NOCTURNUS AD “Paradox”

Profound Lore, 2019

Music: Progressive Death Metal

Website: https://www.facebook.com/NocturnusAD

Duration: 52:09 (9 tracks)

Country: United States

Nearly 30 years after NOCTURNUS released their debut album, “The Key,” founding member Mike Browning returns to familiar territory on “Paradox.” This time he has a different cast and a slightly different name, NOCTURNUS AD, but the results are similar. Fans often bemoan return albums. Bands change too much, styles change, production values change. One of the major things to take away from “Paradox” is how much the album resembles the NOCTURNUS of old.

“Paradox” is not only the debut record from the band once known as AFTER DEATH, it’s a direct extension of the story Browning penned for “The Key.” “Seizing The Throne” and “Aeon of the Ancient Ones” reveal themes of horror—Satan and Lovecraftian nightmares. “Paleolithic” is a stone-age story of survival, nature, and evolution. Other tracks such as “The Return of the Lost Key,” are science fiction tales of time and space.

The album also continues the musical themes of “The Key.” The band recorded the album reel-to-reel to revisit the production values of “The Key.” Each fantasy-based tale comes to life via the atmospheric soundscapes created by keyboardist, Josh Holdren. Some of these best moments include the shimmering chimes that introduce “Seizing The Throne,” and “Return of the Lost Key, and the ‘70s-style horror (think Italian horror) of the guitar synth.

“Paradox” is rife with guitar solos, but not the usual type that come at a song’s crescendo or as a bridge. Each song is very progressive. Demian Heftel and Belial Koblak bust out solos with such speed and agility that the seemingly random placement and briefness of each solo is bewildering and astonishing. The record isn’t all about the shred, though. The backbone of “Paradox” is the Florida death metal style—a style Browning helped create as former member of MORBID ANGEL. “Aeon of the Ancient Ones” certainly contains Lovecraftian language, something MORBID ANGEL made a career out of penning. Don’t expect to hear anything resembling anything MORBID ANGEL did in the last decades, though, this is definitely akin to “Abominations of Desolation.”

NOCTURNUS were well ahead of their time when they released “The Key” in 1990. Besides a few bands such as ATHEIST, progressive death metal wasn’t really part of the nomenclature back then. They were well ahead of their time in attaching keyboards to their death metal style (which was also in it’s infancy). There really were no bands like NOCTURNUS back then, and there aren’t any like NOCTURNUS AD today. Science fiction themes, progressive movements, keyboards, death metal—NOCTURNUS AD is certainly unique. So many bands return after a long hiatus to the disappointment of their fans. They fail to recreate the magic of early, classic material. This is not the case with “Paradox.” It’s the album fans of “The Key” have waited three decades to hear.

Tracklist:

1. Seizing The Throne

2.The Bandar Sign

3. Paleolithic

4. Precession of the Equinoxes

5. The Antechamber

6. The Return of the Lost Key

7. Apotheosis

8. Aeon of The Ancient Ones

9. Number 9

Line-up:

Mike Browning: Drums/Vocals