In late January of this year the Portuguese blackened hardcore band Thörne followed up their 2019 debut EP Octagon with an immensely powerful three-track single named Those Golden Rules. Unfolding across 9 stunning minutes, the band used the single to explore “the untold truths of one’s past — the trauma caused by reckless parenting, the toll it carves in one’s behavior and social capabilities, and the resulting depression during adulthood”.
The single was originally released digitally, but in late April it received a cassette tape release through Black Lava Records. What we have for you today is a beautifully filmed video for a live performance of all three tracks that appeared on the new single.
It is awful but true that bad parents poison their children. Probably all parents do that, in differing degrees and often without realizing it. We are all flawed, and it is natural that our children will absorb those flaws, even when repelled by them. The damage done rarely disappears, and at its worst the damage can extend and afflict the victim throughout life, and worse yet, can be passed down to another generation of offspring.
It’s a dark and serious subject, and an infuriating phenomenon. Through Those Golden Rules, Thörne explore it with the intensity it demands. On stage, they clearly throw themselves into the emotional power of the subject and the music, and the music is indeed an emotional powerhouse.
The opening track (the title song) is a brute-force bludgeoner, powered by a gut-rumbling bass, skull-smashing drums, and savagely slashing guitars. It sounds like a big, rumbling demolition machine, but high above, a shrill keening noise creates an eerie but distraught sensation that puts nerves on edge.
There’s fury in those sounds, but even more fury in the raw, ragged, and wrenching vocals. Waves of unearthly melody flow above the demolition work, like heaving seas of searing agony, and provide a chilling contrast to the song’s pile-driving grooves.
From there Thörne move into “(The Way We Were) Raised“, a song that’s equally bowel-loosening and bone-smashing, but this time accompanied in part by impassioned singing and swirling guitars. The pain that flows through the song is palpable, and the turmoil in it reaches shattering elevations, once again propelled even further into the red zone of harrowing extremity by the intensity of the harsh vocals. You feel like the brutal lessons of the song’s theme have already been lived by the performers.
And finally the band deliver “Our Home“, a song that becomes expansive in its flow. You can still feel the throb of that big bass in your bones and the crack of the snare in your neck, but this song is slower and more devoted to an unfolding of sorrow. Gloom-cloaked singing, grim spoken words, and ringing arpeggios further darken those haunted moods. Yet before the end, the band do dial up the power to pulverizing levels and once again create a crescendo of searing intensity.
Those Golden Rules was recorded and mixed at Adrift Studio (Viana do Castelo, Portugal) by André Gonçalves, and it was mastered at Prenc Audio (Melbourne, Australia) by Lance Prenc. The cover artwork photo was created by Andrea Cunha.
The limited cassette tape edition of the single includes alternate versions of each of the tracks provided by Abnóxio, and they make up the B-side of the tape.
And finally, after the links below we’re providing a previously released music video for the new single’s title track.
ORDER:
https://blacklava-records.bandcamp.com/album/th-rne-those-golden-rules
THÖRNE:
https://thornevc.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/thornevc
BLACK LAVA:
https://www.facebook.com/blacklavarecs
https://blacklava-records.bandcamp.com/