This is the debut album from Thørn, a blackened crust band from Italy.
Inferno contains 36 minutes of anger, teeth, and crushing distorted intensity. Thørn’s blackened crusty hardcore is a shockingly good record.
Thørn unleash a punishing chaos on Inferno that has a nuanced side to it despite the mayhem. There’s a crawling menace to parts of this album, where the blackened atmosphere coagulates into the sort of sinister guitars that make you look over your shoulder to see what’s coming for you. At many other times Thørn emphasise their more direct side, with waves of blistering aggression and furiously energetic crust-powered strength.
The guitars fuse black metal and hardcore together in enticing and enjoyable ways. The riffs and rhythms are a balanced combination of emotive crust heaviness and pure blackened malevolence. This makes for songs that make the most of their strengths, combining the instant-gratification of short, violent songs, with the longevity of feeling-rich emotive depths. Even when Thørn are clawing off your face, they’re doing so with feeling.
Inferno is driven by d-beats and blast beats and fleshed out by the sort of riffs and songwriting smarts that make for a much more multifaceted and expressive experience than you might have been expecting.
This is a top quality album of blackened carnage that should find favour with fans of bands such as Hexis, Trap Them, This Gift Is a Curse, Celeste, Cowards, Nesseria, Nails, etc.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 