Shortly before changing the band’s name to Sligm in 2025, the lone creative behind Arizona’s Thorn released ‘Nebulous Womb of Eternity’ on India’s prolific Transcending Obscurity Records. Thorn released 3 full length albums as well as several splits and EPs prior to this 2025 effort.
‘Nebulous Womb of Eternity’ was Brennen Westermeyer’s final release under the Thorn moniker, which was a solo project. He performed/programmed all instruments.
Musically, this band is tagged as “Death/Doom” on the Metal Archives website. While there are elements of Death Metal, I hear VERY little Doom Metal at all, and in fact, I hear far more elements of groove and late 2000/early 2010’s deathcore than anything else. Chromatic “chug” based riffing, pinch harmonics and groovier elements of slam, at times.
The programmed drums and general home studio feel to these songs leave them feeling flat and largely uninspired. The bass is far too loud in the mix, and there weren’t any riffs that left me feeling hungry to go back for a second bite. While Brennen does use some variety to his vocal approach, they largely sit in the “cookie monster” range that most death metal is known for.
The entirety of this release could be played by any other one man project, or by a younger local band searching for their sound and I wouldn’t know the difference.
Across 37 minutes, these 7 songs are doomed to a lifeless existence. There’s really no getting around it with programmed drums and what I would have to guess is string tones exclusively from plugins. My own band has suffered the same fate.
I do give Brennen kudos for being as active as he has over Thorn’s existence and hope that the addition of other creatives and live members will give his new band Sligm a lively breath of air and dynamic that this Thorn release is in such desperate need of.
