Get all 10 Thrawsunblat releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Excelsior EP, Insula EP, Live off the Forest Floor, Great Brunswick Forest, Fires in Mist EP, Metachthonia, Thrawsunbit EP, Vast Arboreal Sky EP, and 2 more.
1. |
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I chanced to meet a strange man
Down a Brunswick lane,
Dressed in brown and a vagabond's cloak
A timeless image from the wood.
I stopped and said to him
Before he passed me by,
"Stranger to these Maritime shores,
spare me a moment of your time!"
Green Man of East Canada
Dark Shores of Northumberland
Green man, sing, man, of your journey 'cross the waves!
I'm no stranger to these lands,
Though they're not my own.
I left with the changed tides
To call this Brunswick kingdom home.
Its shores alive with green,
Its cities cloaked in trees
Like the halcyon of my youth,
Thousands of old summers past.
I wear the emblems of the summer
and I bear its pulsing song.
I carry it through winter,
I spread it when the snows have gone.
Across the jagged seas I traveled
With the first to cross them,
And spread my arms across the
richness of these misted lands.
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2. |
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Here I am a fortress.
Heavy were my days; sleep wore my nights;
Toil was my bane; but stone was my will.
O my allies in blood and in spirit—
Together we roam the brimming glades!
But on my own I face the wailing winds
Of languor, so here I am a fortress.
Fashioned from the surrounding land,
I stand against the winds.
Here strength I summon and travel inward;
I see into the earth.
Its ore I gather, and smelt out in the depths
of this fortress mine.
So when we gather, then I emerge
And I bear for you shimmering ore.
Among the rocks did I lay; among the roots did I slumber;
In the earth did I sleep; I was devoured by the sun.
I was washed into the sea; I became naught but purpose;
But then I rose and strong I stood
Against the weight I chose to carry.
A fortress I am and here I stand,
Fashioned I am from this land.
Life is not simply to breathe,
Nor to break back for others’ intents.
Life is to grow, to struggle free,
To assert one’s own unique existence.
A fortress of stone is what I am.
Fashioned I am from this land,
First crumbled down, down,
Indiscernible from Earth.
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3. |
Via Canadensis (Live)
03:11
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Vast river flows a mari usque ad mare,
Tethering cities so distant.
We ride to see the stones, the great standing stones
They tower like the memories and myths they mark.
On we go — to the standing stones we’ve made!
On we go — to the standing stones we’ve yet to raise!
So stand the stones a mari usque ad mare,
Tethering times so distant.
As we stand in awe, we prepare to carve out our own.
On we go — anchored in the earth.
On we go — megalithic art for these transient times.
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4. |
Once Fireveined (Live)
03:52
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Brother of mine,
How could you thrive in constant peace?
Thrive without the struggle for always more?
One only lives when at war.
Sister, what tidings shall you bring?
What spoils and vict’ries shall you ever sing?
For what do you stand in your idleness?
From what great journey do you rest?
The peace for which you long
is but rest for the road ahead.
If you’ve yet to wander,
why do you rest like the dead?
The peace for which you long
Is but rest for the road ahead.
Fire I’ve lost, and fire I’ve found.
I sing to you, ye dead above the ground.
Brother of mine,
What of the lightning that governed you?
What scattered the clouds, O great thunderhead?
When Man is at peace, he is dead.
Sister, once fire-veined,
What quenched your heart, simmered the blood?
O former champion of the road unled,
Why do you rest like the dead?
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5. |
Maritime Shores (Live)
03:43
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I’ve seen this continent’s oceans,
And all its creatures in motion.
But above it all for splendour
stand the briny Maritimes.
Where the mist and the rain
Blast life into me,
And the old white pines
Stand guard over the sea.
Though I have left her as ofttime before
Oh how I long for her Maritime shores
I am but one of a thousand of lore
Oh how I long for her Maritime shores
Though I’ve lost myself in the greenery,
And all other distant scenery,
None match the climes
Of the misty Maritimes.
Elsewhere pipes are singing,
And strings and drums are ringing.
But none with the life
of the briny Maritimes.
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6. |
Goose River (Live)
04:04
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We’ll walk through the day, on down to the bay
We’ll claim old Goose River Point
So haul on your mugs and growler jugs
it’s a long road, but not as long as a dry road
We’ll drink the ale and spin many a tale
of our comrade’s final days.
We’ll pour out the beer for the one not here
Cheers, me b’y, once more.
Cheers once more, me b’y.
It’s a long road and a sorrowed load.
It’s a long road and a sorrowed load,
Cheers, me b’y, once more.
Cheers, once more, me b'y.
Where could we throw the ash, but the end of the path
at the swirling Goose River Point?
He’ll stand with the trees, and run with the streams
where he once roamed, and now can ever again roam.
And again next year we’ll feast out here
an annual march to the sea.
We’ll raise up a toast on the rocky coast:
Cheers, me b’y, once more.
Cheers, once more, me b'y.
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7. |
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I: Of Consuming Flame
There must be more, much more, to life than this
electric, egocentric, current circumstance.
On this Earth, there must be more than this
for Homo sapiens.
Give me sun and give me song,
and I will charge our blood with ancient life.
Give me sun and give me song—
and the years I’ll sing us back to ice.
Look to the sky, look to the hills,
to ground you in this electric age.
Look to the folk and the past they fill
to ground you in this electric age.
As you journey on through these modern times,
walk light through the traps of the age.
As you journey on through these modern times,
walk heavy through the barriers made.
Metachthonia! Metachthonia!
Chthonic times are gone.
Metachthonia! Metachthonia!
Metachthonic times live on.
Look not to these modern times—
where diodes shine over the sun—
to solve questions older than life,
for the times only concern with themselves.
II: The Chthonic Call
Lost in urban sprawl. Spiritual withdrawal.
Lights and screens decide all dreams.
The distant landscape breathed and I heard
the sky above—it groaned clouded words.
Followed the chthonic call; journey to the coastal wall,
where great trees stand across wide whispering land.
The sound of waves striking cliffs was speech, conversation.
Eternal tones, in the marrow of my bones:
“And the fires burn bright. And they burn in number.
Oh how they burn all across the Earth.
And the fires burn all across the glowing Earth.
And the fires burn for any who wish to find them.”
III: In Mist and Spray
I plant my feet upon the cliff
and breathe the spray of the sea.
Arms wider than the thundering sky.
I roared out to all I could see
and stretched flame into the sky.
Though immersed in mist and spray,
the fire that surged from heart to fist
was ready to consume me.
I saw the threads appear in the air:
not quite cloud, not quite vine,
glowing with each pulse,
reaching high from my chest to the clouds.
And the sky broke with crashing light
and sound to deafen Thor himself.
Lightning lit the ethereal braid.
And all went black.
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8. |
Black Sky (Live)
03:52
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Stars are all we have
to connect our diverging lives.
Look at the sky from where you are.
And know that though we are so far,
we see the same stars.
Stars are all we have
to connect our distant lives.
So what becomes of you and I
under this fading Winter sky?
This death black sky.
And so we lie, you and I,
torn apart by the miles.
And so we die, you and I,
under the same black sky.
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