THORN – Evergloom
Release Date: 15th September 2023
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Doomy/Sludgy OSDM.
FFO: Desecresy, Intestine Baalism, Edge of Sanity, Desultory, Fumes.
Review By: Andy Spoon
Most acts that are composed of a single member intrigue me. While many of them have session musicians and live bandmates, they often produce, write, and compose every instrument line. THORN’s only official member, Brennen Westermeyer, seeks to unleash the band’s upcoming LP release on September 15th, 2023 on metal juggernaut Transcending Obscurity Records, an outfit which is known for some of the most blistering, forward-facing metal in the industry right now.
The main thing that listeners will experience is the “atmosphere”, as everything tends to be played through a huge reverb effect, giving a cavernous type of feeling to the sound, whether intro, song, or interlude. This is obviously a stylistic choice which is often heard in the more “indie” circles of doom and black metal. The base nature of the music is death metal, but with a post-death flavor that doesn’t quite enter the “doom metal” realm, either, which is totally fine by me. It’s about the slow-roasting of the brutality which Evergloom offers.
The vocals are layered, giving wider depth to the overall sound, which some listeners might like or not. I think that it’s going to be the “make or break” aspect of the album for most listeners. There’s not much discernible diction in the lyrics, which matters very little in the deal of “doomy” metal, anyways. I personally think that the vocal intensity and the distortion of the vocal cords is an art form in itself that tends to lean more towards the rhythmic, not the poetic. Although, I am always interested in an album’s poetry. That being said, with song titles like “Gaze of the Seer”, and “Xenolith of Slime”, you could imagine that there are esoteric, Lovecraftian, or pagan themes to much of the content.
While Evergloom has 10 tracks, it runs a relatively-short total runtime, at just a hair over 36 minutes, making the entire listen pretty tolerable. Some artists don’t mind giving you all 80-minutes of an LP (The general length of a 700MB CD from the “olden” days before streaming), which can be a real pain-in-the-ass if you’re not into it. That’s not any type of dig at THORN, just an observation of what might be, perhaps, an intent by the artist to complete his artistic message in less time than necessary, e.g. without the extra “Stuffing”.
Most of the album is atmospheric, “damp”, and brooding. There are moments of slow interludes followed by mountainous heavy segments that oscillate between vocal techniques and layering variations to give the listener that high voice/low voice variation to keep the songs exciting. There are several moments where the groove hits and getting into some guilt-free headbanging is strongly encouraged. I think that the “mood” intended to be conveyed isn’t just dark and evil, but could also invoke strong levels of intoxicating energy that most of us metal geeks enjoy, when applicable.
The guitars are bassy and low, as is the bass. There’s enough deep and dirty fuzz and crunch from the rhythm section to absolutely fill the lower end of the mix. Listeners have to wait for choice moments to get the relief of the higher notes from the lead section. This reminds me a lot of bands like Endseeker, whose entire “sound” is just a deathly-low dirge of grinding sludge. I think that people are going to enjoy the variation of the total package, which is generally going to appeal to the exact audience that Transcending Obscurity records is known to reach.
Evergloom is a fun album that is full of flavor and excitement, while also being as thrummy and sticky as possible, something that most solo-led projects could never hope to achieve.
(3.5 / 5)
