LP Review: "IV: Great Brunswick Forest" by Thrawsunblat

IV: Great Brunswick Forest

Kismet is a funny thing at times. The other day, sitting in my nearly remodeled sitting room, I played Thrawsunblat's III: Mechathonia. It vaguely occurred in my brain that it seemed like it was time for a new record.

These gentle Canadians from Canada's Canada, New Brunswick, have flipped the script. Now, it would appear that someone listened to side IV of III and sent them email after email about how awesome those songs sounded without extreme vocals and on acoustic guitar.

Because, what we have here is an entire blackened folk metal album, minus the blackening. There are no distorted guitars,. double bass blast beats, or growls.

Thrawsunblat has stripped down to their very essence and, while this new effort may not check off all of the boxes for black metal fans, it gives a new look into a very talented band. If this all sounds hard to grasp, it kind of is for me, but look at the cover of the previous album, the forest was burning.

That cover is a bit of a metaphor for this record. What wasn't real has been burned away and we're left with the sound that comes out the instruments themselves. There's no distortion. There's no wah wah.

We have only the sounds of the forest.

Out: 10/19/18 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK