Thorns

A black metal/industrial/electronic band from Trondheim, Norway. Initially founded in 1989 as Stigma Diabolicum by Snorre Ruch and Marius Vold, who were joined by Harald Eilertsen and Bård Eithun in 1990 and the name was changed to Thorns.

In 1991 Harald and Snorre recorded a demo tape "Grymyrk", which was followed by Snorre's "Trøndertun" tape in 1992. These recordings were never officially released, but became highly influential for the whole fledgling Norse black metal scene due to Snorre's unique guitar playing style, where all six strings of the guitar were used. Together with Mayhem guitarist Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous) they perfected this technique that became a blueprint for the Norwegian black metal riffing.

In 1992 Snorre joined Mayhem as guitarist, which resulted in a brief break-up of Thorns. He however left Mayhem already after few months and reactivated Thorns, which from there on functioned as a one-man project. Since 2000 Bjørn Dencker (Aldrahn) has been band's vocalist and in 2007 Jon T. Wesseltoft (bass), Kenneth Kapstad (drums) and Christian Broholt (guitar) joined the Thorns line-up.