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Thorns | |
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| Origin | Trondheim, Norway |
| Genres | Black metal Electronic music |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Labels | Moonfog Productions |
Thorns is a Norwegian black metal band that formed in 1989 and was part of the early Norwegian black metal scene. They made two highly influential demos in the early 1990s, Grymyrk and Trøndertun, but have only released one full-length album.
In 1989, Snorre Westvold Ruch (born January 21, 1972), also known under the stage name Blackthorn, and Marius Vold formed the band Stigma Diabolicum and recorded one demo. [1] In 1990, bass player Harald Eilertsen and drummer Bård "Faust" Eithun joined. [1] As the use of Latin within black metal "had escalated" (according to the Stigma Diabolicum re-release booklet), the name was changed to Thorns in 1991. [1] The same year, Eilertsen and Ruch recorded the Grymyrk demo, [1] which had a great impact on the black metal scene and, together with Mayhem guitarist Euronymous, coined the Norwegian black metal riffing, as Darkthrone drummer Fenriz points out. [2] As the band members were "spread far across Norway", they could rarely rehearse; some of the rehearsals were recorded on tape. [1] In 1992, the Trøndertun demo was recorded. [1] The same year, Ruch became Mayhem's second guitarist and disbanded Thorns for a few months. [1]
In 1994, Ruch was sentenced to 8 years in prison for admitting to being an accomplice in the murder of Euronymous. However, according to Euronymous's murderer, Varg Vikernes, Ruch was merely "in the wrong place at the wrong time". [3]
After a long period of silence due to Ruch's imprisonment for being an accomplice in the murder of Euronymous, Thorns reappeared in 1999 with the split album Thorns vs. Emperor, consisting mainly of old Thorns songs performed by Emperor and vice versa. Then, in 2001, the debut album Thorns was released, with Hellhammer on drums and vocals by Satyr and Dødheimsgard's Aldrahn.
In October 2007, Greek label Kyrck Productions released the Stigma Diabolicum compilation, which featured both the Grymyrk and Trøndertun demos, as well as material from the Stigma Diabolicum demos Lacus de Luna and Luna de Nocturnus and two tracks ("Thule" and "Fall") from a 1991 Thorns rehearsal.
A follow up to the 2001 debut was announced in September 2008. [4]
The lineup of Thorns has undergone significant changes since the 2001 album. Snorre is still involved as a guitarist, and Aldrahn has continued to serve as a vocalist. Bassist Jon Wesseltoft, guitarist Christian Broholt, and drummer Kenneth Kapstad have joined the band.
Thorns Ltd. is an experimental/drone/art-circuit offshoot of Thorns. The project was started in 2003 by Finn Olav Holthe (of The 3rd and the Mortal), Jon Wesseltoft and Snorre Ruch to explore the aesthetics of sound and its influence on the listener, using multichannel playback systems and various audio preparations.
The band first produced sound for Norwegian visual artist Bjarne Melgaard's works displayed at the Playlist exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2004. Ruch and Holthe had previously contributed sound to Melgaard's Interface to God exhibition at Kunsthalle zu Kiel in 2002. Thorns Ltd. has later contributed sound to works by New York artist Banks Violette and others.
Holthe left the band in 2006. Ruch and Wesseltoft have continued as Thorns Ltd. in addition to their work in Thorns.
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms.
Burzum was a Norwegian music project founded by Varg Vikernes in 1991. Although Burzum never played live performances, it became a part of the early Norwegian black metal scene and is considered one of the most influential acts in black metal's history. Vikernes has also released four dark ambient and neofolk albums. The word "burzum" means "darkness" in the black speech, a fictional language crafted by The Lord of the Rings writer J. R. R. Tolkien. Burzum's lyrics and imagery are often inspired by fantasy and Norse mythology, and do not feature the political views for which Vikernes is known.
Louis Cachet, better known as Varg Vikernes, is a Norwegian writer and retired musician best known for his early black metal albums and later crimes. His first five records, issued under the name Burzum from 1992 to 1996, made him one of the most influential figures in black metal. In 1994, he was convicted of murder and arson, and subsequently served 15 years in prison.
Per Yngve "Pelle" Ohlin, better known by his stage name Dead, was a Swedish metal musician who was best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem from 1988 until his death in 1991. Prior to Mayhem, he also performed as vocalist in the death/thrash band Morbid. Dead was a popular figure of the Norwegian black metal scene, and his legacy persists in the genre to this day. Roadrunner Records ranked him No. 48 out of 50 of The Greatest Metal Front-Men of All Time.
