listen to these

Uber dark metal mastermind, Wrest, steps above and below his usual recording evokation of Leviathan to unleash a entirely different incarnate: LURKER OF CHALICE.

With Leviathan, Wrest has poisoned the US Black Metal Underground with 3 now legendary works of pure black art. "Verrater, The 10th Sub-Level of Suicide" and "Tentacles of Whorror" firmly established the self made recordings of Leviathan as a serious threat in undergound Black Metal Circles. However their are many more layers and worlds of darkness for this artist to explore and contaminate the audio canals of the unsuspecting.

With Lurker, Wrest takes a nearly gothic approach to some of his vokills. Incorporating melodies and harmonies that although just as bleak as previous works, create a unique grim atmosphere that explores the subtle dynamics of darkness unlike anything he has done in the past. The songs are all composed and solely performed by Wrest. Some of the songs are as reminiscent of Fields Of The Nephilim (Elizium era) and Bauhaus as they are of black metal artists like: Blut Aus Nord, Emperor, or Burzum. Indeed it still reaks of Black Metal but this material drags you through new lows that are rarely reached by nowadays orthodox black metal acts.

-review by ? (don't remember who wrote this)




WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM - DIADEM OF 12 STARS

-Artist Statement-

Our music is a reflection of the land in which we dwell; it draws its power from the long, dark winters, the perpetual mist. It is the sound of dampness and decay, the fear that we shall never see the sun again; it is icy and crystalline. It is the sound of roaring bonfires, the drunkenness of hot wine and mead, the loneliness and solitude of a strong hall in the forest, the quiet hum and peace of springtide. We sing a lament for our lost connection with nature; with magic and the ways of our ancestors; we call out for the blood of our enemies.

It is our personal experience of the power of the land around us that gives our music animating force. We are not Satanists, nor do we subscribe to right wing ideologies, though we understand the anger and hopelessness that draws lost souls to these philosophical dead ends. Our philosophies are anti-modern, romantic and anti-human, a musical expression of an emerging eco-black metal consciousness that has taken root here in the Pacific North West. We are unique in that we express a deeply underground ideology on a larger stage.

Our Black Metal is highly local and personal – not beholden to the expectations and demands of any scene. Our music is rooted in the traditions of Black Metal, but we subvert the aesthetic and ideology to remain true to our personal manifestation. To us, Black Metal might be understood as the Death card in the Tarot or the number 13, which represents not an end to life, but the shedding of an old and outmoded way of being: death and rebirth, transformation and enlightenment. Our music is perhaps what happens after the initial, necessary, hateful burst; after the psychic explosion that is Black Metal wipes away that which came before: the sick and twisted “truths” of our modern condition. For in Black Metal, we see great truth, transcendence and power. Black Metal is the cleansing fire that frees us from the bondage of rationality, science, morality, religion, leaving us free to choose our own path.

interview that follows the statement : www.nocturnalcult.com