BLACK CASCADE

On their third album Wolves In the Throne Room lean much more towards a purely metal direction, with the peaceful expanses of shoegaze-dominated playing that were a major feature of Two Hunters scaled back dramatically. However, Black Cascade is far from being a mere retread of Diadem of 12 Stars; the band both incorporate the lessons they learned making Two Hunters into their vicious black metal assault, and also benefit from substantially improved production values. The end result is an album which takes the metal-dominated side of the band's sound to a new level of accomplishment and complexity, and a great listen for any fan of atmospheric and progressive black metal.