2. Wolves in the Throne Room - Celestial Lineage
Song: Subterranean Initiation
And here stands what is in many ways the antithesis of Roads to Judah.
In a year where black metal seemed to be embracing experimentalism to an unseen before degree, Wolves in the Throne Room took things back to the genre’s roots. Combined with their trademark woodland atmospherics and Weaking-inspired riffs, there is a real symphonic tone at play here that really took me by surprise. Indeed, there are moments on Celestial Lineage that could have come right off an Emperor record! This album is a grandiose and climatic finish to the trilogy that began with 2007’s Two Hunters - building in scale and scope until it peaks with a fittingly droning, brooding finale.
If all the talk turns out to be true, and this is the last black metal album for Wolves in the Throne Room, then they have left with Celestial Lineage what may very well be their defining work.
