nocturnus a.d. - unicursal

this band is still going strong after all those years. 'cosmic bleed' edition out of 250 copies. profound lore. 2024.

nocturnus - thresholds

not as highly regared as 'the key' among fans but to me equally as good. 'thresholds' is an early tech death pearl and sounds great on this blue vinyl copy out of 300 copies. earache records. 1992/2023.

nocturnus - the key

after i bought the comeback album of nocturnus, or better of nocturnus a.d., last year, the fire for a grindcrushing splatter edition of the classic debut burned again. i searched thoroughly through the depths of the world wide web and came across a second hand shop from berlin going by the name recordsale.de.

they had an ok-priced copy to offer, which was in a splendid shape and also had the hype sticker on the cover - so i really couldn't pass that one up. very happy to cross "the key" off the list. earache records. 1990/1991.

nocturnus a.d. - paradox

somehow i slept on the release of this gem right here. nocturnus were part of the massive earache records roster in the early nineties, where this fine u.k. label gathered the slickest bands from europe and across the pond. bolt thrower, morbid angel, entombed or godflesh just to name drop a few. and among them there was a band called nocturnus and their debut record called "the key".

a mixture of oldschool (back then not so oldschool actually) death metal, progressive death metal and sci-fi lyrics. something new and very well executed. mike browning, the mastermind of nocturnus reformed the band in 2013 as nocturnus ad with the plan to pick up where nocturnus left off with "the key". well, almost thirty years after the debut's release the new album "paradox" finally saw the light of day - and i missed it. when i got news all the colour vinyl was already gone. i am pretty well networked when it comes to new vinyl releases, but that one slipped through my fingers.

so i waited for a re-press which came sooner than i anticipated. i am a bit bummed that this clear green/black mix vinyl is one of those that look almost black when not held against a light source which is quite lame. well, beggars can't be choosers and musically "paradox" is at least as strong as "the key" in my humble opinion. not pure gold (which "the key" wasn't as well by the way) but a damn strong return to form. 100 copies made. profound lore records. 2019.

nocturnus - the key

one of that death metal pearls of the early nineties released from the rich back catalogue of earache records. when i browsed the earache store after i purchased the bolt thrower re-press for "the IVth crusade", i came across a pre-order for "the key" re-issue on white vinyl. the label started a pretty cool re-issue campaign. they start out with a pre-pre-order and when a certain target is reached (200 sold copies), the label would start the manufacturing process.

the first 200 copies will come on clear vinyl and are the limited colour-way of the pressing. when they are sold, earache acknowledges the demand and presses another 800 copies for retail (300 white and 500 black vinyl copies). when i saw the white vinyl still in stock at the earache webshop, it was an offer too tempting to pass on it. the availability and the great album concept of "the key" were convincing enough. the lyrical concept is about a cyborg that travels back in time to destroy christianity and build a modern surveillance state.

musically nocturnus' debut was an outstanding piece of death metal at the time of release in 1990. the death metal genre was going strong but the level of progressivity and especially the use of keyboards were unusual for its time. this re-press stays pretty true to the original release. the only difference is the change from double sided insert to printed dust sleeve with the same layout. 300 copies pressed on this nice white vinyl. only the cover colours came out a bit too dark in my opinion. earache records. 1990/2018.