Pick of the week: Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage

Wolves in the Throne Room deliver again. I remember, some years back, when I first heard their second album, Two Hunters. I thought it was pretty cool, but in the end, I didn't fully understand it until a long while later, after the release of Black Cascade, their following effort. I still haven't heard their debut, Diadem of 12 Stars, and I wonder if the fact prevents me from fully comprehending the rest of their albums, but the way things are, I wholeheartedly enjoy this album.

Celestial Lineage seems to tie together the various styles presented on Two Hunters, Black Cascade and the Malevolent Grain EP, ranging from their bread-and-butter faster parts to doomy slowdowns and moody female vocals. Besides, they still have the uncanny knack, facilitated by the production, which is quite spot-on, for making blastbeats sound atmospheric. And while, instead of 4 tracks like on all the other albums, there is a huge total of 7 tracks on this album, I think it feels even more uniform and flowing than their previous efforts.

The album's out now on Southern Lord Recordings.