THORNS - Grymyrk [Full Demo 1991]

Black metal from Trondheim, Norway.
1. Lovely Children 0:01
2. Fall 3:33
3. Thule 5:55
4. Fairytales 12:56
5. Home 17:02
6. You That Mingle May 23:55
Rehearsal tape, it was only spread to friends.
Recorded on June 3rd 1991 but never officially released, thus it has no cover-artwork. The tape was released in the same month.
The track "Lovely Children" is a re-recording of "Into the Promised Land" from the Luna de Nocturnus demo.
The riff in "Into the Promised Land" was later used in Mayhem's "From the Dark Past".
The track "Home" reprises some riffs from the track "Ærie Descent" from the Trøndertun demo.
Line-up:
Snorre Westvold Ruch (aka Blackthorn) - Guitars
Harald Eilertsen - Bass

[@ilariohring7632]

Snorre Ruch is the most underrated key figure in black metal history.

[@whenpigsfly860]

They made him look like such a dope in the movie.

[@joshbrown1884]

MayheM would of been even better if they got the chance to record with him.

[@Xenotypal]

@@joshbrown1884 imagine snorre euro and varg all collaborating on riffs for one band, while one of the 3 played bass. then have dead on vox and hellhammer on drums.

[@drytoon820]

@@whenpigsfly860 hello, sorry, but which movie are you talking about ?

[@danielamaro1396]

@@drytoon820 Lord of Chaos movie

[@GoodSneakers]

Quintessential. In 1991 nobody had heard Norwegian Black Metal like this. The rest is history..

[@rytkosenjussi]

Hidden gem of black metal. In these days no one speak nothing about this band. Greets from Finland.

[@georgevic8757]

true black metal riffing

[@musicianatswampcastle]

18:19 I can hear this riff’s influence on Dissection’s “Where Dead Angels Lie” even. Thank you for the upload!

[@atmosjk]

This arpeggio is in Thorn's "Aerie Descent".

[@AshenStigmata1431]

The main riff of Jesus' Tod has always reminded me of this one

[@torbjornomalm]

Absolute magic. This is what black metal is about.

[@ilshyf]

You just witness an important of part of black metal's history: the legendary demo tape of Thorns, which reputedly influenced black metal guitar playing technique, namely tremolo picking with minor tuning.

[@AstronomyDomine]

This was tuned down?

[@zachbos5108]

@@AstronomyDomine minor chords/scales, not tuning

[@containternet9290]

Snorre learnt tremelo picking from Euronymous, he said that himself recentlly in a documentary called Helvete Historien om norsk black metal. Check this out kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqeThX2rpaqar9E By this time, Snorre was just a kid.

[@styx6ix6]

The Quintessence of Black Metal, raw and cold, but very underrated unfortunately, even though it is a important piece of artwork & history

[@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms]

Black Metal will gain traction over time.

[@SeverinoSE]

This demo brought me back to those days when this music was just emerging and it had an exciting, almost scary vibe. The rawness and the style gave it an obscure, underground, evil feel. And you would want to find a copy from somewhere. You either wrote (hand letters) to the band or knew someone who did tape trading...

[@ia1lieutenant]

Snorre is the Tony Iommi of Norwegian Black Metal - when all the planet is stealing / playing your riffs .....

[@containternet9290]

Snorre learnt tremelo picking from Euronymous, he said that himself recentlly in a documentary called Helvete Historien om norsk black metal. Check this out kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqeThX2rpaqar9E By this time, Snorre was just a kid.

[@ia1lieutenant]

@@containternet9290 I know of this documentary and it's excellent. I think they were kind of shaping the Norse BM guitar playing together in way.

[@dometelevision]

Iommi is a hack, he stole his riffs from Satan, look it up.

[@MagnusOffical]

[@coldacre]

heard of a person called Quorthon? he's the Tony Iommi of black metal. listen to "Satan My Master" from 1984. Snorre was still in primary school.

[@torchbearer3784]

The best black metal album that never was finished. I remember people talking about this in the early 90's

[@TheGreatGodPan]

hehehe finally spotted one of the riffs Snorre contributed to de mysteriis dom sathanas (from the dark past)

[@kristianalexandersvardal2953]

18:20 ;)

[@mihahell]

@@kristianalexandersvardal2953 dude it' not that riff, stop being stupid.

