It certainly feels as if quite a few cosmic epochs have passed since we’ve last discussed the Floridian aerospace-institution Nocturnus on this cybernetic outpost, but our keenest veterans will recall that their release ‘Thresholds‘ was treated with some degree of distaste. Rummaging back further within the dustier recesses of this band’s time-capsule, though, brings to light their much more praise-worthy debut ‘The Key’– the first successful gene-spliced hybrid of both the primitive occultist and advanced technocratic schools, built upon the ridiculous yet resoundingly Death Metal concept of a cyborg assassin sent back in time to terminate the infant Christ.
Much of ‘The Key”s infamy is derived from its employment of a keyboardist: though the presence of synthesizers hardly tweaks the brow of any Hessian today, the prominent molestation of ivory on a death metal record was a controversial innovation at the time of this release. Louis Panzer’s synthwork, however, adds a vital strain of harmonic depth to t
hese compositions, invoking phosphorescent starscapes and futurisms similar to the ambient pieces contributed by Vangelis for the film Blade Runner. The riffs themselves charge forward in their characteristically Floridian, caustic angularity, imparting a sense of frantic acceleration as of a spacecraft disintegrating into flames as it reenters a gravitational atmosphere. Still other riffs, though, express an exhilarating air of interstellar surveyance, briefly veering away from ripping brutality into the more progressive territory of science-minded speed metal in the line of Watchtower or, more explicitly, Agent Steel. It is unfortunate that this is the only Nocturnus full-length to feature Morbid Angel alumnus Mike Browning as drummer/vocalist, as his distortedly monotone snarl lends a compelling voice to the pernicious droid that presumably narrates this album; ironic, then, that he would soon give up the role of vocals to a full-time frontman who showed little talent for subtleties of characterization.
Most probably due to the polarizing effects of its synth-sodomy, ‘The Key’ tends to not be mentioned in the same breath as the usual fixtures in the classic canon of FLDM. Nonetheless, the album perdures not only for its historical incorporation of techno-astronomical imagery in death metal, but for the NASA-grade engineering ambitiously applied to its multiplexed intricacies of craft.
Filed under: Death Metal Album of the Week — Tags: Cosmos, Florida Death Metal, Science — Thanatotron @ September 6, 2010 06:06 — Comments (2)
Watchtower! Agent Steel!! I think I need to reassess my cynical evaluation of Nocturnus as soon as possible.
Comment by Devamitra — September 6, 2010 @ 07:59
[...] by formal analysis alone. And yet Wagner, being the dauntless historian that he is, enters the Nocturnus Time Machine® with naught but the earnest objective of highlighting whichever works were exceptionally bizarre, [...]
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