Thrawsunblat: Great Brunswick Forest (2018)

Okay, this one is a little bit different.  It is not at all what I expected it to be.  Not that that is always a bad thing.  In fact, despite just how different this one is, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Thrawsunblat features three former members of Woods of Ypres, so I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect when I bought it.  Not even close.

First of all, Thrawsunblat is an anagram of "narwhal butt".  That is completely meaningless, but I figured I would point it out.

Now on to the music.  Woods of Ypres is a thoroughly depressing doom metal band and Thrawsunblat was described as a melodic black/folk metal band.  I do not know what the other Thrawsunblat albums sound like, but this one is much closer to folk rock.  For starters most of the songs are entirely acoustic, with guitar, bass, drums and even fiddle.  Even those songs that do feature some electric guitar, are primarily acoustic.  That being said, the music is clearly black/folk metal at its foundation.  There are obvious tremolo riffs, just played by an acoustic guitar.  And most of the songs are downright catchy.  The vocals are clean and while not conventionally well-performed, they really do match the music.

This is not the most metal of releases, but it does have a few moments.  The best song on the album is "Via Canadensis", with an absolutely infectious riff and is one of the few songs featuring distortion.  Other highlights include "Song of the Summit" and "Dark Sky Sanctuary".

Sometimes something entirely different is a good thing.  The metal foundation is pretty obvious here, but most of the music is acoustic.  That being said, I find myself circling back to this album frequently.  It surprised me twice, the first time upon hearing how far from my expectations it was, and the second by how much I enjoyed it.