Critical Nostalgia in Wolves in the Throne Room

Abstract

Drawing on the innovations of Norwegian atmospheric black metal and its nature-oriented themes, Cascadian black metal foregrounds ecology and the natural environment—particularly that of the Cascadia region—while distancing itself from some of the problematic political associations of its Norwegian predecessor. A leading representative of this movement is the atmospheric black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room (WITTR), formed in 2002. Jörg Scheller criticizes the ‘black metal purist in the Norwegian forests’ for a naive escapism from modernity, likening this stance to later strands of the hippie movement (Scheller 2014). This esssay examines how such nostalgia relates to WITTR’s critiques of modernity, articulated through interviews, lyrics, and musical narrative, as well as to their notion of a musical development of consciousness. The essay analyzes how WITTR’s compositional techniques—especially extensive repetition combined with the idea of ‘essential change’—relate to their notion of ‘unquantifiable’ drumming. These musical features are interpreted through Theodor W. Adorno’s concept of the shudder as a form of critical rather than regressive nostalgia. The essay argues that these ‘unquantifiable’ moments—central to WITTR’s musical critique of modernity—resonate with Adorno’s claim that music gives expression to the inexpressible. In such instances, resistance to quantification becomes sensuously perceptible: non-identity momentarily assumes experiential form. They are political in Adorno’s sense insofar as they enable the shudder that disrupts reified consciousness. As Samir Gandesha argues, such expression can open a space for a new beginning by interrupting the seeming inevitability of what is (Gandesha 2017, 52).