Lister

By Emil Svendsen

Translated by Anders Knudsen  

Wolves in the Throne Room is a band often described as an environmental band, especially because the two brothers Nathan and Aaron Weaver moved out to a farm to get closer to a natural way of living. But they do not see themselves as a band with an environmental agenda.  

“We are more interested in the mystic, spiritual and occult side of nature. As individuals we are also interested in different environmental matters, but as a band we will not deliver speeches about the melting icebergs,” Aaron, the drummer, explains.  

“The problem with the political consumers, whom Roskilde also appeals to, is that they think it is enough to recycle cans and turn off the lights when they leave a room. And that’s all they do, and that’s not enough. An inner transformation must take place in everyone if we are to experience a positive transformation,” he continues.  

Trance through black metal

This is where black metal has a special ability when it comes to improvement of the spirit.  

“In many ways black metal is one of the most interesting and artistic movements in our generation. It is an elegy against the alienation in relation to nature and therefore it echoes in a lot of people,” Weaver says.

“Where punk is a tool to deliver political messages, the repetitive and hypnotic sound in black metal creates a state of trance and it can lift people up spiritually. Thereby black metal has the ability to dig deeper into peoples psyche and give them a possibility to experience in a new way.”  

Roots in local society

According to Weaver, the black metal genre should be deeply rooted in local society.

“As a band we are interested in expressing the reality of the north-western part of USA where we live, and I have always tried to resist the typical American lack of roots, where you would rather be some place that you are not.”

  Weaver also believes that the interest in this kind of deep-rootedness have a dark side, when it is distorted into xenophobia and an imagination of “blood” and “soil”, which is found with many right-winged black metal bands.   It is the special ability of black metal which can change the world in a positive way.