Archive for Wolves in the Throne Room

At The Gates and Behemoth live in Tampere

Posted in Gig, Live with tags , , , , , on 31st January 2019 by izaforestspirit

Wolves In The Throne Room, At The Gates, Behemoth
Pakkahuone, Tampere, Finland
30th January 2019

My first gig of 2019! I have been waiting for a long time for a chance to see Behemoth again. The last time I saw them live was Tuska Open Air 2012 on their first tour shortly after their front-man Nergal’s recovery from leukemia. I have kept up to date with all their releases and news and last year I could not believe my luck when I discovered that they are coming to my home town.

The venue was sold out on the night and the there was already a sizable crowd right from the start. I could not really get into the first band – Wolves In The Throne Room. Their sound can be described as a mixture of atmospheric black metal and dark ambient. Some of the songs they played were incredibly slow and more ambient than black metal. While this kind of music might be fine to listen to at home, it’s not really something that I want to hear live 2.5/5

I guess that most people who are into melodic death metal are familiar with At The Gates. They are after all one of the forefathers of the genre with some genre-defining releases to boot. This was not the first time that I have seen them live and I hope that it will not be my last. They had a few issues with their performances. First, their vocalist Tomas got the name of the city wrong, a minor mistake which he spent the rest of the night apologizing for. The other issue they had turned out to be more serious – a broken drum set.


It took some time to fix the problem but luckily they managed to sort it out in time to play a few more songs. A very good show overall despite the setbacks. 4/5

Finally came the moment I have been waiting seven years for. Behemoth started their set a little later than planned but it was definitely worth the extra time. They had an impressive amount of visuals and various props all contributing to a wonderful performance. They played some of the hits such as ‘Decade of Therion’(my personal favourite), ‘Chant For Eschaton 2000’, ‘Slaves Shall Serve’, ‘Lucifer’ along with lots of songs from the new album including ‘Bartzabel’ and ‘Wolves of Siberia. What a fantastic show! It was even better than the last time that I saw them live. 5/5

In summary, the only band I did not enjoy watching live was Wolves In The Throne Room. It was a little too slow for my liking. At The Gates managed to overcome their technical problem and put on a great show. Behemoth were everything that I hoped for and more. I absolutely loved their show. This was their first time in Tampere and I really hope that they came back again in the future.

Iza Raittila

 

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Sabbath Assembly premier new track from Ye Are Gods and change release date

Posted in News with tags , , , , , , , on 19th September 2012 by Nico Solheim-Davidson, the North Sea Poet

Today, Sabbath Assembly premiere a new track from their forthcoming second album, Ye Are Gods. Entitled We Give Our Lives, this eerie, next glimpse into the magick and majesty of Ye Are Gods can streamed in its entirety here. Tastemaking website Invisible Oranges fittingly states that they “just can’t decide if they are kvlt or just creepy.”

Due to the elaborate packaging, the release date for Sabbath Assembly‘s Ye Are Gods has been adjusted to September 28th for Europe and the UK (through Svart Records) and October 5th for North America (through The Ajna Offensive).

As on the critically acclaimed Restored to One debut, released in 2010 by The Ajna Offensive, Ye Are Gods presents the hymns of the Process Church of the Final Judgment, a religious movement that emerged in the late 1960s as an apocalyptic shadow-side to the flower power and New Age movements.

Reaching beyond the scope of Restored to One, Ye Are Gods incorporates the ritual text and structure of the Process Church’s highest and holiest mass, the “Sabbath Assembly” liturgy from which the band is named.

Ye Are Gods is led by vocalist Jamie Myers, a veteran of Hammers of Misfortune (The Locust Years) and Wolves in the Throne Room (Diadem of 12 Stars, Malevolent Grain). Dave “Christian” Nuss remains drummer and co-producer.

The album features Genesis P-Orridge serving the role of High Priest(ess), aka “Sacrifist,” Eyvind Kang plays viola for the liturgical “Declaration of the Gods,” and guitarist/vocalist Imaad Wasif offers a chilling rendition of the hymn We Give Our Lives. In addition, Timothy Wyllie, an original Process Church member, provides a homily from Process Church founder Robert DeGrimston’s Gods on War. Mr. Wyllie is the author of Feral House’s LOVE SEX FEAR DEATH, which offers an insider’s perspective of the Church and its true leadership.

