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

Vinyl Review: "III: Metachthonia" by Thrawsunblat

III: Metachthonia

Sometimes it takes a little while to make the right decision.

My journey into vinyl country, as it were, was years late. In the middle 90's when CDs were still the rage, an attempt was made to hear the difference between CDs and LPs, but all that was heard was a terribly scratchy copy of Alive! by Kiss.

I wasn't much of a Kiss fan then. That was in the beginning of my Kiss reawakening. Up until that point, mostly I was familiar with their latter days output and was still really digging on Revenge.

Well over a decade later, at a Crobot concert, I accidentally purchased their debut EP on clear vinyl. Not much later I was given a turntable of my own, which I'm listening to III: Metachthonia on right now. Then as time wore on, it occurred that it was time to give vinyl a serious try. At the time, it was only to make the music I purchased more important.

Now,  I'm full on reborn into the community. Since the switch was made, I've only purchased two CDs and I have no idea how many records. Much like my tardiness into vinyl, the latest Thrawsunblat record tarried as well.