Album Review

Thrawsunblat - Metachthonia

This album was released a full 5 months ago, and at the time this writer was working on a blog completely unrelated to music in any way, so it slipped under my radar. Then last week, while reviewing one of the new release lists I check each Friday, this showed up.

Now I recognised the name due to being a massive Woods of Ypres fan, so decided to have a look at the album and when I realised that it wasn't actually a new release and was 5 months old, and had been put on the list by mistake, I decided I was including this as one of my album reviews this week none the less.

Thrawsunblat are a band who are closely linked to the aforementioned Woods of Ypres, thanks to the magnificent David Gold being a member until his untimely passing, and former Woods of Ypres members Brendan Hayter, Joel Violette and Rae Amitay also being in the band. David is no longer with us, but the other three are moving the band forward, with Joel on guitars and vocals, Brendan on Bass and Rae on Drums, as well as providing additional vocals at points.

Unsurprisingly, Thrawsunblat have a little of the melancholy that Woods of Ypres were famous for running through their veins, combining this with some black metal, some Swallow the Sun style atmospherics and a smattering of clean vocals throughout and they have a mixture which creates 10 minute epic extreme metal masterpieces, rolling through discordant and almost ancient chanting style vocals to melodies which sound like they were created from the roots of the Garden of Eden, Thrawsunblat piece together their interest and influences into a leviathan sized melodic black metal/folk metal album, bringing in the 6 tracks at a combined 58 minutes.

The album starts off with cellos, introducing us to some medium paced guitar before exploding into a combination of melodic thrashing and riffs swirling around the sky, before coming back to earth with more cellos and folk style vocals underpinning the galloping rhythms. Every time you think the song is coming to an end, the band rebuild like a city recovering from natural disaster, the  song is revived time and time again, each subsequent time building further and higher than the time before, continually becoming more epic as the song climaxes into a magnificent final ending. "Fires That Light the Earth" is a stunning beginning to the album.

"She Who Names the Stars" is reading from the same script and pulls you in close to its soaring richness, veering from agonising vocals to soaring and profound sections. Interspersed again with cellos and the layered guitars giving the song a more diverse substance, the song pulls at your heartstrings one moment before injecting you with adrenaline the next, forcing the sheer conviction in everything they are doing upon you. The folk style vocals are in full force on "Dead of Winter", beginning with a simple vocal section, the songs flares up into more swirling riffing and this time keeps its foot on your throats as they do so. This is a galloping black metal song touching the limits of what the genre can manage.

"Hypochthonic Remnants" is an overdriven  staccato laden piece with the outstanding guitar piece of the album right in the middle of the song, this is where the band really start to flex and show the buckets of talent they have, playing some majestic metal before we head into "Rivers of Underthought". Continuing everything we've heard so far, "Rivers of Underthought" throws in a hypnotic guitar solo and the best vocal performance on the album, moving to the softest moment of the album, subtle bass combining with clean guitar picking before instantly hitting the heaviest section of the album to finish off and take us to the album closer "In Mist We Walk". Almost 12 minutes of utterly bombastic black metal, hitting everything which has come so far on the album, controlling the rhythm and pace to really ensure maximum impact throughout all passages as they hit melodic, black metal and folk time and time again, the band are almost hedonistic in their pursuit of intensity and leave nothing in the bank as they go for broke one last time. Yet more spine tingling moments where the song seems to have ended before being taken on another, higher journey, continually washing over the painting they have made, to create something more impressive and abstract, yet startlingly familiar to everything you've heard, it's a suitably impressive ending to a monumental album.

10/10

KC

Top Tracks - "She Who Names the Stars", "Rivers of Underthought"