Wolves In The Throne Room – Primordial Arcana | Album Review

Wolves In the Throne Room have existed as an entity for nearly twenty years now, but latest album Primordial Arcana represents new beginnings in many ways.

It’s the first album for Century Media Records as well as the first album to be created in a fully self-contained way; the band wrote, recorded and mixed the entire thing themselves at their home studios, Owl Lodge Studios, in the woods of Washington state. That change can’t be understated; while Primordial Arcana is still clearly a Wolves In The Throne Room album, many little changes – including its self-containment – add up to create something remarkable indeed. 

First of all, the inclusion of guitarist Kody Keyworth in the writing process, bringing him fully into the Wolves In The Throne Room cult, lends an extra cosmic dimension to an already expansive sonic palette. His background in funeral doom lends itself especially well to slower moments; there’s extra texturing that wasn’t necessarily there before, or has been brought forward. The addition of lower, primal roars are another change wrought by Kody; they’re used sparingly sometimes, such as during opener ‘Mountain Magick’ and a little way past the midpoint of ‘Through Eternal Fields’. Other times he’s much more prominent, adding a cavernous dimension to ‘Primal Chasm (Gift Of Fire)’ and ‘Underworld Aurora’.

They stand in contrast to Nathan Weaver’s much higher blackened rasp that fans have come to know and love over the years; his voice evokes frosty landscapes, forests and rivers running through them. Rather than sounding aggressive or overly harsh, instead it’s as if a cold wind is rushing through the soundscapes they create. 

First track ‘Mountain Magick’ is perhaps the most aggressive – if it can be called that – song on the album, or at least the frostiest. Although it opens with ambience and synths, there’s soon tremolo riffs and fast double bass work and blastbeats, perhaps the most “typical” black metal song of the album. It still steers true to their atmospheric sound, though, in its melodicism and at times airy feel, without losing any of its coldness. 

Cold is perhaps a good way of describing Primordial Arcana as a whole; it still retains every inch of their atmospheric black metal and some with the cosmic elements brought in by Kody, but it feels colder than previous albums. Its predecessor, Thrice Woven, felt much earthier by comparison, whereas even with ‘Mountain Magick’ we hear alpine melodies courtesy of the guitars. ‘Spirit Of Lightning’ also leans heavily into frostier territories with a steady, mid-paced tempo and meandering guitar lines reminiscent of traipsing through the snow in the depths of winter. 

Something that Wolves In The Throne Room have always done exceptionally well is their use of atmospherics; not just synths but nature sounds to craft their soundscapes, both of which Primordial Arcana delivers in spades. The opening caws of a bird lead into an almost dungeon synth introduction in ‘Underworld Aurora’ feel otherworldly, as if descending into the netherworld itself. True to its name again, Kody’s deep growls create a sense of deep caverns and subterranean wonders. The sense of nature and reverence for the natural world is paramount to their sound, not just evoked through synths and other sounds but through the other instruments themselves.

Whereas much black metal was heavily influenced by the second wave bands, their Satanism (whether real or gimmick) and nihilism, Wolves In The Throne Room instead seek to commune with and create music to honour the natural world itself. ‘Eostre’, for instance, closes the album with an almost hymn-like quality, a dreamy synth piece that gradually swells and crescendos with flutes creating an even more woodlands feel. 

Twenty years on, Wolves In The Throne Room seem to be maturing like a fine wine and only improving; something they, too have hinted at, stating that the more insular they become, the better their art becomes. With results like Primordial Arcana it’s very difficult to argue with that assessment; while it hasn’t as many warm, earthy tones as Thrice Woven, it’s just as enveloping and all-encompassing in its scope and reverence for nature, as well as being one of the finest entries in an already excellent discography. This is atmospheric black metal at its most ethereal, beautiful and haunting.