Are you always this dishonest, or does that only happen when you feel threatened?
When commenting on the scene drowning in mediocrity, you highlighted "However, most people don't ONLY listen to the classics, so it's asinine to dismiss Two Hunters because you liked Hvis Lyset Tar Oss more." I was responding both to your typed statement and to your highlighting. And that last bit ... I'm not arguing with you because I love WITTR (they're aight), I'm arguing with you because your criticism is odd. Hence, not exactly "threatened."
I mean, suggesting that people not validate phony art with their money is totally dreadful, for reasons you really don't need to get into (translation: for reasons you know to be something less than convincingly legitimate).
Um, I didn't really want to type up a diatribe on why censorship is bad. If you reaaaaally want me to, I guess I could. 'cause that's what "standards" in art equate to. Obviously if you don't like something, don't spend your cash on it... but for the most part, the metal scene is already bogged down with downloading and such, and I wouldn't be too picky about where metalheads' money is going when they choose to legitimately purchase music.
I've been on board with black metal for the better part of 20 years. I've seen bands like this come and go.
Cool. It's also great to hear that you frequent a record store, most metal "fans" these days rely on downloading, as I mentioned. I hope you can understand why I would be skeptical, though, given some of the stranger comparisons you made (still not seein' the Darkthrone thing...).
It's also clear, at least to me, that they put a lot more thought into crafting individual fragments of song than they did into stitching the fragments together in a fashion that makes sense as something more than pure aesthetic. This isn't terribly surprising, given that the musicians involved come, not from a background in metal, but from one rooted in the punk and indie scenes in Washington state. Their formative experiences have been with musics that place no premium on structure or structural coherence, and it shows.
I agree with you on this, actually, but after hearing a lot of nondescript ambient material, I sort of enjoy having engaging areas even if the overall effect isn't seamless.
And you still haven't answered the original question:
What do Wolves in the Throne Room bring to the table that hasn't been done better by others?
Come ooooon, now you're just being deliberately obtuse. We've discussed this several times! Their sound is Burzum influenced but it's very clearly (as you pointed out) the product of a different musical background, hence it sounds different- it's not
better than Burzum, but it's another collection of competently executed material, and there's nothing wrong with that. Not every record can be a classic, doesn't mean they aren't worth listening to.
Seriously, though, they use upside down crosses in all the places lower-case Ts would go in standard English, so that would seem to suggest that mere mortals should probably interpret them as... lower case Ts.