[@fuska213]

The bass is badass.. I like how it sounds in black metal it has that growl sound to it lol

[@metalheadgamer80]

It’s a shame that a lot of Black Metal doesn’t have bass like that lol

[@zbigniewiksinski]

u mean boomy mess of a sound? yeah, so black metal

[@AstronomyDomine]

Snorre is so underrated

[@boubou230910]

Birth of black metal.

[@amhtxc2960]

I was reading about this tape in "Black Metal Evolution of the cult" by Dayal Patterson. A very good book on the topic. This tape is just incredible, not from this world. Quintessential. Thanks for the upload.

[@victorwho744]

Wow, beautiful. Came here after the helvete documentary..Incredible riffing

[@symbolic140]

Best demo ever.

[@whthd5600]

defining a whole approach to guitar playing...

[@Lord_Aghast]

Who would have thought this demo would go on to inspire millions of people to play black metal across the world, it’s starting to get its proper dues but even I didn’t know about this demo until a few years ago. Now you’re starting to see more people acknowledging it’s importance which is great. We’ve all ripped off a Snorre riff or two, sometimes not even knowing it.

[@PepperDoom]

Even for black metal... this is dark....

[@seang836]

Without Snorre Black Metal would sound completely different. This is the man who created the guitar style still used today. No one was playing anything like this before him. Tremelo picked minor chords in a harmonic minor scale pattern or tritone patterns, occasionally chromatic, sometimes minor chords broken up into slow tremolo picked arpeggios. The kind of stuff you could put on a horror movie soundtrack. Brilliant. Edit: To those saying the riffing mentioned above was done on deathcrush, it was not. There are no trem picked minor chord arpeggios or any use of harmonic minor scale on Deathcrush. Deathcrush is all power chords, it does do some chromatic and tritone patterns with trem picking, but not the rest of the stuff that makes the Snorre riffs above unique. Mayhem didn't release anything in that specific riffing style till De Mysteriis.

[@Fireglo]

Euronymous was doing that style as early as Deathcrush though...

[@Ahelphand]

oh yeah..listen to bartok or scriabin...classical music has anticipated it ALL :-)

[@veneficus582]

Exactly, but Deathcrush was the first black metal album. Bathory was not black metal

[@spritefroggy]

@@veneficus582 'Under the Sign of the Black Mark' sounds far more like a black metal album than 'Deathcrush', which even Varg says "sounded more like fun-core than black metal to us".

[@veneficus582]

@@spritefroggy Title song is black metal, Chainsaw is more Death metal-ish but overall Thorns and Mayhem invented the norwegian black metal riffing style, and that's how the genre was defined in the first place

[@candmrcv8016]

18:18 - Ea, Lord of the Depths

[@hbc431]

perfect guitar sound and riffing for black metal a true game changer! ice cold!

[@cd0u50c9]

For those that think that Immortal is cold, this might actually freeze them... Next level, and this is coming from the pioneer of the genre!

[@Nystrom292]

This guy is the mastermind behind the Pagan Fears riffs

[@rytkosenjussi]

Probably best song of Mayhem.

[@strayy1554]

First songs main riff is also in From the dark past.

[@containternet9290]

The mastermind behind Pagan Fears, in fact DMDS in its entirety is Euronymous whom Snorre learnt the tremolo picking from.

[@dronespace]

Amazing sound/riffs

[@BlackishMetalish]

Awesome..... Thanks, so much....

[@monicahentschke4565]

infernal sounds

[@worldinpains2.035]

Classic.. never forgotten!

[@AerikVon]

Incredible work…

[@matsurikudo5130]

been looking for a good,dark bass guitar sound for about a year...i finally found it...

[@matsurikudo5130]

to be honest...know that i think about it,it sounds like a improved bass tone from Infester-to the depths of degradation album

[@gilsaraiva2830]

+Matsuri Kudo You put a decnt bass like a jazz fender through your hi-fi speakers and you´ll get something very akin to this, I used to do that as a kid. Worked one summer for the bass which cost me a fortune and had to wait for the next holiday to work for the amp lol ;so I used my hi-fi and the sound was exactly like this

[@kalebtheloser616]

What a golden part of black metal the beginning of an era all captured here on this tape

[@kalebtheloser616]

Well a lot of inspiration at least

[@GoodSneakers]

Together with Bathory's "Under the sign of the black mark", this demo is rocket fuel for an international genre.

[@lv2fishrn971]

Just having heard about this tonight while reading a Black Metal book Evolution of the cult. Never would have heard of it. Glad I know now. Very cool stuff here.

[@Vikum8]

Como será de infravalorado Thorns que ni siquiera este video tiene publicidad. Pero la calidad está ahí.

[@serhioyuzz3706]

It is a clean experiment, search... Deify such moments! Enjoy, when hear, as they yet not confidently play a new sound. But, through the curtain of noise hear that quite soon accepted to take their. It is new music, distant from trash and to the death-metal, and it already wonderful!

[@xisotopex]

you are correct, interesting thought

[@sanix127]

Pure Darkness!

[@WocklessGamingforAnimeMoms]

Don't continue to support Inquisition bro,don't defend Pop Punk when it really shouldn't be defended either.

[@louisaddeo-weiss5690]

This has to be most dark and menacing shit I’ve ever heard

[@gorgogrottan]

Riff magic at 19:36

[@dudeok5978]

This whole demo is some riff magic!

[@herrnoatun882]

Listen to Alphaville - A Victory of Love. He stole the riff, so we can thank synthpop for having an influence over Black Metal

[@Fireglo]

@@herrnoatun882 it's a melody not a riff.

[@atavism-dream]

@@Fireglo "This is music, not a demo"

[@Fireglo]

@@herrnoatun882 I'd hardly call it "stealing" this is just a non-profit demo of him messing around with some riffs and melodies.

[@lodke1697]

Hypnotizing

[@toothsnaggleer]

Bewildering journey unto nowhere.

[@angeldemon2744]

That is so cool.

[@martinignaciodefeo9235]

True Low-budget Norwegian Black Metal. Corpse sound at its peak. Nothing sounds sicker than this. Not even Burzum, Mayhem, Amputation, Old Funeral and Darkthrone together. Sick sick sick sick sick... I´d love a digital modeling of the Boss DS-2 and the portable 4-track mini studio to be able to achieve this sick sound in the current guitar processors like Helix, Axe Fx 3, Kemper, Tone Master Pro, etc.

[@killzone2FTw547]

Chilling

[@ekieki9089]

You really have to be dark minded to create this kind of art. Damn

[@nihil000nihil]

just wow

[@RPG7rokette]

History right there

[@schwarztag]

Fantastic

[@Johnsmith-bf6yg]

Guitar and bass only 👏🏻

[@elwarofficial]

Perfection

[@rodrigoalves5763]

impressionante...a frieza dessas canções...nota 10

[@danielrodriguesbra6539]

100

[@LUR1FAX]

So "Home" is essentially what became "Aerie Descent"

[@kaniel0utis105]

Esto es black metal en su forma más pura

[@vrombo]

18:18 this is exactly how a new genre is born, why they called it true and norwegian, because it's very different to what venom, celtic frost or bathory had to offer. A werewolf appears.

[@silversorgo5482]

But Deathcrush is from 1987 or it's not second wave of black metal?

[@vrombo]

@@silversorgo5482 deathrush 💩💩💩

[@Kynos1]

Sick!!!!!

[@solitudinemdungeonsynth7786]

3:41 That's why I came here...

[@victorwho744]

Yep, that's an absolutely amazing riff

[@williamsmith666]

"Yeah sure, Varg...I'm sure nothing bad will happen..."

[@discos_peligrosos]

Qué belleza!!!

[@fredosantanas2154]

Mayhem should reincorporate Snorre, he is part of Mayhem's sound and soul for sure... wether people know it or not. Respect for this rarely mentioned BM genius

[@zachbos5108]

Yeah, Varg should join as well :)

[@Skurk12498]

@@zachbos5108 no

[@dEAthlikEstAtic]

yes, 2bass players & multiple guitars.

[@akamyaku]

is it the bass guitar thats making the rumbling dissonance? it almost sounds like a gun sometimes. legendary stuff right here

[@aymanlafaz]

yes

[@connorpoinan72]

Very good

[@metaleer1979x]

Whoa! How did you get your hands on this?

