Photos by Daniel Ahrendt

During the Summer of 2002 at an Earth First rendezvous in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, guitarist Nathan Weaver was inspired to create a band that merged a Cascadian eco-spiritual awareness with the misanthropic Norwegian eruptions of the 90's. The band envisioned would strive to create a mythic space where artist and listener alike could strip away the mindset of the mundane to reveal a more ancient and transcendent consciousness. The mysterious and wild energies of the untrammeled forests of the Northwest would be channeled into sonic form.

In the Spring of 2004, Nathan and his brother, drummer Aaron Weaver, moved to a dilapidated farmstead on the outskirts of Olympia, WA. The creation of their farm-stronghold, called Calliope, would be intrinsically linked to the development of Wolves in the Throne Room. It was during the first long, dark winter living in the collapsed farmhouse at Calliope that the band developed their trance-inducing sound and solidified the burning intent that would animate the band's music. Elements of black metal, crust punk, folk music, thrash metal and drone music were drawn upon to create a unique alchemy.

Since that time Wolves in the Throne Room have ascended to the upper tiers of the underground scene by creating a transformative and apocalyptic musical manifestation that has come to completely transcend the black metal label.

Wolves in the Throne Room's first studio album, the lush and atmospheric Diadem of 12 Stars (A Shimmering Radiance), was released in the Spring of 2006. This gloriously sprawling record was captured on tape by Tim Green at Louder Studios in San Francisco. Diadem was very well received and quickly established a cult following. Wolves in the Throne Room was heralded by the press as one of the most promising Black Metal bands to emerge from the United States, though the band stressed in interviews that they felt like they had little in common with their more Satanic peers.

The fall of 2006 brought a new pact with Southern Lord records and the beginning of a relationship with producer-engineer Randall Dunn. (SUNN O))), Earth, Grails) Their epic album Two Hunters is a masterfully dark and emotional document that further established Wolves in the Throne Room as a band totally unafraid to follow their own path.

In January they will release a European tour-only EP picture disk, titled Malevolent Grain, on Conspiracy Records. The record is the first to feature their new guitar player Will Lindsay (Middian) who had previously served as the band's touring bass player.

Winter Solstice 2008 saw the completion of their 3rd studio album, cryptically titled Black Cascade. Recorded onto 2 inch tape and mixed on a 1973 Neve Console by Producer Randall Dunn, this monolith of trance inducing psychedelia swings between passages of blazing crystalline blackness and ocean-deep ritualistic dronescapes. Black Cascade elevates Wolves in the Throne Room into the ranks of the elite in the extreme music world.

Black Cascade will be released by Southern Lord in the spring of 2009

The band will tour the United States and Europe extensively in 2009.

For more information: http://www.wittr.com