Review Summary: WITTR have stated in an interview that they do not wish to be recognized. Unfortunately for them, they happen to be one of USBM's best acts today.
Wolves in the Throne Room,is such an interesting group and for being an American Black metal band, they sure have a lot of European influences, a complete lack of corpse paint and pseudonyms. Diadem of the Twelve Stars, the band's debut, was certainly a breath of fresh air in USBM and Wolves certainly do not suffer from the sophomore slump. In such a short time they have matured their sound quite a bit and expanded on the black metal with the structure of post-rock mentality.
The album's opener, Dio Artio, is an excellent way to start off the experience. Floods of ambiance preceded by nature noises begin to fill the soundscape. Gradually, drums come plodding in quickly followed by more distinct electric guitars. Though the track length is over five minutes and Wolves push repetition to its limits here, it never becomes a chore or boring. This is about as Post-Rocky as Wolves get and it is interesting glimpse at what could be if they had chosen said genre instead of Black Metal.
Vastness and Sorrow does a complete 180 from Dio Artio and is pure black metal. All the staples are here, blast beats, tremolo picking, high pitched shrieks. However, they are done in such a fine tuned way that never does it sound cliché. Wolves' post-rock inspired structure makes this song shine with its awe-inspiring climax. Vastness and Sorrow also demonstrates that WITTR have ditched all of its filler and out-of-place sounding riffs that some criticized their previous effort for. The result ends up with less riffs and more repetition, but sounds more cohesive as a whole.
After the wake up call that was Vastness and Sorrow, Wolves step back and let you hear the beautifully chilling vocals of guest singer Jessica Kinney. Her operatic voice is backed up by tribal sounding drumming and very post-rockish guitars. Eventually, a storm of black metal arrives and washes away all of this in an epic shriek and the song continues on with the various improvements WITTR added to its black metal writing mentioned earlier.
All three of the previous tracks are amazing in their own right, but everything great about Two Hunters can be found in the last song, I Will Lay Down My Bones Among the Rocks and Roots. There are post-rocky sections, Jessica Kinney, chilling acoustic passages, shrieks, blast beats, perfect chord progressions accompanied by harmonized tremolo picking. Like I said, everything. With the conclusion of the cd being so strong, it is clear that Wolves have learned a lot from the short period between this and Diadem.
Production-wise, well this is black metal. This genre is known for having bad production quality. Wolves make this gritty style work to their advantage, and things certainly are clear enough for you to hear everything most of the time with the possible exception of the bass in some spots. Each of the members is very talented with their respectable instrument and no one ever feels out of place. There are some spots where the drums may get unnecessarily fast and or complex, but things work themselves out quite nicely and quickly.
With releasing two albums one year apart, it would be foolish to think that Wolves wouldn't fall into the sophomore slump. However, they defy the odds and produced an album that not only was atop many top metal cds of 2007 lists, but could very well change the perception of USBM as we know it. Wolves have crafted a more accessible, better constructed soundscape that simply must be heard to be believed.
Ever since they cancelled their Boris tour,I am a sad panda. 
