I am not to sure if there are that many people on Metalstorm familiar with this unique band.It is hard to label their style,technical/experimental death or just technical.Think synths.,keyboards,sc-fi sound effects,satanic lyrics,and awesome heavy and technical riffs,mixed in one and then you'll get Nocturnus.Mike Browning ex-morbid angel drummer and vocalist was the main founder of the group and he did double duties on their debut "The Key" and played only drums on "Thresholds".Their albums are pretty hard to come by,even though "The Key" was re-mastered.I have only been able to find one song from "Thresholds","Subterranean Infiltrator" and It was great musically,but I dont like Dan Izzo as much as Mike.You might have to give them sometime to get used to,its alot to swallow,which is probably why they never received any recognition,way to ahead of their time.Sean McNenney and Mike Davis are very talented guitarists,and execute their skills superbly,which is probably the best thing about their albums.They also released a self-titled Demo in 93' and in 2000 "Ethereal Tomb",both of which I haven't heard.Anyone else appreciate and enjoy this band as much as I?

"The Key" is awesome, a masterpiece of atmospheric death metal... I like the weird ambience created, very scary and suffocating, and yes, it's perfectly played....

Nocturnus was a great band, and I agree that The Key was certainly ahead of its time. It's well worth getting The Nocturnus Demos, an official CD released a few years ago which has their 2 early pre-Key demos and some very interesting liner notes by Mike Browning, who goes into detail about the history of the band.

The most surprising thing it says in the liner notes is that in 1992, after the second album Thresholds had come out, three of the Nocturnus bandmembers trademarked the name 'Nocturnus' behind Mike Browning's back - and then fired him from his own band!! So, bearing that in mind, obviously Mike Browning isn't on the 2000 album 'Ethereal Tomb' (which was a pretty poor album anyway IMO.. It has the Sci-Fi element, but none of the dark occultist feel of the old stuff and the songs aren't too involving or energetic compared to The Key and Thresholds).

Written by Richard on 22.11.2006 at 03:14

Nocturnus was a great band, and I agree that The Key was certainly ahead of its time. It's well worth getting The Nocturnus Demos, an official CD released a few years ago which has their 2 early pre-Key demos and some very interesting liner notes by Mike Browning, who goes into detail about the history of the band.

The most surprising thing it says in the liner notes is that in 1992, after the second album Thresholds had come out, three of the Nocturnus bandmembers trademarked the name 'Nocturnus' behind Mike Browning's back - and then fired him from his own band!! So, bearing that in mind, obviously Mike Browning isn't on the 2000 album 'Ethereal Tomb' (which was a pretty poor album anyway IMO.. It has the Sci-Fi element, but none of the dark occultist feel of the old stuff and the songs aren't too involving or energetic compared to The Key and Thresholds).

Wow,that is fucked up,I didn't know they did that to Mike.

Written by [user id=5080] on 22.11.2006 at 02:41

"The Key" is awesome, a masterpiece of atmospheric death metal... I like the weird ambience created, very scary and suffocating, and yes, it's perfectly played....

I agree whit you its wa sfirst DM band who use keybords and I realy love The Key I had it on tape even if its bad quality I love that album, so great so atmosferic so unique, lil' but simmilar how Sadist first album.

I really love Nocturnus's album "The Key" Those keyboards made that album sound really creepy which is good. I still need to check out "Threshold."

Whoaaa I didn't notice this thread !
Well there's no need to praise Nocturnus even more as you people already have done it. An awesome band. Their demos are incredible aswell.

I heard some of their stuff on myspace and enjoyed it, but also saw a review that said that the production is absolutely horrible. Any truth to that?

Written by theflyingmachine on 25.02.2007 at 21:35

I heard some of their stuff on myspace and enjoyed it, but also saw a review that said that the production is absolutely horrible. Any truth to that?

Well I have the 2000 remaster and it is a little weak,so the original could be bad.Definitley need to get it anyway,its so experimental,their is some straight forward death metal riffing,lots of technicality,some of the best solos in the genre,keyboard work,and good vocals.Latley my favorite song has been "BC/AD",the riff is awesome,and it contains some blasphemous lyrics.

Anyone has their DVD by the way ? (more than eager to hear what the shows look like)

tech death? i dint think they were
anyway good band heard only one album though

Written by Spirit Molecule on 16.03.2007 at 17:30

tech death? i dint think they were
anyway good band heard only one album though

And what thay was then

BTW first band in DM who use keybords

Very unique. Which can't be said for most in death metal.

