Formed initially by the band’s backbone of resilience Clive Bonavia (drummer) and Julian Cardona (vocals and bassist) in 2000 together with its acquired guitarist, Manuel Spiteri, the trash metal and was known as Legion, influenced mainly by Slayer, Sepultura and Metallica.
Late in 2001, the three member band decided to change their musical orientation and set forth to enhance their line-up with another guitarist. After several auditions, Mario Cassar joined in, adding a definite depth to song composition and guitar solos.
The band changed its name to Beyond Prophecy and in 2002 recruited keyboardist Gilbert Camilleri who with his classically trained background supplied the band with ample melody. Now the band was complete, or so they thought.
In 2003, the band decided it needed a female vocalist to complete the set. After numerous and endless auditions, no one seemed could fit the position. But when the guys were going to give up they were bestowed with Diane Castillo, whose natural and fine trained gift endowed the band with passion and enthusiasm.
But the devil giveth and the devil taketh as they say. Julian departed and Diane took his position as main vocalist. Elton (a.k.a. Il-Bisont) took Julian’s place as a bassist but lasted only two months. While on the search for a new bassist the band played live at BJ’s Music Marathon on the 26th of April 2003. Sometime later a friend and supporter of the band, Joseph Marmara, filled the vacant position.
Now the band needed a new name to reflect its music and emotions. The name identified was Stillborn. This new line-up made it on Signal’s stage on the 20th December 2003 and won the All-round Battle of the Bands. This gave Stillborn a fine disposition and with their minds set they worked on new material and performed another gig on the 31st January 2004 with Weeping Silence.
The rest of the year 2004 was a tough year for Stillborn. The line-up changed drastically when Manuel (guitarist) and Gilbert (keyboardist) left the band. However they were replaced by the talented Raphael Grech (former guitarist of Weeping Silence) and Robert Camilleri (keyboardist). With this new set, Stillborn recorded its first track at Wave Studios, Floriana, and soon after Jean Paul Galea was recruited instead of Joseph on the bass.
Now the band is working with full force again on new material and preparing to perform another gig in the near future. In fact, on the 5th. of March, Stillborn performed live at Signals for Forsaken's re-mastered album.
2005 and 2006 were transitional years for the band as they continued to gain popularity on the islands. A number of shows were performed with great success. The debut album was also recorded and mixed.
2006 brought another change in the line-up as Robert and Jean-Paul departed (good luck Guys!) and Jade and Chris came in to fill the vacant keyboards and bass places. Incessant rehearsals continued during late 2006 and early 2007 to regain the tightness required by the band.
Now in 2007, Stillborn have unleashed Thy Feeble Soul on the Maltese public to critical acclaim. With this album we have not only satisfied our numerous hard-core fans, but also impressed new listeners to our music. We have been amazed by the large amount of albums sold at the 3rd Marsaxlokk Rock Festival right after our performance. The band was also besieged with a very large number of fans wanting us to sign the CD Sleeve.
Further new songs continued to be developed and aired live. End of 2007 saw Stillborn triumph in the RockBAZE competition held at One Productions, with the original song 'Angel'. This song continued to be extremely popular with crowds everywhere we played it, and became our flagship song. To this date, more than 800 downloads for Angel have been registered.
In late 2008, Jade retired from the band for a brief period of time to further continue her studies on church-organs, but sadly never returned, since she passed away of natural causes on the 12th of November. The band took this parting badly since Jade was a well-liked person in and out of the music circles, and her presence still hangs heavy at our garage. The band has decided to continue without a synth, and although badly missed, it gives our music a harsher, harder edge.
End of December saw a momentous change. The band, finally, under a number of diverse pressures, changed its name to Thorn. Various reasons brought us to this point, but most importantly, a sense of respect to all those that our name offended.
Our journey into the great heart of music continues with further gigs in the very near future, as well as new songs for a second album!
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