True Norwegian Blackgrass. With a title like that, I just had to check this out. While the sophomore album from Norway’s Twin Serpent might be a bit of misnomer, it’s still a fun record for what it is.

I’ll be frank, the music on True Norwegian Blackgrass is pretty damn far out of my normal wheelhouse. As far as black metal meets bluegrass goes, it’s a far cry from Panopticon’s Kentucky. What it truly is, is a sort of punk-meets-country sound inspired by the likes of 16 Horsepower, The Taxpayers, and Tom Waits. Crust country, cow punk, whatever you want to call it. Sounds about right! The rowdy punk energy is immediately apparent on opener “Space Heater” with it’s pulse-pounding beat and gruff shouting vocals from banjo/acoustic guitarist Timo Sivola, paired throughout the album with bassist Hanna Fauske.

The first shades of real bluegrass on the album come from lead single “Stellar Suicide”, keeping up the punky energy but within an overall softer production package. On this track and elsewhere there’s the occasional wall of distorted chords far off in the background and some speedy picking in guitar solos, but that’s probably the closest the album ever gets to “black metal”; no blast beats or kvlt vocals to be found here. “Radiophobia” is built around a bluesy riff cribbed right from ZZ Top’s “La Grange”, “Kipu Kivi” changes things up with Sivola’s native Finnish, and closer “Anti-Nation Blues” wraps up the whole package with bluesy slide guitar sleaze.

I wouldn’t even call it black metal-adjacent, but nevertheless True Norwegian Blackgrass is an enjoyable, off-kilter journey that has enough variety within to keep one entertained throughout it’s sub-40 minute runtime. If you (like me) need a break from a lot of the heaviest stuff around, these tracks about love, black holes, and flying your freak flag will certainly suffice.

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True Norwegian Blackgrass is available now through Svart Records. For more information on Twin Serpent, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.