[@Argflugan]

***** See my reply to JamaWest.

[@trents.b6903]

yesssss! fucking amazing

[@swaggypanda1808]

0:00 to 1:20 is From the Dark Past by Mayhem

[@lallarolle]

It says that "The riff in "Into the Promised Land" was later used in Mayhem's "From the Dark Past" however that is not listed as one of the songs in the track list. Any idea which track it would be?

[@diogosantos4283]

"Lovely Children" is the re-recording of "Into the Promised Land"

[@music-xl2dm]

this is so fucking good

[@GreyEyedAthena]

its pretty rippin

[@AstronomyDomine]

Wish this masterpiece was on spotify

[@rangerwhiskeybreath4935]

I hope that's a joke!

[@dimas.8300]

@@rangerwhiskeybreath4935 Why is it bad for people to easily access good music?

[@soygan]

streaming services sucks

[@Mitchery]

@@soygan Up your arse! 👆

[@oxypill]

@@soygan *is on youtube streaming music*

[@greekarmada88]

The darkest piece of metal history. Even darker than black metal it shelf.

[@atavism-dream]

Listen to "Dark Metal" by Bethlehem

[@beastmother9437]

Yes, Bethlehem too 👍

[@joshuar3632]

Is it me or do I see cloud strife walking into a village in final fantasy 7 at 18:30? Come on the music is identical

[@kristianalexandersvardal2953]

It is the riff on From the dark past by Mayhem

[@user-jp7mb4ns7x]

A lot of those riffs are in the split with Emperor

[@kristianalexandersvardal2953]

No, Snorre Ruch used them on Di Mysteriis

[@JamaWest]

Anyone know where you can get a copy of this?

[@Argflugan]

JamaWest You can't, it was never officially released as a tape with artwork. It has been reissued on CD/LP on Kyrck Productions later, though. See here.www.metal-archives.com/albums/Thorns/Stigma_Diabolicum/176884 and www.kyrck-productions.st05.net/main.html .

[@gilsaraiva2830]

+JamaWest I have it as the stigma diabolicum cd which includes this demo. Great cd to own and quite limited too.

[@reddyenumber2]

Thank you so much for this comment! I just bought the CD!

[@alexcreswell]

in the words of a good friend of mine "this album is how Sunn o))) should've done "black one" I agree

[@FetalJuice88]

Alexander creswell sunn shouldn’t do ANYTHING, the rip off artists they are

[@societyearth6562]

How do I get to these places? Just lucky I guess.

[@jaceksky4064]

Amazing classic stuff 🤘🤘🤘🤘

[@ignaciosatanizado]

Shut up fuckin bot

[@Mitchery]

@@ignaciosatanizado Tu culo.

[@centerrightpunk]

can someone cover these songs with a full band? would love to hear it.

[@boubou230910]

+centerrightpunk I know what you mean, I would love too to hear from a proper band these songs, but I think that this material has its magic within its raw nature. And must stay as it.

[@lightningrod3331]

Mayhem used the riffs from Lovely Children in From the Dark Past off De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994). It's fucking good metal.

[@coldacre]

with 2 pictures of Bard Faust who's not on this recording

[@PepperDoom]

Fairytales.... yeah right!

[@aertum468]

Demon really went ahhhh eeeee sssss eeeeeaha

[@OldBlackMetal]

Too bad he was involved in the murder of Euronymous... Thorns and Stigma Diabolicum were really great bands. By the way, according to Fenriz, Snorre along with Euronymous pioneered the original tremolo-picking Norwegian Black Metal riffing style.

[@samwisebagcheese7207]

Being that he and Euro had an Avant Garde band together long before the murder, I doubt he had much to do with it other than just physically being there.

[@containternet9290]

Snorre learnt tremelo picking from Euronymous, he said that himself recentlly in a documentary called Helvete Historien om norsk black metal. Check this out at 13:00 minute kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqeThX2rpaqar9E By this time, Snorre was just a kid.

[@BjrnOlavLeraand]

@@containternet9290 yeah he for sure learnt it from Euro, but he then improved it together with Euro also

[@TheEnderBand]

man these riffs are so fucked up and evil sounding- Snorre is the fucking man

[@bagelitsandila4611]

The intro kinda reminds me of a song from DMDS from mayhem.