Really great tech-death band. I found out about them when I bought "Piece Of Time" by Atheist. In the booklet there was a concert flyer and it had the band "Nocturnus" on it. I decided to look into the band and what I found absolutely amazed me. I am going to try to find their albums for sure.

i read this dudes story in a maniacs ages ago and yes it is fucked up what happened to him, ive been meaning to order key for ages to

I have only heard one song from Nocturnus, but it was very cool and I also love the concept of their first album "The Key" where a cyborg builds a time machine and goes back in time to kill Jesus when he is still a baby, I don't know why people tend to dislike this concept, maybe it is kind of geeky, but I think it's cool (anyway, this comes from a guy who also thinks that Spock from Star Trek was cool, so chances are that most of you will find it geeky). Shame that the first two Nocturnus records are out of print, so only way to get them is probably to score an used record from Ebay or to use the dreadful method of downloading albums from the internet.

yes indeed.. both the first albums I thought were great..
I listened to the 2000 come-back album as well but unfortunately I was not impressed at all.. at least I can understand a bit better why the re-union didn't last long. haha

i have recently seen a whole bunch of old DM bands from the glory days of the early 90's have their CD's re-released. Obituary, Suffocation, Pestilence (packaged two discs for the price of one at that!), Atheist...

would be nice if they would do the same for Nocturnus.

Yeah, that would be great. Nocturnus is a great band, I really enjoying listening to The Key.

A similar band is Crystal Age (members of Hammerfall and Ceremonial Oath I think), they have similar themes and music style, even though the vocals in Crystal Age become a tad boring over time. You should check them out, get their only album "Far Beyond Divine Horizons".

The Key is a fucking death metal masterpiece. It tends to sound like Morbid Angel at times, but pretty much all death metal does in some way so it doesn't even matter to me anymore. The riffing and the hooks give it tremendous replay value.

Written by Dangerboner on 09.12.2007 at 01:54

The Key is a fucking death metal masterpiece. It tends to sound like Morbid Angel at times,

what did you expect? Mike Browning was one of the founding Morbid Angel members.

Well, since I didn't know that Mike Browning was a founding Morbid Angel member, I obviously wasn't expecting that. Saying "what did you expect" isn't really a logical question, you know?

Written by Dangerboner on 09.12.2007 at 02:54

Well, since I didn't know that Mike Browning was a founding Morbid Angel member, I obviously wasn't expecting that. Saying "what did you expect" isn't really a logical question, you know?

The first post of this thread by Mega-Slayer even states that Mike Browning is an ex-Morbid Angel drummer. Okay, not that he was one of the founders... but from the ex-Morbid Angel statement it does seem logical to me that he would bring MA influences to Nocturnus when eh founded Nocturnus.

And "What do you expect?" is very common question in the field of rethorics when confronting omeone with something although that someone might not have known about it

Lucky enough that I have both on vinyl, but I still want a fucking re-release of their first two albums damnit! Thresholds came out in 1992 and was never re-released and as for "The Key", it sold over 15'000 pieces and was even re-released in 2000, but still you pay a fucking bunch of cash to get it as an original!

Written by [user id=26778] on 05.01.2008 at 12:10

Lucky enough that I have both on vinyl, but I still want a fucking re-release of their first two albums damnit! Thresholds came out in 1992 and was never re-released and as for "The Key", it sold over 15'000 pieces and was even re-released in 2000, but still you pay a fucking bunch of cash to get it as an original!

I had tape of secend album its old tape from early 90yies damn man I wanna get CD of that band old albums

I've only heard this bands material relatively recently and "The Key" and "Thresholds" are some of my favourite albums at the moment, an excellent band! Really unique sound to them too.

I have The Key on vinyl, got it some time ago as used for a low price, though it's not the original Earache version, it's pressed by a Czech label Globus Records under license from Earache, and a it's a pretty good album, however the solos are somewhat too wank-ish and forgettable, though given that most metal solos I've heard are pretty forgettable and somewhat pointless, it doesn't bother me too much.

Written by [user id=23267] on 12.01.2008 at 17:13

I have The Key on vinyl, got it some time ago as used for a low price, though it's not the original Earache version, it's pressed by a Czech label Globus Records under license from Earache

most people extremely argue about it, i've never seen earache confirm that it was authorized and that pressing has no catalogue- or EAN-Nr., i guess that's why you got it so cheap.

Written by [user id=26778] on 12.01.2008 at 18:10

most people extremely argue about it, i've never seen earache confirm that it was authorized and that pressing has no catalogue- or EAN-Nr., i guess that's why you got it so cheap.

I've also thought about it, I'm currently searching information about that.

Written by [user id=23267] on 12.01.2008 at 18:27

Written by [user id=26778] on 12.01.2008 at 18:10

most people extremely argue about it, i've never seen earache confirm that it was authorized and that pressing has no catalogue- or EAN-Nr., i guess that's why you got it so cheap.

I've also thought about it, I'm currently searching information about that.

if you find something, let me know, i'm very curious about it