Wolftower – Throne Of Nightfall’s Wrath

In the very waning weeks of 2023 Finland’s Wolftower treats us with yet another new release, the twelfth in total but after a lot of demos and EP’s, ‘Throne Of Nightfall’s Wrath’ is the one-man band’s first full-length album. In many a review before I concluded that bands tend to rush themselves to record a full-length album rather than trying out their abilities and setting out their musical course through a bunch of demos. Not so much the case with Wolftower and, frankly, the result is accordingly…

When compared to the majority of the previously released recordings the striking difference between those and this first full-length is definitely the progression that Wolftower made in terms of mature song writing and the way to pour the ideas into a fitting mould. After an intro that is very much resembling the grandiose and heroic Graveland sound, the album bursts into a thoroughly cohesive Black Metal affair that pays homage to both the band’s Finnish heritage as well as the current day Black Metal scene that is dominated by bands feasting on that much beloved Atmospheric sound.

‘Throne Of Nightfall’s Wrath’ is a predominantly fast record that nevertheless has full emphasis on the melodic aspect of the music, mainly portrayed in a well-balanced duel between great guitar work and some accompanying keyboards. Yet, the dynamics that is found throughout the full 40 minutes of the album is basically supported by all elements and instruments used by the sole member of Wolftower, multi-instrumentalist Vyrtur. Whereas on some of the band’s previous work, Wolftower seemed to be deemed to stay within a certain range of creativity, maybe limited by musical capacities, ‘Throne Of Nightfall’s Wrath’ completely feels like the exact opposite. A fresh take on the Black Metal genre, mixing up elements out of various different variants of style; it can either be raw, melodic or even symphonic, it does sound fluently natural all together.

On the EP preceding this debut album, the ‘The Unholy Embrace Of Vampire’ cassette EP (Narbentage Produktionen, 2023), the band sounded a bit muffled and the music had an overall more raw character. Something that fitted to the music pretty well and felt just right as Wolftower’s music is following a fairly similar formula on each song on most of its output. That makes ‘Throne Of Nightfall’s Wrath’ an even more astonishing debut, it sounds grand and epic in its production and overall ambiance, it makes songs like ‘Night Of The Funeral Summoning’ feel pretty close to the aforementioned Graveland in sense of its flamboyant magnificence.

For sure a more than convincing first record by Wolftower, a band that should gain some more recognition within the ranks of the Finnish Black Metal scene. For those who need to get their fix of Finnish Black Metal or, better, vampiric atmospheric yet raw and epic Black Metal should definitely give this album a chance. Available digitally through various platforms as well as on cassette tape, vinyl should follow shortly too.