Wolves In The Throne Room have released Estuary, their first full-length album since 2021’s Primordial Arcana, via Relapse Records in North America and Century Media in the rest of the world. The Olympia, Washington band calls it their most ferocious and genre-bending record yet, and it is out now on LP, CD, cassette and streaming.
Listen to and order Estuary here.
A Black Metal Vision 1,000 Years From Now
Estuary is set a millennium in the future, after the death of civilization. Survivors of a cataclysm wander haunted ruins full of mutant creatures and open portals, in a wild landscape where a new, post-apocalyptic religion has taken root. The album plays on the tension between stillness and noise, nature and machinery, adding industrial textures and massive percussion to the band’s heavy, gothic guitar work.
“Our new album Estuary takes place 1,000 years in the future, after the death of civilization. […] I dream of being alone in this setting and experiencing total calm and peace.”
Nathan Weaver
The band produced the album themselves, recording most of it at their own Owl Lodge studio in Olympia. Drums were tracked by Nicholas Wilbur at The Unknown in Anacortes, Washington, and touring bassist Galen Baudhuin handled the low end. Besides the title track’s video above, the band has also shared a clip for the eight-minute first single, “Ghosts Among The Obelisks”:
- Estuary
- Knights of Tiamat
- Foretold in Reflections
- The Orca Cliffs
- Ghosts Among the Obelisks
- Wretched Spirits, Land of Light
Relapse offers Estuary on several vinyl variants, including a Custom Silver Forest Shimmer LP limited to 724 copies, alongside CD, cassette and new merch.
Two Decades at the Heart of Cascadian Black Metal
Founded in 2003 by brothers Aaron and Nathan Weaver, Wolves In The Throne Room helped define what became known as Cascadian black metal, music shaped as much by the forests of the Pacific Northwest as by the Norwegian second wave. Records like Two Hunters (2007) and Black Cascade (2009) made their name, the synth-based Celestite (2014) showed their ambient side, and Thrice Woven (2017) and Primordial Arcana brought them back to full force. Their last release before Estuary was the 2023 EP Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge.
Tour Dates
The band is currently touring Europe, with dates through November 14 in Oslo. In early 2027 they head across North America with Stygian Bough and Spirit Possession in support:
- January 12: Vancouver, BC, Rickshaw Theatre
- January 14: Salt Lake City, UT, Metro Music Hall
- January 15: Estes Park, CO, Fire In The Mountains at The Stanley Hotel
- January 16: Wichita, KS, WAVE
- January 17: Omaha, NE, The Slowdown
- January 18: Minneapolis, MN, Fine Line Music Cafe
- January 19: Chicago, IL, The Metro
- January 20: Cleveland, OH, TBA
- January 22: Toronto, ON, The Opera House
- January 23: Montreal, QC, Foufounes Electriques
- January 24: Boston, MA, Brighton Music Hall
- January 25: Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts
- January 26: Brooklyn, NY, The Monarch
- January 27: Towson, MD, The Recher
- January 29: Asheville, NC, Eulogy
- January 30: Atlanta, GA, Variety Playhouse
- January 31: Baton Rouge, LA, Chelsea’s Live
- February 2: Dallas, TX, Trees
- February 3: Austin, TX, Come And Take It Live
- February 5: Phoenix, AZ, Nile Theater
- February 6: Los Angeles, CA, The Regent
- February 7: San Francisco, CA, Great American Music Hall
- February 9: Portland, OR, Wonder Ballroom
- February 10: Seattle, WA, Neumos
Our Take
Wolves In The Throne Room have always written about the land around them. Projecting that landscape 1,000 years forward, with the cities gone and the estuaries reclaimed, is a natural next step, and the industrial edge gives their sound a new tension. Five years after Primordial Arcana, this is one of the essential extreme metal releases of the fall.
Follow Wolves In The Throne Room:
Website | Instagram | Relapse
