Thorns: ‘Stigma Diabolicum’ Reframes A Controversial Black Metal Origin

In the sprawling, often mythologized history of heavy metal, few bands command as much reverence for so little recorded output as Thorns. Forged in the frigid crucible of early 1990s Norway, Thorns is a paradox: a foundational pillar of a global music genre, black metal, yet a band with a discography so sparse it feels more like a rumor than a reality. Now, an echo from that turbulent past is set to be heard with new clarity. A comprehensive reissue of the band’s earliest recordings, titled ‘Stigma Diabolicum,’ is not merely a repackaging of old demos but a significant archaeological event, unearthing the very origins of a sound that once terrified a nation and continues to fascinate the world.

Set for a July 2025 release by the Greek label Kyrck Productions & Armour, the collection affirms the enduring cult status of Thorns and its enigmatic architect, Snorre W. Ruch, a musician also known by the nom de guerre Blackthorn.

The release will be available in multiple formats, including limited-edition colored vinyl, cassette tapes, and a deluxe artbook CD featuring a 36-page booklet with rare photos and, most crucially, new memoirs from the original members. This meticulous curation signifies a pivotal moment of canonization for a subculture long defined by its opposition to the mainstream.

The act of compiling, remastering, and annotating these raw, lo-fi recordings suggests a scene moving from whispered folklore, passed through fanzines and tape-trading, to documented history, with its pioneers now curating their own complex legacies. It is the equivalent of a reclusive author finally sanctioning a definitive, annotated edition of their formative, unpublished manuscripts, transforming myth into a historical record.

Thorns: A Different Darkness in Trondheim

The story of Thorns begins not in Oslo, the notorious epicenter of the early Norwegian black metal scene, but in the relative quiet of Trondheim in 1989. It was there that Snorre Ruch and vocalist Marius Vold formed a band called Stigma Diabolicum, soon joined by bassist Harald Eilertsen and a drummer who would become infamous in his own right, Bård “Faust” Eithun.

From its inception, the project was defined by a conscious desire to diverge. In an interview, Ruch explained that the name was changed to Thorns in 1991 precisely because the use of Latin names within the burgeoning scene had “escalated” and become a trend. This act reveals an early anti-conformist streak aimed not at society at large, but at the conventions of its own underground.

Ruch’s stated goal was to “experiment to make another kind of wicked music” and to “sound different to other bands.” This motivation appears to have been primarily artistic and sonic, a contrast to the militant anti-Christian and Satanic ideology being cultivated by their peers in Oslo, who congregated at the record shop Helvete (“Hell”) and referred to themselves as “The Black Circle.” This distinction was reinforced by simple geography.

While the Oslo scene was a concentrated ideological crucible, the members of Thorns were scattered across Norway, with Faust living in Lillehammer and Vold in Oslo. This logistical challenge necessitated an unusual creative process: rehearsal tapes were mailed between members for them to learn the songs.

This geographical isolation and asynchronous method of collaboration may have been a blessing in disguise. The distance from the intense groupthink of the Oslo inner circle likely insulated the band from its dogmatic pressures, allowing for a more purely musical exploration. The physical distance seems to have fostered a corresponding artistic independence.

Ruch’s primary concern was avoiding what was popular even within his own subculture, suggesting a focus on sonic originality over ideological conformity. The isolation was not just a hurdle; it was a creative incubator.

Whispers on Tape: ‘Grymyrk’ and ‘Trøndertun’

The strange, mail-based rehearsal method gave accidental birth to a legend. In 1991, Ruch recorded the ‘Grymyrk’ demo, a raw tape consisting only of his guitar and Eilertsen’s bass parts. It was never intended for public release; it was a tool for his bandmates to learn the compositions. But as these tapes were copied and passed from friend to friend, they spread through the underground, becoming coveted artifacts.

What listeners heard was a revelation. Unlike the raw, tremolo-picked fury of bands like Mayhem or the grim, atmospheric onslaught of Burzum, the music on the Thorns demos was different. The two fully realized tracks on the 1992 ‘Trøndertun’ demo, ‘Ærie Descent’ and ‘Funeral Marches To The Grave,’ were often mid-paced and deeply atmospheric, with guitar work described as almost psychedelic.

The production, especially for a demo recorded at a performing arts school, was remarkably clear, with each instrument audible. The bass guitar, in a radical departure for the genre, played a prominent melodic and counter-melodic role, weaving through the riffs rather than just anchoring them.

The lo-fi, skeletal nature of the ‘Grymyrk’ demo, in particular, became key to its profound influence. Being instrumental, it forced listeners—including other musicians—to focus entirely on the revolutionary architecture of the music. It was a blueprint, a piece of source code that laid bare Ruch’s new harmonic language without the context of vocals, drums, or conventional song structure.

Musicians in the scene, who were actively searching for a new and darker sound, could “read” this musical schematic and adapt its principles. The influence was not just an aesthetic appreciation; it was a technical manual for how to build a new kind of metal. The demo’s rawness and incompleteness became its greatest strength, an open-source innovation that was rapidly integrated and built upon by the entire Norwegian scene.

The Innovator of the Riff

At the heart of this innovation was Ruch himself. He is widely credited, often alongside Mayhem guitarist Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth, with inventing the quintessential Norwegian black metal guitar style. Gylve “Fenriz” Nagell of the seminal band Darkthrone has repeatedly identified Ruch as the originator of this sound. The technique involved a move away from the chunky, two- or three-string power chords of thrash and death metal toward the use of full, six-string minor chords, often dissonant, played with heavy distortion. Ruch has said he was inspired by the “drama and pathos” of classical orchestral music, which he combined with the fast tremolo-picking he learned from Euronymous.

