All you dark-hearted and open-minded lovers of the colder aspects and infrequently treaded paths of Mother Nature must be quite excited by now, for next Monday, a trio from over the seas will grace our humble city with a celebration of the womb we all came from and of the darker and more twisted creatures originating from the same source. This undoubtedly underground, but unquestionably prominent band hails from the Cascade Mountains in Washington state and is known by the name Wolves in the Throne Room. Their latest release, Black Cascade has been unleashed upon the civilized world in 2009, but the tour celebrating that recording has eluded the interest of Hungarian fans. This year brings the compensation for our grim-loving hearts.
On the 10th of May, those who will be in Dürer-kert should prepare to step on a path leading to the darkest and most foreboding wildernesses of nature. The cold home of moonlight and mist sifting through dead branches of pine trees awaits. We will tread on the way of dry, dead ground and wet, cold air, twigs cracking under our feet, wind combing our hair. We will enter the nest of cawing crows and the lair of howling wolves. Mother Nature will embrace us with skeletal fingers and breathe freezing air into our lungs. She will comfort us with solitude, she will cover us with dry bark. We will be wanderers above the sea of fog. We will stand on mountain tops, screaming our anger toward civilization into the endless aether and we will curl up in mossy caves, whispering our anguish to the flocks of mushrooms.
All this will be conjured by veil-thin and fragile guitars, atmospheric and eerie synthesizers, monotonous drums teeming with ancient, primitive power, and timeless and instinctive harsh vocals. These wolves surely won't leave anyone untouched. Their unique blend of the original Norwegian black metal atmosphere (á la Burzum) and the ancient American way of life yields a most outstanding and lasting experience for all listeners.
However, there is more to this band than screaming and noise. They are well-known for the serious ideology behind their art. They support ideas most collectively referred to as radical environmentalism, but more precisely defined as eco-spiritual and eco-anarchist vision. They respect nature above all, and do so in a most spiritual way. Not many people would expect serious affection towards our planet and environment from a black metal band, but those few, who know where to look for values, know that beauty sometimes stands right by the side of horror.
The American priests of our planet will be supported by a Hungarian band of no smaller spiritual attitude, The Moon and the Nightspirit. The core of the band is the duo of Mihály and Ágnes, who write and play shamanistic folk music on traditional Hungarian folk instruments. Each of their performances is like a trance the old tribes of Europe experienced around the fire on obscure nights of spiritual activity. They conjure the deepest and most primeval feelings and instincts up in the listener, comforting him or her to the point where he or she almost feels as if becoming one with the greatest spirit of them all, that of the Earth. Fragile, melodious, ancient and powerful are these songs, touching every being with a sensitive soul.
So, to all of humanity, you who have the possibility and the affinity, be there on Monday at Dürer-kert. The music will take you closest to Mother Earth's closed spiritual eye and cradle you in Her loving flames. But beware, for when Her eye opens, you might see things that your feeble human mind will deny to accept. She might have created the beauties and wonders of life, but she also did call into existence some creatures of horror lurking behind the human threshold.
