Cavernous, brooding, and bleak, THORN is a solo project of erstwhile Fluids vocalist Brennen Westermeyer. From the deserts of Phoenix, THORN specializes in the foreboding and ominous. Weaving elements of death metal, doom, post, and grind, THORN creates a soundscape for worshipping pagan gods and making offerings to entities unknown. Since the band's birth in 2020, THORN has delivered an EP, a split with Canada's Fumes, and then the Crawling Worship full-length in 2021. Vast and virulent, Crawling Worship set an impossibly high standard, but already is it eclipsed by the follow-up Yawning Depths. Just like its predecessor, Yawning Depths may maintain a succinct runtime at 25 minutes, but its its feel - its FILTH - is literally gargantuan, a titan of smothering sound and boundless death energy. Death metal and doom may indeed form the foundation to the strident THORN aesthetic, but Westermeyer wields a surprising creativity within those self-imposed boundaries, evoking a paradoxically wide-open sense of space as well as a wounded melodicism. Nevertheless, THORN's aim is true: instill waves of ominous dread and bleak hopelessness to all who listen. Yawning Depths is thus aptly titled, for it punctuates that point with an infinitely reverberating vacuum-cum-void.