The album offers a first-ever glimpse into the Process’s most sacred liturgical text, taking the astute listener through the mysterious Gnostic journey of the unification of Christ and Satan; the bliss of total submission to the gods Jehovah, Lucifer, Satan, and Christ; the wilds of the Apocalypse and a face-to-face encounter with the Angel of Death; and finally the moment of spiritual renewal in which the Process’s “Law of the Universe” is revealed.

The influential Process Church opened chapters in London, Europe, and across the USA, dressing in black cloaks and walking the streets with German Shepherds. To promote their controversial theology, they sold intricately-designed magazines, three of which are documented in full-color reproductions in the recently issued Propaganda and Holy Writ of the Process Church of the Final Judgment (Feral House/Ajna).

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Lustre – They Awoke to The Scent of Spring

Posted in Review with tags , , , , , , on 11th September 2012 by Paul

Lustre
They Awoke to the Scent of Spring
Released September 1st 2012
Atmospheric Black Metal
Released via De Tenebrarum Principio

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This album by the Swedish one man band Lustre falls under the subgenre known as “Atmospheric Black Metal”. If that phrase has you thinking of bands such as “In The Woods…”, “Walknut”, “From The Sunset, Forest and Grief”, “Wongraven” and “Drudkh” then it’s probably a term that is familiar to you. From what I have gathered from other fans of the Black Metal genre, this is either loved or loathed. If you don’t like it, it’s easy to describe as boring or even pretentious. If like me, you are a fan, then it’s a genre that is similar to Funeral Doom, in that it is fairly difficult to do wrong. You know the deal: 9+ minute songs about forests and winter and stuff, echoey, haunting vocals, minimalist drumming (if featured at all), stretched out, melancholy riffs that repeat ad nauseum and perhaps some spooky keyboard sounds. Slap on a grayscale photograph of a forest and you’re good to go. And that perfectly describes this album.

Another common genre trait of this release is its concise format, with only four songs, each around the ten minute mark, slightly diminishing in length with each successive track, producing a kind of “fading away” effect on the listener. This leads me to draw mental comparisons to Nocturnal Depression’s Four Seasons to a Depression and numerous Wolves in The Throne Room albums, which are also around four songs in length, containing enthralling ten minute songs mostly based around natural landscapes, the changing of the seasons and mysticism. The music here is similarly minimalist, but does make use of keyboards, albeit very little: a few sparse melodies resonate in the backdrop of the music, whilst the melancholic riffs lead the way (though admittedly, at times they lead nowhere). The production is predictably murky and cold and the final track is entirely ambient; played over the gentle sound of falling rain. This kind of music is far less dynamic than the frenetic riffing found in most other genres of Metal, but instead the music rises and falls like the slow rolling of ocean waves. Whilst mainstream Heavy Metal projects itself in a bombastic manner akin to Arena Rock – a sort of cacophonic grand symphony of guitars; this kind of music echoes around the listener as if projected in a church or a dark Scandinavian forest. The effect is simultaneously more intimate with the listener, and also more distant and less immediate; producing a kind of dark romantic projection of wild landscapes. It is best listened to in the dark, just before attempting sleep.

It’s difficult to call this album “depressing” in the conventional way but it is certainly gloomy and obscure in its atmosphere. It’s sometimes a difficult musical style to describe when compared with more straightforward Metal, but words such as meditative, mystical and most obviously atmospheric come to mind, and occasionally words like beautiful and haunting. I’m a long term listener to this peculiar subset of Black Metal, and an album rarely catches my attention so easily on the first few listens. “Lustre” is very appropriate moniker for the sound that Nachtzeit has created and this album does as good a job of any at evoking a sense of longing for forests and dark, primeval Swedish landscapes. This is a cold windswept journey through ancient lands that man has long since forgotten, and in that it is a very successful album.

4.2/5

By Paul Gibbins

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Sabbath Assembly – Ye Are Gods

Posted in Review with tags , , , , , , on 2nd September 2012 by mariadodarmata

Sabbath Assembly
Ye Are Gods
Released: Fall 2012
Devotional Rock
Released Via Anja Records / Svart Records

 

“We are the servants of GOD, no less.” With this phrase starts Sabbath Assembly’s latest creation.