[@ahagjkbav5563]

That riff was used by Euromymous on DMDS album

[@containternet9290]

@@ahagjkbav5563 Snorre learnt tremelo picking from Euronymous, he said that himself recentlly in a documentary called Helvete Historien om norsk black metal. Check this out at 13:00 minute kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqeThX2rpaqar9E By this time, Snorre was just a kid.

[@dwinandasidhi8511]

Father of black metal

[@Jimbob-gw7jp]

so snorre is from the group thorns....i did not know that. rhis is interesting the plot thickens in the bm world.

[@anttisilvast5613]

KVLT

[@xotatchecanowisysk666]

17:02 Dominus Sathanas - Burzum

[@ignaciosatanizado]

cult!

[@edwinmolina7372]

músicos monstruosos...

[@DaemonGoatlord]

Darkness, unexpected.

[@Phobophiliac]

Is it me or Fairytales sounds a little bit like Dunkelheit?

[@georgevic8757]

at the end of this i go with my shitted pants to cry in front of satan

[@gasmaskedgenocide]

LOL

[@tekknologicalmusic1]

192 !!!!!

[@thetruemusichead]

Most interesting thing about this release...no drums!

[@Alexander_Tronstad]

There´s a new norwegian documentary out on the black-metal scene, where Snorre explains it. There was supposed to be drums and vocals, this tape was just the first part of something that should be a full record, but it leaked out and stuff got in the way so it was never finished.

[@thetruemusichead]

@@Alexander_Tronstad woah intersting. I will look it up. Know what its called?

[@Alexander_Tronstad]

@@thetruemusichead Well it´s called Helvete and is a 5-part series that tries to - again - explain the history of Norwegian black metal. I don´t think you will find it anywhere since it is in Norwegian, released on the state-channel, NRK, just recently and exclusively there as far as I know. (tv.nrk.no/serie/helvete). It gets a lot of history straight from members of Mayhem, but apart from the usual focus on Jørns story it also gets into a fairly big chunk with demonstrations from Snorre himself who plays and explains what went into the making of the legendary black-metal riffs (that he created with Aarseth) and typical Mayhem sound. It´s very obvious that Aarseth and Ruch were the ones creating that iconic sound, and that segment is a great reveal of the entire process in it´s banality but it feels like you are there when he shows it. You get a very real sense that this segment really restores some history. This is the only surviving member and mind behind that whole guitar-feel that are so essential to how we came to know that music. This together with revisits into Grieghallen with Hellhammer and Atilla and Pytten is brilliant - the musical perspective was by far the most interesting bit. Also It´s good to get some views from Pelles brother, and some of the ones who were there to clarify and share their experiences and feelings is okay, all-though that part is kind of.. the interesting part to me is what went into the music you know, and maybe new info, so the more it drifts into bands that try to sell themselves as in that furnace when they really seem to just want to be part of the feast after, the less interesting it is. Unfortunately despite the documentary being really good and had a "straight from the horses-mouth" approach, and seemed to care a great deal about being accurate about a very chaotic piece of history, it seems rather obvious that they ran out of time and/or budget somewhere during the last couple of episodes of the 4-part series, and they made a horrible mess of nonsense that they try to sell you as the state of the black-metal scene post De Mysteriis that is just useless, inaccurate and cheap unfortunately.

[@thetruemusichead]

@@Alexander_Tronstad Dang dude, thanks for the write up! I actually found it! There is eng subtitled links for dl in the comments too, kzbin.info/www/bejne/iouzoaB9bKiFqck

[@TheSlamDancer]

Nettopp sett Helvete, artig med litt innblikk fra kjernen.

[@haruncakroglu284]

Who is on the cover i wasn't sure Snorre or Faust ?

[@JaimeGarcia-gl2tk]

Looks like Faust.

[@zgieria]

Thule

[@muhannadaliwi8156]

U must be out of Earth and live to listen to THRONS

[@skottcoucill8343]

Tremelo originality.

[@Harjawaldar]

18:50

[@DobyElfoSalvaje]

Esta grabado en cassettee en aire (Pista barata) con sonido altamente distorsionado y disonante. Guitarra desafinada, amplificador barato y en el interior de un sotano. 100% creativo y tenebroso.