 During his youth, Thorn participated in several punk and post-punk bands (including the short-lived WestWorld), before founding the power-electronics duo Slave State with Boris Dragos in 1987.Slave State played a handful of shows throughout the midwest along with staging a performance entitled "The Theory and Practice of Hell" in Antwerp, Belgium.While Slave State only released their music in cassette format, their influence was nonetheless far-reaching as they are cited by Godflesh founder Justin Broadrick as the inspiration for the title of his album bearing the group's name.