Washington state’s Wolves in the Throne Room are somewhat of an anomaly. Typically boxed into the ambient black metal sub-style of the black metal sub-genre (stay with us here), the band is one of the luminaries on the U.S. black metal landscape that’s making a conscious effort to push the boundaries of a genre that has a tendency to remain stagnant. The band incorporates an ecologically conscious worldview, not only into their music but also their lifestyle (members live on a sustainable farming compound outside of Olympia that they call “Calliope”), and an emphasis on catharsis and spiritual well-being rather than black metal’s more traditional nihilism and misanthropy. more ›