Wolves In The Throne Room
Two Hunters

Exaggeration can only have two motives: exhibitionism, none. Exhibitionist exaggeration is often overused in the homeland of Wolves In The Throneroom (USA). If you consider American Black Metal, there are plenty of supposed misanthropes who are regular gig-goers, aspiring immortal suicides, eternally angry people promoting their singles in a version with a bonus track of 2:50, overrich depressives, collaborations with uncompromising intolerants...

Unintentional exaggeration, on the other hand, should best express the genuineness that generates it. Is that the case with WITTR?

Apparently, they declare to teen metal-mythomaniac magazines that they have decided to live in contact with nature, in a forest, detaching themselves and becoming independent from society concerning every aspect not related to music...
I have formed an idea about their exaggeration. Talking about the album, however: not knowing them in depth and only evaluating this work, it seems to be one of the best emerging realities of Atmospheric Black Metal. Yet, going back, one discovers that it has not always been this way. Although they have maintained an average of one album per year since 2004, the artistic quality has significantly grown compared to the first and then the second demo. Already with "Diadem Of 12 Stars," a significant qualitative leap was noticed, which is easily attributable to an affiliation with a certain Southern Lord Records. In any case, the current pinnacle of the group is encapsulated in the 46 minutes of these four songs grouped under the name Two Hunters.

The formation, very essential, includes two guitarists/vocalists and a drummer. The screaming is powerful but not intrusive, not too high. The technical skill of the three is somewhat concealed by the musical-stylistic choice, even though the drumming almost always sounds perfect. What is frightening is the muscular endurance that is demonstrated even in their rare live performances. Indeed, it seems that no more than 4 tracks are released in every album produced so far. The lengths are monstrous and unfeasible for casual listening. The exaggeration of Two Hunters is so immediate that it presents itself already in the introductory track "Dia Artio," probably the longest intro I have ever heard... Besides maybe being the true gem of the album. The enveloping and misty atmosphere that advances majestically at the speed of Earth's rotation emotionally involves, wrenching the heart and slowing it down to allow it to enter the apocalyptic outlook of those who see the world collapsing and cannot stop it in time. The use of synthesizers and tremolo-effected guitars makes the fulfillment of this vision possible. Subsequently, the three tracks "Vastness and Sorrow," "Cleasing" and "I Will Lay Down My Bones Among the Rocks and Roots" will expose WITTR's interpretation of Black Metal.

The inspiration and dedication to nature find a point of contact in the perfect musical and lyrical coordination, finely curated through numerous guitar overdubs. The sonic power thus derives from a large number of details, none of which seem to play a secondary role. The monstrous tirelessness to which the three subject themselves produces a musical homogeneity that permits neither surprises nor confusion and especially allows surpassing the limit of normal exposure time, reducing the listener to a slave of progressive and irreversible sonic evolutions. There is no kind of metric or musical structure, no refrain, presumably because there is no time. The tremolos are so overused that you have to see them live to truly believe they are played and not looped. In the third and fourth tracks, there is room for guest Jessica Kinney's female choir, which only eases between tracks.

Everything seems perfectly studied to prevent the presence of the slightest defect, and this perhaps is the biggest flaw of the CD: it is too polished. Obviously, if anyone could ever consider it a flaw...