Thorn Summons the Void Through "Crawling Worship" (Early Album Stream)

When vocalist Brennen Westermeyer isn’t making horrifying noises with Fluids, he’s been working on his death doom project Thorn. Last September, Westermeyer introduced the world to Thorn by way of the EP The Encompassing Nothing, whose runtime encompassed a brief 19 minutes over the course of seven tracks—not exactly what you’d expect from the genre.

“For all of my projects, I really enjoy writing ‘potato chip songs,'” said Westermeyer in a previous interview with Invisible Oranges. “Songs that are so short, that you’ll probably play it again over and over, because it ends so quickly. Like eating a bag of potato chips. I have a lot of powerviolence and grind influences, so I think I tend to lean toward shorter songs.”

Now, very much in line with that ethos and previous sound, comes the debut Thorn album Crawling Worship. Across 10 brief-yet-obliterating tracks, Westermeyer distills the essence of death doom, post-metal, and sludge into a concentrate so potent that it just might burn a hole through your speakers. What’s especially interesting about Crawling Worship, and to an extent The Encompassing Nothing, is that these short bursts of brutality don’t feel like an endless onslaught. Westermeyer is still very mindful of his writing and manages to make the short format work in the context of actual songwriting.

Listen to the full album ahead of its release below:

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Crawling Worship releases June 18 through Life After Death and Gurgling Gore and can be preordered here.

The artwork for the album was done by Tanner Conrad of Such is Life, and the music itself was mixed and mastered by Kyle Allsup of Prey For Death Productions.