Celestite

Since 2002, over the course of four studio albums and hundreds of live performances, Wolves in the Throne Room have refracted the transcendent and mythic aspects of black metal through their own idiosyncratic Cascadian prism, creating music intimately linked to the wild lands of the Pacific Northwest. Celestite embarks on a deeper excursion into the crystalline, synthesizer-driven domains that have long intrigued the band. With the aid of producer Randall Dunn (Earth, SUNNO))), Master Musicians of Bukkake), the band unearths a hidden soundscape only loosely tethered to their familiar sound, yet still unmistakably the work of Wolves in the Throne Room. As the album unfolds, an ocean-deep psychedelic soundscape coalesces, and a portal opens to the hidden world of magic only accessble through dreams, visions and music. Celestite came to fruition at Avast Studios in Seattle and the group s own Olympia-based Owl Lodge, where they employed a mammoth arsenal of crumbling vintage synths and effects, a wind ensemble and the classic API and Neve mixing consoles. From the band themselves: To make Celestite we delved into the subterranean sonics that are buried in the mix of Celestial Lineage. We isolated them, processed them and took this unearthed soundscape as our starting point. Upon this base we recorded an entirely new album. Some melodies from Celestial Lineage are recognizable, but these familiar sounds appear as ghosts, barely tethered to the original compositions. This new album is an unorthodox foray; a fully instrumental, experimental companion record to Celestial Lineage. We left some work undone with Celestial Lineage. The recording of that album in the Winter of 2011 was a monumental project for us personally, and the creative fire from those recording sessions was still burning. This recording process was an opportunity to journey into our own inner universe to complete that which needed to be completed. Celestite is the inaugural release on Wolves in the Throne Room s new label, Artemisia Records.