Tony Martin has kept his name out there with some guest performances in recent years but full-lengths have been unfortunately rare to come by. Thorns (Dark Star) the singer’s third solo album, has been a long time coming, being his first full appearance since Giuntini Project‘s IV in 2013 as well as his first proper solo outing since 2005’s Scream (MTM). While this effort could’ve just been a stopgap for Martin to reassert his brand of doomy AOR, it ends up being an opportunity for him to explore some different aspects of his style.

At the risk of hyperbole, this just might be the heaviest album that Martin has ever been a part of. Much of that can be attributed to that beefy as hell guitar tone but the writing itself pushes those heavy chugs to the forefront with the opening ‘As The World Burns’ starting things off in an appropriately scorching power metal blaze. There are admittedly times where it gets to be a bit much with ‘Passion Killer’ being a particularly awkward clunker, but ‘No Shame At All’ benefits from an extra crunch to its bluesy swing and ‘Run Like The Devil’ comes with a better executed snarl.

 

Inversely, the album also devotes a near equal amount of time to Martin’s more subtle, mystical side. ‘Book of Shadows’ and the title track inject some darker mystery into the mix, the former riding on some ominous backing choirs and the latter featuring a neat Pamela Moore cameo at its climax. There’s also room for some full-on acoustic exploration as ‘Crying Wolf’ comes with sentimental urgency and surprisingly heavy folk instrumentation while ‘This Is Your Damnation’ is a lighthearted jaunt delivered with a certain Ian Gillan-style slyness.

And through it all, the performances are strong across the board. Martin’s vocals are inevitably the main attraction and have held up exceedingly well, largely sticking to a high register that rarely shows signs of strain with his clean timbre cutting through the grime without sounding out of place. I kinda wish his violin playing was as prominent as it had been on Scream, but the thick guitars and rock-solid bass reflect his talents as an instrumentalist as well as those of his backing band.

 

Overall, Tony Martin offers an enjoyable duality of adventurous and reliability with Thorns. As much as I’d love for him to make a straight up doom album (pour one out for the Candlemass collaboration that never materialized), I can appreciate how this album sees him simultaneously push into more aggressive and introspective directions. It almost feels like two albums in one and makes one wonder how it would go if he devoted more time to dive into them even further. Scream might still be my personal pick as far as Martin’s solo stuff but Thorns is certainly worth checking out for fans of his work.

Buy the album here: https://amzn.to/3JvHDgF

7 / 10

CHRIS LATTA