Each song of the Malevolent Grain EP, "A Looming Resonance" and "Hate Crystal," comprises one side of an exquisitely packaged 12". Both songs are top-notch examples of the more hypnotic and earthy side of black metal. "A Looming Resonance" builds from a somber clean melody to some kind of operatic, backwoods hymn to the forces of nature. "Hate Crystal," however, goes straight for the throat with some serious blasting, but ends up segueing into the same kind of haunting, almost neo-classical progression. There's also some pretty good dark ambient moments to finish off both sides that would make Nightbringer proud.
The result is somehow brutal and soothing at the same time. The layered and repetitious nature of the music, even at its fastest, lends a certain meditative quality one would usually associate with post-rock, ambient, or even shamanic drumming. Even the blast beats, through sheer repetition, have the effect of transporting the mind of the listener far from the worries of everyday existence.
This EP is some of the band's most psychedelic work yet, but still strongly rooted in traditional black metal. The upcoming full-length, Black Cascade, continues to push in this direction, but Malevolent Grain is the stronger release because the songwriting is more varied (in terms of what musical elements are included), as well as having better art. Each side of the EP has its niche, and you couldn't ask for more from a band like this. Wolves in the Throne Room represents a kind of missing link between the outsider, anti-social, anti-modern sentiments of black metal and a more redeeming, all-encompassing philosophy. This philosophy still shuns mainstream society, but isn't about being all-evil, all the time.
Wolves in the Throne Room has been accused of being a "hipster" black metal band, but I just can't see it. There's been a long history relatively speaking - almost twenty years - of experimentation with ambient soundscapes in black metal that can't be forgotten and Wolves in the Throne Room is just a new incarnation of that. Wolves in the Throne Room's (relative) popularity is of little consequence to me; this is still quality music that will stand the test of time. The hipsters will be gone in a couple years anyway, onto whatever new thing sounds "novel" to them. Either way, blame the fans, not the band, for "ruining" this genre or that genre.
Wolves in the Throne Room's epic, cyclic, trance-inducing black metal is closer to Burzum than what any average hipster listens to. Black metal is black metal and there is pretty much no way a genre like this could ever be packaged for mainstream consumption, except maybe for some Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir garbage, but that it about as mainstream as it can get. Wolves in the Throne Room has nothing in common with those bands in the first place: the band's music is organic, atmospheric, and is less about show, more about substance.
