Back in the early 90’s Thorns was often looked upon as being one of the most highly influential and revered bands within the Norwegian music scene. Of course all of this was based off of a few low-fi demo tapes, which surfaced at this time and began to make a huge buzz within the scene.
Apparently the band first came into existence in 1989 under the moniker Stigma Diabolicum and was lead by Snorre Ruch, Bard Eithun and Marius Vold. Collectively the band recorded three demos between 1989-1992 until Snorre took up an offer to play guitar in Mayhem. A year later Snorre escorted Varg Vikernes to Euronymous’ apartment where Varg merciless’ murdered Euronymous. Since Snorre had driven Varg there he ended up being charged as his accomplice and Snorre was locked up for the next 5 to 6 years. Some time after getting out Snorre meet up with Satyr Wongraven who encouraged Snorre to restart Thorns and thus this split between Emperor was the result.
Thorns Vs. Emperor is a truly remarkable album since at the time mixing electronics with black metal was still relatively unheard of. Both bands performances on this release is without a doubt impeccable from start to finish. As for Emperor, rather than playing in there symphonic black metal style Emperor choose to do four songs, which actually sound similar to Thorns. The album opens with a grandiloquent intro track, which sounds similar to, ‘Al Svartr’ with the addition of industrial and strange electronics. Their second song, ‘I Am’ sounds like a mix between early Emperor recordings with the addition of the electronics, industrial vibes and lots of experimentation. It's absolutely brilliant to say the least. They also cover a song from one of the Thorns demos and their final track is a neo classical version of, ‘Thus spake the Nightspirit,’ retitled here as, 'Thus March the Nightspirit.' To be hoenst it’s really a shame Emperor didn’t carry on making music in this fashion since the following two releases from the band were more or less revolting.
Now while I adore the four Emperor songs it’s the songs from Thorns that are unbelievable. Thorns performance on this album is extremely dark sounding perhaps even doom-ish at times and to put it simple the music speaks for itself. The riffs within these songs are some of the most menacing riffs I have personally ever heard. Combine that with the slow pace of the songs, the strange electronics/keyboards, and Satyr’s grim vocals and it’s not hard to comprehend how great this band is. My personal favorite from this album is the final song ‘Cosmic Keys.’ A song filled with eerie keyboards, sound effects, a creepy main guitar riff, and Snorre’s mysteriously evil spoken vocals. Atmospheric like you wouldn't even believe.
The only thing that’s disappointing about this album is that it didn’t come to be until 1999. Just imagine what type of influence this would have had on the scene had this shown up back in 1993/94! Thorns VS Emperor is a truly novel and eclectic album, which may not be for everyone, but I still believe it's place within the Norwegian (black) metal scene is enormously profound and influential.
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