'Tis that sacred time again for us to be blessed with another release by ultra-reclusive, ultra-meaningful Pacific Northwest enviro-black metallers, Wolves In The Throne Room. Now, what awaits with this release? The continued affirmation that our modern society is at odds with Mother Earth? That our Spaceship Earth is experiencing critical system failure due to our carelessness and total disregard for the environment? If you answered yes, take another soothing sip of organic peppermint tea and pat yourself on the back. Malevolent Grain is another attempt by this foursome (they added a guitar player to their lineup, presumably because he has a van that runs on loathing for capitalism) to tell us about the errors of our ways. The EP itself sounds very organic, yet polished which is a positive I can attribute to the release. For what the band is trying to achieve, they do know how to set the right atmospherics for it. Now, on to the negatives. The two songs that comprise the EP, “A Looming Resonance” and “Hate Crystal”, both clock in at over 10 minutes each. This should be no surprise since both of the songs sound like they were put together with parts of previous WITTR releases. There is nothing new here. It is the same material with different song titles. “A Looming Resonance” does, however, come with somewhat interesting female vocals, courtesy of Jamie Myers from Hammers of Misfortune fame, that were misleading at first since they appear quite early in the first track and made one think that perhaps the band had decided to add something a bit more dynamic to their songs again. It should be noted that Myers also featured on the first WITTR full-length release Diadem of 12 Stars.
I cannot claim to actually know what the band is aiming for these days with their releases besides from reiterating their mantra that our demise is inevitable should we continue with the direction modern society is headed in. Do they offer anything new? Not really. Is it interesting, engaging material? No. Is it great to listen to in the background? I would be tempted to say yes. As stated previously, the production on the EP is phenomenal and everything sounds crisp and clear, without losing that fuzzy, organic vibe that a band like WITTR could not do without. Yet, the material itself is bland and boring. The band is touring more these days so maybe they are a band that needs to be experienced in the flesh in order to 'get them'. Try it with some organic mushroom tea that you sip from a cup made out of birch bark. Maybe it will all make sense then, but really, who cares?
Verdict: Indifference [5/10]
