Saturday, January 7, 2012

Wolves in the Throne Room: Celestial Lineage (5/5)

Joshua's Top 10 Albums for 2011
#3 of 10

Year: 2011
Genre: Atmoblamet
Label: Southern Lord
TRT: 48:51

Wolves in the Throne Room will always hold a special place in my blackened heart, because they are the band that unlocked black metal for me, and it has since become one of my most-listened to and favorite genres. After the release of the straight-forward and mostly mediocre Black Cascade, I feared they had lost their touch. Yet again, I'm happy to be wrong in such situations.

Celestial Lineage gets back to the incredibly well constructed atmospheres of their first two albums, and some how, some way, makes them more vast and full-sounding than ever. In addition, there are some absolutely magnificent riffs to be found here. While that's always been the case, they're much more prominent on this album. Specifically (and you know I don't like singling out tracks), Astral Blood is one of the most black plague infectious tracks I've ever heard. I spent several weeks humming guitar parts (much to the chagrin of my wife). And when I got it on vinyl...let's just say Side C has gotten many many times the play the rest of the album has. I think I must have picked up the needle and started it over maybe 12 times in a row that first day. I would highly recommend picking up the LP if that's something you're in to.

01 Thuja Magus Imperium
02 Permanent Changes In Conciousness
03 Subterrenean Initiation
04 Rainbow Illness
05 Woodland Cathedral
06 Astral Blood
07 Prayer of Transformation

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