Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms.
Yngwie Johan Malmsteen is a Swedish guitarist. He first became known in the 1980s for his neoclassical playing style in heavy metal, and has released 22 studio albums in a career spanning over 40 years. In August 2009, Time magazine named Malmsteen No. 9 on its list of the 10 best electric guitar players of all time.
Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics are intended to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom. The genre is strongly influenced by the early work of Black Sabbath, who formed a prototype for doom metal. During the first half of the 1980s, a number of bands such as Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar from England, American bands Pentagram, Saint Vitus, the Obsessed, Trouble, and Cirith Ungol, and Swedish band Candlemass defined doom metal as a distinct genre. Pentagram, Saint Vitus, Trouble and Candlemass have been referred to as "the Big Four of Doom Metal".
Neurosis is an American post-metal band from Oakland, California. It was formed in 1985 by guitarist Scott Kelly, bassist Dave Edwardson, and drummer Jason Roeder, initially as a crust punk band. Chad Salter joined as a second guitarist and appeared on the band's 1987 debut Pain of Mind and then Steve Von Till replaced him in 1989. The following year, the lineup further expanded to include a keyboardist and a visual artist. Beginning with their third album Souls at Zero (1992), Neurosis transformed their hardcore sound by incorporating diverse influences including doom metal and industrial music, becoming a major force in the emergence of the post-metal and sludge metal genres.
From First to Last is an American rock band formed in Tampa, Florida by Matt Good, Scott Oord, and Parker Nelms in November 1999. The current line-up consists of Matt Good, Travis Richter, and Derek Bloom (drums).
Tsjuder is a Norwegian black metal band founded in Oslo in 1993. For the majority of the band's existence, it has functioned as a trio, including bassist/frontman Nag, guitarist Draugluin, and drummer Anti-Christian. With the latter's departure, the band operates as a duo, with Nag and Draugluin being the longterm and primary members.
Southern Lord Records is an American independent record label founded by Greg Anderson in 1998. The Los Angeles–based label was initially formed "just to put out" the debut albums by Thorr's Hammer and Burning Witch. These bands were among the first collaborations between Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, who also formed Sunn O))), one of the label's biggest selling acts along with Japanese band Boris.
Post-metal is a music genre rooted in heavy metal but exploring approaches beyond metal conventions. It emerged in the 1990s with bands such as Neurosis and Godflesh, who transformed metal texture through experimental composition. In a way similar to the predecessor genres post-rock and post-hardcore, post-metal offsets the darkness and intensity of extreme metal with an emphasis on atmosphere, emotion, and even "revelation", developing an expansive but introspective sound variously imbued with elements of ambient, noise, psychedelic, progressive, and classical music, and often shoegaze and art rock. Songs are typically long, with loose and layered structures that discard the verse–chorus form in favor of crescendos and repeating themes. The sound centres on guitars and drums, while any vocals are often but not always screamed or growled and resemble an additional instrument.
Wolves in the Throne Room is an American black metal band formed in 2002 in Olympia, Washington, by brothers Aaron and Nathan Weaver. They have released seven full-length albums, two live albums, and two EPs to date. They have stated one of the founding concepts of the band to be channeling the "energies of the Pacific Northwest's landscape" into musical form.
Diadem of 12 Stars is the debut studio album of black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room. It was this recording that caught the attention of Southern Lord Records, who subsequently signed the band in late 2006 and re-released the album on vinyl. It was subsequently re-issued in 2016 through the band's own imprint, Artemisia Records.
Two Hunters is the second album by black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room and their debut album on Southern Lord Records. The band made minimal use of any digital effects or manipulation in the recording process. The vinyl version includes an extended version of "Cleansing" and a previously unreleased track "To Reveal". Two Hunters was critically acclaimed and succeeded in putting the band at the forefront of the North American black metal scene. The Daymare Recordings release also contains their 2005 demo on a second disk.
Life Is Not a Waiting Room is the third studio album by American post-hardcore band Senses Fail, released on October 7, 2008 through Vagrant Records. Following the release of the band's second studio album Still Searching (2006), bassist Mike Glita left the band. He was replaced by Jason Black of Hot Water Music shortly afterwards. In early 2008, they were demoing new songs, and by April 2008, they had recorded their next album at Salad Days Studios in Fells Point, Maryland with producer Brian McTernan. Life Is Not a Waiting Room is a post-hardcore and metalcore album about the end of frontman Buddy Nielsen's relationship and dealing with his alcoholism and depression.
Malevolent Grain is an EP by Wolves in the Throne Room that precedes their third album Black Cascade. This is the first album to feature guitar by Will Lindsay from the now defunct Middian. Jamie Myers from the band Hammers of Misfortune also supplies guest vocals for the song "A Looming Resonance".
Throne to the Wolves is the fourth studio album by the post-hardcore band From First to Last. This was the only album by From First to Last to be released on the record label Rise Records and is the first and only album the band made without guitarist and backup singer Travis Richter. It is also the band's only release with guitarist Blake Steiner and the band's last release before their hiatus in 2010, until the band's reunion in 2013 whereupon they announced the recording of a new album. No song of the album has become a single, but "Going Lohan", "Cashing Out" and "I'll Inoculate the World with the Virus of My Disillusionment" were released in 2009, before album release, via MySpace for free listening.
Live at Roadburn 2008 is the first live album by American black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room. It was released in January 2009 on LP/DVD and later in November 2009 on CD/DVD.
Celestial Lineage is the fourth full-length studio album by American black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room. It was released through Southern Lord Records on September 13, 2011.
Posthum is a black metal band from Nannestad, Norway. The band was founded in 2004 by Jon Kristian Skare and Morten Edseth (drums). The music is more to the ambient/progressive side of the genre than the aggressive, and can be compared to acts like Wolves in the Throne Room, Ulver, or old Enslaved.
Celestite is the fifth full-length studio album by American black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room. It was released through their own label Artemisia Records on July 8, 2014. The album explores the themes of the band's previous album Celestial Lineage through an experimental, drone-based dark ambient style, eschewing vocals and the black metal aggression which characterizes their other works.
Downfall of Gaia are a German extreme metal band formed in 2008 by Dominik Goncalves dos Reis and Anton Lisovoj. Their current lineup is completed by drummer Michael Kadnar and guitarist Peter Wolff. Transforming their initial crust punk sound through the incorporation of black metal, doom metal, and post-rock influences, they have released five studio albums. The last four albums came out on Metal Blade Records.
Thrice Woven is the sixth studio album by American black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room. The album was released on September 22, 2017 through the band's own record label, Artemisia Records. The album was produced collaboratively with Randall Dunn and recorded primarily in their own recording studio Owl Lodge in Olympia, Washington, which the Weaver brothers built themselves, with the drums recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle. Thrice Woven received generally favorable reviews from music critics upon its release.
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