On September 13th, black metal experimentalists Wolves In the Throne room will be dropping a new album via Southern Lord: Celestial Lineage. And to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be looking to this one. I wasn’t a fan of the band’s output since 2008’s Two Hunters, and it’s mostly because the band had drained its sound of the atmospheric textures that made it so interesting in the first place. What makes the situation funniest is WITTR seemed to be jumping off the atmospheric black metal wagon as loads of unknown bands were jumping on.

But on the first track to drop from this forthcoming album, “Woodland Cathedral,” I’m glad to see a lot of those ethereal elements are coming back. The female vocals that have been in use in previous tracks are coming out stronger on this song as well.