Øystein Aarseth, better known by his stage name Euronymous, was a Norwegian musician and a founder of and central figure in the early Norwegian black metal scene. He was a co-founder and guitarist of the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem and was the only constant member from the band's formation in 1984 until his death in 1993. He was also founder and owner of the extreme metal record label Deathlike Silence Productions and record shop Helvete.
Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in Langhus in 1984. They were one of the founders of the Norwegian black metal scene and their music has strongly influenced the black metal genre. Mayhem's early career was highly controversial, primarily due to their notorious live performances, the 1991 suicide of vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin ("Dead") and the 1993 murder of guitarist Øystein Aarseth ("Euronymous") by former member Varg Vikernes of Burzum.
The early Norwegian black metal scene of the 1990s is credited with creating the modern black metal genre and produced some of the most acclaimed and influential artists in extreme metal. It attracted massive media attention when it was revealed that its members had been responsible for two murders, a suicide, and a wave of church burnings in Norway.
Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground is a book by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind. It is an account of the early Norwegian black metal scene, with a focus on the string of church burnings and murders that occurred in the country around 1993. A film adaptation of the book was directed by Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund in 2018. The book has been the subject of controversy over the alleged political leanings of author Michael Moynihan, though he denies these allegations.
Thorns is the debut studio album by Norwegian black metal band Thorns. It was released in 2001, through Moonfog Productions.
De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is the first studio album by Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. Songwriting began in 1987, but due to the suicide of vocalist Per "Dead" Ohlin and the murder of guitarist Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth, the album's release was delayed until May 1994. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is widely considered one of the most influential black metal albums of all time. It is the band's only studio album to feature Aarseth and Varg "Count Grishnackh" Vikernes.
Burzum is the debut studio album by the Norwegian black metal solo project Burzum. It was released in March 1992, through Euronymous's label Deathlike Silence Productions. Six of the songs were later re-recorded in 2010 and released on the album From the Depths of Darkness, as Varg Vikernes was dissatisfied with some of the original vocals and production.
Hvis lyset tar oss is the third studio album by Norwegian black metal solo project Burzum. It was recorded in September 1992, but was not released until April 1994, whereupon it was released through Misanthropy Records and Vikernes' own record label, Cymophane Productions.
Old Funeral was a black/death metal band from Bergen, Norway.
Bård Guldvik "Faust" Eithun is a Norwegian drummer known primarily for his work with black metal band Emperor. In 1993, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for murder. He has been out of prison since 2003.
Filosofem is the fourth studio album by Norwegian black metal solo project Burzum. It was recorded in March 1993 and was the last recording before Varg Vikernes was sentenced to prison in 1994; the album was not released until January 1996, however. It was released through Misanthropy Records and Vikernes's own record label, Cymophane Productions. A music video was made for the song "Dunkelheit" and received airtime on both MTV and VH1.
Grymyrk is a demo and the debut release by Norwegian black metal band Thorns. It was recorded in June 1991 and released in the same month. The songs comprise parts played by electric guitar and bass guitar only.
Until the Light Takes Us is an American documentary film about early Norwegian black metal by directors Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell. The film premiered at the AFI Film Festival in 2008, a year before it was released in film theaters.
Umskiptar is the ninth studio album by the Norwegian one-man band Burzum, released on 21 May 2012 through Byelobog Productions. It has been described by Varg Vikernes as a "return to the roots", with a priority on atmosphere. The album's lyrics are taken from an Old Norse poem entitled Völuspá. The album was leaked two months before its release date, due, according to Vikernes, to a former PR agent of his having "sent promotional copies of the entire album to left wing extremist magazines" without his knowledge or consent.
Lords of Chaos is a 2018 biographical-horror-thriller film directed by Jonas Åkerlund and written by Lillie Rammal, Dennis Magnusson, and Åkerlund. Adapted from the 1998 book of the same name, the film is a historical fiction account of the early 1990s Norwegian black metal scene told from the perspective of Mayhem co-founder Euronymous. It stars Rory Culkin as Euronymous, Emory Cohen as Varg Vikernes, Jack Kilmer as Dead, and Sky Ferreira as Ann-Marit.
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