As soon as I started listening, a flashback to the years that my mum, as a good catholic, made me go to church; a chant, a priest talking and then a lady with a guitar playing some song. Logic says that because of this connection I’d absolutely hate it, but the music is incredibly pleasant.
After the first whole listen what came to me was “a mix of hippie rock with Gregorian chants”, especially has this hippie bong fire round feeling.

In terms of lyrics, the songs are based on hymns of The Process Church of the Final Judgment, so if you are no familiarised with this cult, it might be a little confusing. Overlooking that fact, the music is incredibly engaging and exciting. I am most definitively not the flower power/praise out Lord Jesus type, but there is something fascinating about them.

Throughout the album, a story about the four main characters (Christ, Jehovah, Lucifer and Satan) is narrated. Form their love/hate relationship to the effects of them in our lives. The story of the apocalypse and the new beginning is told and a terrible character is introduced to us (for the second time, I believe): Abbadon, both villain and sort of unsung hero. The mix of church organs with heavier instruments added up to the constant listening of the names Christ and Satan make his one of the most interesting things your ear will ever have the pleasure to listen to.
With interesting messages and beautiful melodies, Sabbath Assembly created a gift to our senses. Hopefully y will give this album a try so you and discover its full beauty.

4/5

María Mata

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Interview: Sabbath Assembly

Posted in Interview with tags , , , , , , , , on 26th August 2012 by mariadodarmata

Sabbath Assembly, formed in ‘09, are the modern response to a religious movement known as The Process Church of Final Judgement. The band have a unique sound, merging several different and contrasting styles of music together, from church organs to heavy guitars and choir vocals. Maria managed to have a quick chat with the band from her lemon pledge related duties.

Maria: How did Sabbath Assembly start? What inspired you to start this project?
Sabbath Assembly: I met Timothy Wyllie, an original member of the Process Church, at a book expo in NYC when he was promoting his book about the Church; Love Sex Fear Death.  Looking through his book I was struck by the plates of sheet music of hymns of the Church. Timothy explained that the songs had never before been recorded because they were thought of as liturgical rather than popular. I offered that perhaps now was the time to bring this music to the world, and thus we both hatched a plan at that moment to share the hymns on a wider scale.
M: Do you think you had some sort of “divine inspiration”?
AS: I wouldn’t be so bold as to say that, but I often question what has come over me such that I feel such an uncompromising zeal to pursue this project so relentlessly.  It doesn’t feel as if this is the story of my life, yet it is somehow slowly becoming so.
M: Who did you hope to reach with your music? How has this been received by listeners? Have you gotten any feedback?
AS: I think the question is, “who does the music hope to reach?” and I am not sure that answer.  As of now there don’t seem to be many boundaries in place.  So far we have felt overwhelmingly positive feedback from the metal scene, even though the music is not exactly metal.  Metalheads are not afraid of the dark forces, so we feel this is the reason for the kinship.  Our impression is that the message is coming into the world at the correct time.
M: What is “THE PROCESS CHURCH OF THE FINAL JUDGMENT”? Is it only a congregation or is it an organized church of its own?
AS: The Process Church of the Final Judgment was an organised church that began in the late 60s and survived into the 80s, passing through various forms.  It began as a post-Scientology group therapy and commune experiment that led to contact with the spirit world and a resulting theology that paired psychotherapeutic work with religious tenants that encouraged individuation, wholeness, and self-acceptance.
M: The lyrical the theme of your music is centralised on spiritual things, is this related to the faith you profess?
AS: Yes, the lyrics invoke the four deities Christ, Jehovah, Lucifer and Satan as aspects of ourselves that we are not to suppress but celebrate.  So our “faith” is affirming our complex and rich psychological tapestry.
M: Would you say you are trying to “evangelise” your listeners? Is it part of your goals as musicians to convert someone to a religion?
AS: Not exactly – our first draw to the music is that the words were meaningful for us personally, and then we discovered that the melodies are also quite beautiful, so why not share?  It is not an intention to convert, only for us as band members to perform music we can honestly believe in.  If this happens to be infectious on any level, we are of course pleased.
M: The album is musically varied and has many different sounds in it. How would you describe your music genre wise?
AS: Devotional.
M: You recently released a music video for “In the Time of Abaddon II”, that features various images that I assume are related to your cult or church. Do you have a specific message to be communicated by this imagery?
AS: Yes, the beginning montage contains some imagery related to the history of the Process Church, as well as issues of their concern, such as death and the problem of evil.  In the video this imagery is joined with the recitation of ritual text that prophesies the coming Apocalypse, which we feel is a relevant message for our time.  The Apocalypse can mean the end of the world; it can also mean transformation from one phase of existence to the next; it can also be understood on a personal level as our relationships, accomplishments, and ambitions come to fruition and pass away.
M: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
AS: “For every end there is a new beginning, and if we are not of the End, then we shall be of the New Beginning.  Either we shall be the ashes of the Phoenix, or his resurrection from the ashes.  And if we care about the death of the Phoenix, then we shall be his ashes, but if we are detached and see the cycle of which his death is but a part, then we shall be his resurrection.”
-The Process Church of the Final Judgment, As It Is, 1968

