There are innumerable bands with the name Thorn and not just in the metal scene as this solo project, fronted by Brennen Westermeyer, hails from Arizona in the USA. For a band that has only been around since 2020 he has unleashed plenty of recordings as this latest release is his third full length amongst a smattering of splits and an EP. His last album, ‘Yawning Depths’ came across as a mixed bag of tunes with chameleon like genre switching from doom to death, and sludge to grind whereas this latest release centres itself around the doom-death genre predominantly. Clearly he has had some money pumped into his work, the album cover is clearly a step forward in terms of quality as is the production alongside the myriad of products that the label always offers for its releases which I can tell you are absolutely top notch if you purchase from them, though you do have to wait some time for orders I have found over the years, but it is certainly worth it.
‘Evergloom’ typifies the hybrid doom and death metal genres, its fluidised solemnity flows through soul stricken riffs and guttural density with each track ebbing and flowing allowing the songs to mature and delve deep into a doleful yet hypnotic styling. For some reason I was expecting an atmospheric intro piece on opener ‘Spectral Realms Of Ethereal Light’ but instead the tune thrusts grisly riffing and colossal intensity down your throat topped off with the morosity and tension that this genre requires. Adding to the songs overall deathly delivery are melancholic guitar hooks that permeate virtually every song, adding reams of atmosphere. My mention of genre switching does still apply to some extent but it has been reined in or has been melded into the flow of the album for a much more cohesive and balanced listen as each tune smoothly flows into the next.
I do like curious song titles and ‘Xenolith Of Slime’ is one of them as I looked up what xenolith means even though I deduced it was something to do with geology of course, imagining what a xenolith of slime would actually look like. The song title matches the tunes towering doom soundscaping, the cavernous vocals that pour from his larynx are entirely inhuman, not just on this track but the album as a whole. The slow pacing affords it that desolate, crawling and slithering approach, where those despondent guitar breaks shift the tune towards a blackened doom ethos, even if it is just a slight sonic vignette.
‘Hypogean Crypt’ does indeed have an underground suffocating and claustrophobic stance, as the song possesses an early 90s vibe that bands like Paradise Lost were writing back then, it’s insidious mind-bending malevolence has that sense of encasing you. Same applies to ‘Gaze Of The Seer’, the eerie and opaque opening penetrates the songs overt monolithic delivery and contrasts hugely with the much shorter ‘Wastelands Dimly Lit’. The switch to a much faster style is easy to absorb, its crushing methodology is firmly within straight death metal territory and had me noting down Immolation as a reference point, but I could name a bunch of bands that are similar to Thorn.
Weirdly and atypically ‘Sapien Death Spiral’ sees another deviation and at first I thought it was going to be slam song, such is the riffing that opens it before it neatly tucks itself back into doom-death with gruesome ferocity. ‘Farron’s Covenant’ returns the album to the grisly barbarity of earlier, its abrasive earthshattering riffage blends well with ‘Thanatos Basileos’ which in places unveils some post-rock like guitar work albeit short-lived before the album closes with the longest and most expansive title track.
The title track has a swirling eeriness, the heaviness perpetuated by continually morphing riffs that have that blackened feathering on its fringes as I particularly liked the guitar work on this tune where it unfurls a desolate yet dread saturated toning that infects the song. I am not a lover of fade outs on songs but here in the last minute of the title track it works to dissolve the song and leave you with a withering sense of abject relief.
(8/10 Martin Harris)
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