Planex's Almostopster: Wolves in the Throne Room - Diadem of 12 Stars

Yes, Planex listens to more than just slam

In my formative years of being a person on the internet with strong opinions on extreme metal, I participated a few times in a tradition known as Nothing But Black Metal November or NBBMN. I believe 2015 was my first self-imposed exclusively cold and frostbitten November, and I decided to try the experiment because I felt I had never gone beyond the surface of black metal. I knew some of the classics, but figured there was much more to see. That month delivered an unrecoverable kick to the brain of my music taste, and many of the albums I listened to for the first time in those 30 days have made a home in my reliquaries. [Paracletus, The Mantle, Bergtatt, Aura]

Before that month, I didn’t enjoy black metal unless it was sufficiently thrashened - I didn’t go much deeper than Dissection. In NBBMN, something clicked. Much like another moment shortly after 2015 where I listened to Gorguts - Obscura again out of frustration of not understanding why it isn’t just noisy crap, something switched. Suddenly, it made sense. It’s not just chaos and noise, it’s composed and orchestrated. This core of this realization applied equally to black metal. Long tremolo riffs, harsh tones, distant wordless howling, the thick fuzz overwhelming. In the ‘riffs’ vs ‘atmosphere’ argument, I now had empathy for the other side. 

I believe this was the album where the realization took hold. Wolves in the Throne Room’s debut album Diadem of 12 Stars was recommended to me that month anonymously and thanklessly, but I recall the message included something along the lines of “Try this out, this album means a lot to me and I hope you enjoy.” There couldn’t be a more perfect rec. I hit play for the first time on an early morning while taking a long drive through the northern Minnesota forest (🤔 topic: driving is objectively the best environment for music listening). The mystical, rich tone of long deliberate trems, blasting drums, and screaming washed over me. 

Diadem of 12 Stars is very atmospheric. Two guitars ensouled by reverb fill any remaining spectral void left by the drums, while two vocalists screech as accent. They shift between frostbitten blasting sections and heavy doom sections by the drums navigating from tempo to tempo. The production is thick and enveloping, which gives texture to every repeated riff. Backing female vocals appear as a heavenly basis to contrast against, or maybe enrich, the furious blackened blasting. WitTR veer towards DSBM in areas containing despaired howling against the pounding, radiating savagery which pummels at first but eventually gives way to atmomood™. The replay value is increased for being a beautiful listen when you aren’t paying full attention, as the tonal qualities alone are so rewarding. 

This album is a debut, and it shows. The transitions from section to section often feel clunky and forced. For how graceful they are within each section, their ability to transition between blasting and slower sections, or from heavy to acoustic is very amateurish. This amateurishness is characteristic of many aspects of the album. It has the energy and charm of a band that hasn’t matured, but lacks the delicate touch and bigger picture songwriting that experience provides. There are moments throughout Diadem of 12 Stars that are meant to be payoffs, releases of tension, yet, the tension was never properly built. The payoffs aren’t earned, even if they stand alone as individual portions. 

Diadem of 12 Stars has been in my rotation since 2015, and I’ll continue to listen to it often. It shines as a pillar of USBM and has me listening to every cascadian black metal release I come across. Nostalgically, it reminds me of a time I went from ignorance to enlightenment. A rare and precious moment in my understanding of music. I hope that while listening to this album, you can recall similar moments of clarity you’ve had on your music listening adventure.