumming (by Weaver’s brother, Aaron) and largely unintelligible vocals that alternately suggest cries from the id and a scat singer possessed by the devil — Lucifer Armstrong, maybe? But in the midst of this mayhem, the players offer up unexpected drones and melodic shards that can seem almost bucolic compared to the sonic chaos whirling around them. Don’t know if that constitutes “eco-spiritual awareness,” but one thing’s clear: This particular cascade comes in varying shades of black.