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Sabbath Assembly premier video for “In The Time of Abaddon II”

Posted in News with tags , , , on 3rd August 2012 by Nico Solheim-Davidson, the North Sea Poet

sabbath assembly 2012 - small

Today, Sabbath Assembly premiere the first video from their forthcoming second album, Ye Are Gods. Entitled In the Time of Abaddon II,this first glimpse into the magick & majesty of Ye Are Gods was originally streamed in its entirety but now takes visual shape under the direction of Jason Keenan of Cinders and Ash Media.

The video for In the Time of Abaddon introduces viewers to a cataclysmic onslaught of Processian imagery, past and present, as Genesis P-Orridge (PSYCHIC TV, THROBBING GRISTLE) narrates the impending doom of the Apocalypse according to text by Process Church founder Robert deGrimston. New vocalist Jamie Myers then offers a chant from the “Discourse on Abaddon,” an ancient Coptic scroll that reveals the history and purpose of the Angel of Death – Abaddon: King of This World, a source of terror, to whomevery person shall bow at the time of their death…no escape.

Sabbath Assembly‘s Ye Are Gods is set for release on September 21 through Svart Records (for Europe and the UK) and The Ajna Offensive (for North America).

As on the critically acclaimed Restored to One debut, released in 2010 by The Ajna Offensive, Ye Are Gods presents the hymns of the Process Church of the Final Judgment, a religious movement that emerged in the late 1960s as an apocalyptic shadow-side to the flower power and New Age movements.

Reaching beyond the scope of Restored to One, Ye Are Gods incorporates the ritual text and structure of the Process Church’s highest and holiest mass, the “Sabbath Assembly” liturgy from which the band is named.

Ye Are Gods is led by vocalist Jamie Myers, a veteran of Hammers of Misfortune (The Locust Years) and Wolves in the Throne Room (Diadem of 12 Stars, Malevolent Grain). Dave “Christian” Nuss remains drummer and co-producer.

The album features Genesis P-Orridge serving the role of High Priest(ess), aka “Sacrifist,” Eyvind Kang plays viola for the liturgical Declaration of the Gods, and guitarist/vocalist Imaad Wasif offers a chilling rendition of the hymn “We Give Our Lives.” In addition, Timothy Wyllie, an original Process Church member, provides a homily from Process Church founder Robert DeGrimston’s Gods on War. Mr. Wyllie is the author of Feral House’s LOVE SEX FEAR DEATH, which offers an insider’s perspective of the Church and its true leadership.

The album offers a first-ever glimpse into the Process’s most sacred liturgical text, taking the astute listener through the mysterious Gnostic journey of the unification of Christ and Satan; the bliss of total submission to the gods Jehovah, Lucifer, Satan, and Christ; the wilds of the Apocalypse and a face-to-face encounter with the Angel of Death; and finally the moment of spiritual renewal in which the Process’s “Law of the Universe” is revealed.

The influential Process Church opened chapters in London, Europe, and across the USA, dressing in black cloaks and walking the streets with German Shepherds. To promote their controversial theology, they sold intricately-designed magazines, three of which are documented in full-color reproductions in the recently issued Propaganda and Holy Writ of the Process Church of the Final Judgment (Feral House/Ajna).

As it is. So be it.

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