Throne – That Who Sat Upon Him, Was Death Review

There’s an old Cherokee proverb my grandma used to paraphrase:

Inside each of us, there are two wolves. One is evil, representing anger, envy, greed, arrogance, resentment, lies, and ego. The other is good, representing joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, and truth. The wolf that wins is the one you feed.

In the twilight of our lives, we’ll look back on our most significant achievements and mistakes, the moments we treasured, and those we wish we could wash away. But the funny thing about this earthly existence is that looking back, wishing, and washing are worthless. Despite the lightness and darkness, moving forward is the sole route—for better or worse. And as that proverb explains, evil and good rest within us all.

By way of Jackson, Michigan, melodic blackened death metal outfit Throne sonically embodies the traits of life pendulum-swinging between benevolence and malevolence.

I saw a Throne set in the Midwest a little more than a year ago. I subsequently dug into their short discography, comprised of their debut EP Altar of the Dying and LP Pestilent Dawn. From the former to the latter, and this isn’t a negative, but I think they were able to carve out a more consistent sound. I commend the inner workings on Altar of the Dying; in hindsight, it was a necessary steppingstone. There’s some fun lead-playing on the title track and “Heresy of the Highest Order.” The earworm tremolo riffs are tangible, too, on songs like “Where Angels Cower in Fear.” But Pestilent Dawn is where they reeled me in, hook, line, and sinker.

Cleaner and more grandiose, production-wise, Pestilent Dawn laid down the brutality. Riff-wise, there were influences from legends like Erik Rutan, vocals in the vein of something that, at times, might not be too dissimilar from the late, great Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder. The lead-playing fits like a glove within the confines of the songs—“In the Midst of Chaos,” in particular. The melodies are memorable—see “And They Shall Weep.” But I also noticed a keen emphasis on the collective mixing, which emphatically shined a light on the group’s rhythm section.

On their sophomore release, That Who Sat Upon Him, Was Death, you’ll hear a concoction of the aforementioned influences, and production and songwriting value dialed up a notch.

This time around the sun, it does sound like the band is scooting more into the death metal realm than anything. Of course, in some regards, that doesn’t mean they’re totally outside of the black metal circle altogether.

On songs like “Disentombed” and, ironically, “Realm of Immolation,” you might hear something that resembles the sounds of the death metal legends in Immolation—deep guttural vocals over melodic yet eerie tremolo riffs. Throne is also pretty damn good at the tempo fluctuations, moving from haunting chords to mid-pace, palm-muted chugs to dissonant patterns—see “To Breathe the Unknown.”

With the above said, fans of Belphegor will more than likely appreciate this Throne record. There are numerous moments to choose from, but “Upon Deathless Winds” would fit the mold of a Conjuring the Dead or Totenritual. And given Throne’s roots, the Black Dahlia influence shouldn’t be much of a surprise, and you’ll hear some nods to their Michigan counterparts on the rebranded “Where Angels Cower in Fear.” In addition to the shrieking vocals, the latter half of the song sparked some flames of nostalgia with that Nocturnal-era-inspired riff. It was also one helluva way to cap off the record and a nice throwback to the Altar of the Dying EP.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but on their second full-length, Throne have seemingly carved out the edges of the sound they’ll build upon for the foreseeable future. Sonically balancing between beauty and terror and good and evil, without a doubt, That Who Sat Upon Him, Was Death is their strongest effort yet. With roughly four decades of extreme metal in the books, Throne takes influences from various eras for a thoroughly enjoyable contemporary death metal release.