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NOCTURNUS
1990 - The Key.
more NOCTURNUS.
way more Helter Skelter.

October 1, 1990 - 2025: 35 years of: The Key.

These are the droïds you're looking for.

1990 + Tampa + Death Metal: extremes have been pushed into overdrive by local deathbangers DEATH, MASSACRE, OBITUARY, MORBID ANGEL ...and now the gloomy NOCTURNUS shines through darkness.

Original drummer and singer from the then unknown-version of MORBID ANGEL, nocturnal main-man Mike Browning wanted more fiction and sci-fi into his new incarnation. Adding to the band's important distinction is a full-time keyboard-player, an unheard move in the deathmetal field. This futuristic shade stood out, at a time where deathmetal and grindcore were in their bloody expansion stages.

Dive head first into the vortex of the "Lake Of Fire", where the YES-influenced keys sets the mood and later explodes into a deathmetal front-row mosh. Both "Standing In Blood" and "Visions From Beyond The Grave" shakes the ground with it's intricate riffing, where the lead-guitar alchemy is a perfect powerhouse. Time-travel into history's past, reach Point Zero search and kill to prevent Holiness by "Destroying The Manger".

Eerie keyboards, dazzling solos and the massive deathmetal tempo, an unheard fusion light-years ahead of our time ...somewhere out there, Gustav Holst is proud. The meticulously progressive "BC/AD" is a mid-paced trip deep into the fourth dimension, a gateway where the final destination is before Christ, after death. The album finishes with the Star Wars-like grandiose "Empire Of The Sands" ...Boba Fett's go-to track !

Trendbending beyond the grave.

Released on Earache Records, the leading deathmetal-label at the time, The Key CD is an out-of-the-box view on extreme-metal, with a deathmetal approach. Orwellian-like lyrics with a horror-soundtrack integration. A master-entry to greater explorations beyond the heavymetal-format, unfortunately their far-ahead soundscapes also sat NOCTURNUS aside, as the scene was lukewarm to this orchestration.

Packaged live along NAPALM DEATH and GODFLESH on the Grindcrusher US 1990 Tour ...label-mates and fun times, but somewhat of an odd mix. NOCTURNUS's next cybervision shall bloom on 1992's Thresholds CD.

*
Lake Of Fire = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDNy6MuqrMQ
The Key = full CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v6iCt8Nk2Y&list=PLyNkh-wQ2KB2yoqtTT0U8pl-cfmQ08FSc
Rehearsal in 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEKUlj4XiZg
Interview in 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQiQtGwnwfo
Live in the UK in 1991
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=620Oh_OxxGw

more NOCTURNUS:

#Death-Metal 1988-92