WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM - Estuary

Nathan Weaver, leader and founder (together with his brother Aaron) of Wolves In The Throne Room, has presented “Estuary” as an album set a thousand years from now, after the end of civilization. He added: “I've always felt a great calm at the idea that humanity might vanish from the world and that nature would reclaim everything. I dream of finding myself alone in that scenario, immersed in absolute peace and tranquility. It's a recurring theme throughout the Wolves' music, but on the new album it takes on a central role.”

One of the most important bands on the US black metal scene, indissolubly tied to the cascadian black metal strand (we're in the Pacific Northwest here), returns with an eighth album loaded with visionary tension. A rawer, more essential comeback, whose title carries a magical significance: if the wilderness should ever get the better of the cities in the future, estuaries would become realms of power and magic. In the album's narrative universe, estuaries represent crucial junctures where magic has taken on physical form. Spirits, benevolent or malevolent, walking the earth. Out of this comes a spare yet highly engaging title track, enriched by a solemn atmospheric epilogue. A mood that takes hold of every single note on the record, as in the arcane beauty of “Foretold In Reflections”, a weighty episode that closes out the first side of the vinyl in style. Also excellent are the poignant “The Orca Cliffs” and the following “Ghosts Among The Obelisk”, a rawer passage where speed alternates with majestic breaks reaching beyond the horizon. Where the riffs burrow under the skin to tear open the listener's soul.

For the Olympia outfit, now closing in on twenty-five years of activity, “Estuary” stands as a hugely important confirmation, because Wolves seem unwilling to learn the meaning of decline: while it's true their discography has included a couple of less compelling episodes (the ambient experiment of “Celestite” thankfully remained an isolated case), the overall quality has rarely dipped below par. In this instance, we can even speak of a return to something close to the heights of their early, excellent work (“Two Hunters” remains perhaps their most beloved album), an album this time pointed toward a primordial future finally free of any human presence. The river, the estuary, the sea, freedom.

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25/10/2026