Nice concise review, nailing the quality of this release right on the head.

Nice review indeed. An ok album, Diadem of 12 Stars is still their best IMO.

The EP they released this year is much better than this.

Diadem of 12 stars is better but this deserves a 9...good review nonthe less

Good review....but come on..it deserve higher rating...its may be not original as "Two Hunter", but i guess its better than it

WITTR RULZ

Fwiw, in regards to my rating being "low" - my average album score is 7.8.

S.K.O.M.'s is a half point higher at 8.3, and Galar averages nearly a 9 (8.93) on album scores... so within the context of our own personal rating spectrum, we pretty much value this album about equally. It's "average" compared against our ratings of other albums.

Written by Talvi on 04.05.2009 at 22:55

The EP they released this year is much better than this.

That's is because it has more hipster apeal.

Written by Guest on 05.05.2009 at 18:51

Written by Talvi on 04.05.2009 at 22:55

The EP they released this year is much better than this.

That's is because it has more hipster apeal.

Yeah probably I'm a fucking hipster. But "normal" black metal bores me anyway.

I hope to see more reviews like this in the future, you really cut through the shit and got to the point, making it nice to read.

About the album. I enjoyed it quite a bit from what I've heard, the lack of a bottom end starts to get grating after a while, but thats something I guess one should come to expect with black metal. Definitely need to give it a better listen though, 10 minute black metal songs can be a big bite to chew if your not in the right mood.

It's the first WITTR album I have and I liked it! This is 'black metal' for me.

Good review mate; though I wouldn't have docked them so much for originality or production.

Written by MLSilbernagel on 11.05.2009 at 09:00

though I wouldn't have docked them so much for originality or production.

7 is a good mark. 8 is great.....BitterCOld, you wanna finish up this lecture?

No point, really. SSDD. taking out the hatchet job on "As I Lay Dying" and the average score is 8.95...

for the most part i just roll my eyes now when people who think everything is "brilliant" quibble about scores.

i'll store the bitterness up for another couple months then unleash some cathartic tirade somewhere on the forum...

I agree, the Ep is no doubt better than this.

Compared to their past releases, this might be somewhat lacking but compared to alot of black metal releases in 2009, this is in contention for black metal album of the year..I found it that good.

So far i only listened once to this, because i want that interested to give another try...maybe one day...

It's not a bad band but I don't enjoy them enough to buy their albums.

These must be long songs if theres only 4 songs... looks good though if i find it cheap ill buy it.

Written by Boxcar Willy on 20.10.2010 at 21:38

These must be long songs if theres only 4 songs... looks good though if i find it cheap ill buy it.

i mentioned something in the review about all four songs clocking in around the 10 minute mark... so while it has only 4 tracks, it's longer than a lot of classic thrash, death, and black metal albums.

The magic that is missing from this album is how the album just doesn't seem to be as inspired by nature as Two Hunters, and later, Celestial Lineage were (sorry folks, havn't listened to Diadem of 12 Stars...yet). For the sake of simplicity Two Hunters was often times atmospheric black metal much like Black Cascade, but despite the chaos of the tremelo picking, the melodies played progressed similarly to tree branches being blown with the wind. Don't believe me, walk through the woods listening to Two Hunters, and you'll hear how the melodies progress like that.

Two Hunters also did a better job at making us hate modernity, despite not being as straight forward as Black Cascade. Many songs started with an allusion of nature (without actually sampling sounds from it) whether it was a synthesizer or the opening melodies, often times in conjunction with Aaron's chaotic (if not sloppy) drumming, giving the image of man's work slowly encroaching, murdering, and destroying nature. Sometimes we just got blasts of black metal but we still had that image of nature. In Black Cascade, I feel, that man has won, the woods are destroyed, pavement covers everything, the waters are enslaved and black in polution, and whatever "nature" is left are but prisoners and a mockery of nature due to man's obsession with control.

However so it still does not feel as unique as their previous work, if not feeling like an artistic step backwards for Wolves. Maybe they are proving something to themselves but is not really what the fandom they've established necessarily come to expect. It's like Static-X's "Start a War, or Cradle of Filth's "Nymphetimine" (I know its blasphemy to compare WitTR to these two bands but read me out); both bands stripped down their sound to essentially their "core" band and removed the electronic/symphonic elements from their music, being rather big disappointments for fans of both bands. The album pretty much jumps into absolute pure misanthropy and anger and never really lets up. Luckily they seemed to learn their lesson in Celestial Lineage IMO.

Crushingly depressive. I don't know why, but this really sounds much, much darker than Two Hunters and Celestial Lineage.