Thorn - Yawning Depths

Angry Metal Guy

I don’t know, man. I love death metal, but like, hate death metal at the same time. It lies at the core of my metallic love, but if you set a plate o’ Deicide or Cannibal Corpse in front of me, I’ll probably say “ew” and push it away like a temperamental toddler. I’m very picky for the stuff that makes me feel like my ears are being hacked off with an ice pick – call me masochistic. While OSDM is usually a no-go for me, deathgrind is a style that is split right down the middle: acts like Dying Fetus or Suffocation are usually a pass for me, while Infernal Coil and Misery Index get regular spins. Where does Thorn land?

Thorn, a one-man act from Arizona, used to dwell in the chunky sloth of death/doom with debut Crawling Worship, focusing heartily on concrete-thick slogs and hell-scraping gutturals. Amping the tempo while letting old habits die hard, sophomore effort Yawning Depths offers a beatdown not unlike sole member Brennen Westermeyer’s other brutal deathgrind project Fluids. Borrowing influences from post-metal and doom, it’s a shape-shifting experience that is as relentless as it is meditative. Focusing on ominous flavors throughout its twenty-five minutes of fame, Yawning Depths is packed to the brim with potential and ideas, but is let down by its droning production and some serious songwriting snafus.

Yawning Depths by THORN

Yawning Depths benefits from an elemental collusion that supports the almighty riff. Chunky and unforgiving, they hang out somewhere between a Fit for an Autopsy chunk and a Mortician shred, adding greater emphasis to head-bobbing passages with underlying ominous melodies. Tracks like “Hellmouth,” “Judgement’s Throne,” and “Unknown Body of Light” are downright vicious in their blasting presentation, frantic drumming and shredding grooves punishing the ears, adrenaline-pumping in their unrelenting depth. Slam makes a brutal appearance in “Cavernous Shrines” with gurgling slogs, while doom rears an ominous heat that revels in its swampish quality in “Judgement’s Throne.” Post-metal rears its meditative head in tracks like “Noxious Existence” and “Lapis Lazuli,” with drawn-out riffs and dissonant plucking, with the instrumental latter’s emphasis on scathing layers pulled from the warped playbook of Vertebra Atlantis. When utilized to the full extent in favor of the riff, the shining guitar tone achieves a nearly deathcore-esque clarity, and revels in its heft.

However, multiple listens are needed to penetrate the crust of this beast. Yawning Depths has little breathing room, and smothers its sound in massive density. As well as containing nothing that ascends into the treble clef, this takes away from the crispness of the sound, granting it a dragging lethargy that makes the riffs all the more vital to its tolerability. Knuckle-dragging density is great for acts like Becerus and Frozen Soul, but Thorn‘s energy is significantly muted with this palette. Furthermore, while Infernal Coil and Vermin Womb adapt a more esoteric or opaque aesthetic to compliment its murky density, Yawning Depths‘ leaves listeners and bystanders scratching their heads with deathgrind with differing mixing priorities. There are songwriting snafus aplenty here as well, as the ominous overlays that first appear in the title track feel copied and pasted atop later songs like “Judgement Throne,” “Cavernous Shrines,” and “Graven Moonglow,” robbing from the originality and memorability. Also, as unique to deathgrind as “Lapis Lazuli” is, it is ultimately at odds with the rest of the album, lacking the necessary transitions to reach that apex.

Yawning Depths is a good album ruined by an impenetrable mixing without the need for the murk. While last year’s Altarage was doomed by this same issue, it was nonetheless in the market for it, while Thorn is undecided as to what style it tries to be. Deathgrind with doom and post- tendencies, Yawning Depths hemorrhages potential in nearly every area, but it does not feel fleshed out enough in its 25-minute runtime to justify the swampy genre smattering that ensues. However, featuring some truly memorable grooves and post-y experimentation, the future is bright for Thorn, even if Yawning Depths is still grumbling contentedly in the darkness.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 11¹ | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Chaos Records
Website: thornx.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: February 4th, 2022

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