This shared interest forged a powerful, if ultimately tragic, creative partnership. Euronymous, the central figure and ideologue of the Oslo scene, was deeply impressed by Ruch’s sound and invited him to join Mayhem as a second guitarist. The plan, according to Ruch, evolved into merging the two bands’ material, with Thorns songs being absorbed into the Mayhem repertoire.

Ruch’s influence is audible on Mayhem’s landmark 1994 album, ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas,’ for which he contributed riffs and helped arrange some of the lyrics left behind by the band’s deceased singer, Per “Dead” Ohlin. The Mayhem track ‘From the Dark Past’ is a direct reworking of the Thorns demo song ‘Lovely Children.’

This symbiosis—Euronymous providing the network and platform, Ruch the new sonic language—was the most forward-thinking musical axis in the scene. But it was violently severed on August 10, 1993. That night, Ruch drove Varg Vikernes of the band Burzum to Euronymous’s apartment in Oslo, where Vikernes stabbed the Mayhem guitarist to death. Ruch was arrested and, in 1994, convicted of being an accomplice, for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

In his own accounts, Vikernes has maintained that Ruch was merely “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” The murder did not just end a life; it silenced the most innovative partnership in black metal and incarcerated its chief musical pioneer, derailing the genre’s evolution at a pivotal moment.

An Inheritance Shaped by Silence

Following a long quiet period resulting from Ruch’s incarceration, Thorns made a comeback in 1999 with a shared album, ‘Thorns vs. Emperor.’ The record featured Emperor, one of black metal’s most respected and refined groups, performing their own versions of Thorns tracks, a significant nod to the powerful effect of Ruch’s initial demos. Two years later, in 2001, the moment fans had anticipated for a decade arrived with the release of the first and only complete Thorns album.

The eponymous album served as a landmark declaration. It brought together a veritable who’s who of Norwegian black metal, including Jan Axel “Hellhammer” Blomberg from Mayhem on drums, with vocal duties handled by both Sigurd “Satyr” Wongraven of Satyricon and Bjørn “Aldrahn” Dencker of Dødheimsgard. With this lineup, the album delivered on the experimental potential hinted at in the early demos.

Its sound was a stark, methodical blend of black metal and industrial influences, constructed upon a synthetic, rhythmic foundation that had more in common with dark ambient music than conventional metal. The work was an exercise in deconstruction, taking the fundamental components of black metal and repurposing them into a wider, more unfamiliar sonic territory. This record, alongside concurrent releases from Dødheimsgard and Mayhem, is now regarded as a foundational piece of black metal’s “third wave,” characterized by its push into avant-garde territory.

This was more than a simple black metal album; it was an early example of what would come to be known as post-black metal. Ruch himself expressed a wish to distance his work from the genre’s limitations, an attitude also apparent in his subsequent efforts with the experimental art project Thorns Ltd. The 2001 release was not an imitation of what came before but a courageous move forward, establishing a template for how the genre would develop in the twentieth-first century.

The Definitive Reissue: ‘Stigma Diabolicum’ in 2025

The 2025 reissue of ‘Stigma Diabolicum’ returns to the very beginning, presenting these historical recordings as the definitive document of the band’s genesis. The centerpiece is the artbook CD edition, which contains not only the music and rare photos but also new written memoirs from the other original members: Bård Eithun, Marius Vold, and Harald Eilertsen. This inclusion is a crucial act of historical decentralization.

For decades, the Thorns story has been overwhelmingly focused on the singular, mythic figure of Ruch. By giving voice to his collaborators, the reissue shifts the narrative from that of a lone genius to that of a band, a collective creative moment. It provides new perspectives, acknowledges their contributions, and reminds the world that while Ruch may have been the main innovator, he did not build in a vacuum.

The collection itself is the most complete version to date. It includes the instrumental ‘Grymyrk’ demo, the two-song ‘Trøndertun’ demo, and even earlier rehearsal material from the pre-Thorns Stigma Diabolicum era, such as tracks from the ‘Lacus de Luna’ and ‘Luna de Nocturnus’ tapes.

For the first time, the complete 15-track compilation will be available on a double LP, an expansion over previous, abridged vinyl editions. While the raw, “necro” quality of some rehearsal tracks makes them challenging for a casual audience, for those invested in the genre’s history, the compilation is an essential archive.

Conclusion

The long and patient wait for a second Thorns album, reportedly in the works since at least 2008, has only added to the band’s legend. But the reissue of ‘Stigma Diabolicum’ is more than an exercise in nostalgia for a dark and controversial past. It is an essential act of artistic preservation.

The story of Thorns is ultimately a triumph of art over biography. Despite being inextricably tangled in one of modern music’s most infamous criminal episodes, the band’s enduring power lies in the pure, disruptive innovation of the music itself. This collection allows us to finally separate the signal from the noise. It focuses our attention back on the dissonant chords, the atmospheric structures, and the unique vision that were the true source of the band’s influence, distinct from the ideological and criminal chaos that so often overshadows the history of Norwegian black metal. It re-centers the conversation on Snorre Ruch’s profound and lasting contribution to a musical language, proving that the art itself is more powerful and enduring than the dark circumstances of its birth.