Published: August 21, 2026 · 9:34 PM EDT
The Olympia black metal band’s eighth studio album arrives October 23 via Relapse Records in North America, following 2021’s Primordial Arcana
Wolves in the Throne Room have announced their eighth studio album, Estuary, set for release on October 23, 2026 via Relapse Records in North America.
The Olympia, Washington black metal band has introduced the six-track album with “Ghosts Among the Obelisks,” released alongside an official music video.
Estuary follows Primordial Arcana, released in August 2021, making it Wolves in the Throne Room’s first full-length studio album in five years.
The album is built around a post-apocalyptic setting imagined 1,000 years after the end of civilization.
Nathan Weaver, the band’s vocalist and guitarist, explains:
“Our new LP ‘Estuary’ is set 1000 years in the future after the end of civilization. Survivors of a cataclysm wander the haunted ruins. It is a world of mutant creatures and open portals. Post-apocalyptic religion takes form in a wild landscape.”
Within that concept, estuaries become locations where the natural and supernatural worlds intersect after wilderness has reclaimed former cities.
“If wilderness overcame the cities in the future, the estuaries would be realms of power and magic,” Weaver says. “Within the album’s world-building, the estuaries are key nexus points where magic has taken on physical form. Spirits good and evil walk the earth.”
The first song released from the album is “Ghosts Among the Obelisks.”
Its accompanying video follows a warrior traveling from the lowlands of the old world toward a mountain sanctuary, moving through ruins as nature gradually reclaims the remains of the previous civilization.
The song serves as the first introduction to the setting and imagery developed throughout Estuary.
Estuary was produced by Wolves in the Throne Room.
Most of the record was tracked at the band’s own Owl Lodge studio in Olympia, Washington, continuing a recording setup the group also used extensively for Primordial Arcana.
Touring bassist Galen Baudhuin, whose other work includes Aridus and Street Tombs, contributed bass to the new album.
The drum sessions were recorded by Nicholas Wilbur at The Unknown in Anacortes, Washington, a recording studio housed in a converted former church.
The band also describes the production of Estuary as continuing its interest in physical recording craft and analog production techniques.
No claim has been made that the album is an entirely analog or AAA recording.
Wolves in the Throne Room released Primordial Arcana on August 20, 2021.
That record was notable within the band’s recording history because Nathan Weaver, Aaron Weaver and Kody Keyworth handled its recording, production and mixing themselves at Owl Lodge Studios.
It was also the band’s first release through Relapse Records in North America.
The group subsequently released the Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge EP in 2023, but Estuary represents the first new Wolves in the Throne Room full-length since Primordial Arcana.
ESTUARY TRACKLIST
1. Estuary
2. Knights of Tiamat
3. Foretold in Reflections
4. The Orca Cliffs
5. Ghosts Among the Obelisks
6. Wretched Spirits, Land of Light
Wolves in the Throne Room have also confirmed an appearance at Fire in the Mountains at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, scheduled for January 15–17, 2027.
Additional activity surrounding Estuary is expected to be announced separately.
Written by Gino Alache – Music Journalist
IMAGE CREDIT: Courtesy of Wolves in the Throne Room
Watch Wolves in the Throne Room’s official video for “Ghosts Among the Obelisks” below:
