Hidden Gems & Guilty Pleasures: Nocturnal Breed (Norway)
Nocturnal Breed (Thrash/Black Metal // Norway)
Nocturnal Breed is a three-piece thrash/black metal band hailing from Oslo, Norway.
When S.A. Destroyer (Gehenna, ex-Satyricon) formed Nocturnal Breed in 1996, he had two intentions. One was to create a band whose music would be an homage to the thrash, speed and heavy metal waves of the 80’s, which he greatly admired. The other would serve as an antidote to the growing commercialisation of the black metal scene in particular, and the metal genre in general, both of which were fast becoming anodyne.
The decades that followed saw Nocturnal Breed undergo the inevitable lineup changes and hiatuses that bands are subjected to during their careers, all the while producing a plethora of releases, which, aside from the obvious early demos and studio albums, include EPs, boxed sets, and compilations, culminating in the 2021 release of the »Face Your Aggressor« double album which marked the band’s 25th anniversary.
Today, Nocturnal Breed continues to spread terror and destruction in its wake, but this time in the form of a trio, which, aside from S.A. Destroyer on vocals and bass, includes T. Terror on drums and vocals and I. Maztor on guitars. And you can rest assured that their shredding is pure, fearsome, Nocturnal Breed, with some outstanding old-school heavy metal thrown into the mix. It hits the listener like a sledgehammer, and the band seems darker and more aggressive than ever.
And with the new lineup comes a brand new album, the band’s seventh to be precise, which hit the streets on June 23rd, 2023 via Dark Essence Records. Titled »Carry The Beast«, the album is a wholehearted look back at what inspired the band and the extreme metal scene. The fact that it was recorded without the use of modern equipment evokes in the listener all those emotions that come with the time-honored traditions of metal.
Reflecting a lot of the darker aspects of humanity that have crept to the forefront of society over the past 2-3 years, the fearsome intensity of the compositions tears its way mercilessly through »Carry The Beast«, creating an album full of unbridled hate that feels as raw as a war wound.
Nocturnal Breed is a band that has never been afraid to show its influences and wears them proudly on its sleeves, and never more so than in the track »Knights Of Denim« has chosen to release as a single from »Carry The Beast«.
»Knights Of Denim« hits you right out of the gate, its devastating riff transporting the listener back to the glorious heyday of British heavy metal. Galloping Iron Maiden riffs, melodic dual guitar solos and thundering drums merge with a delicate synth work that enhances that 80’s heavy metal feeling.
The next single, appropriately titled »Thrash Metal Hate Saw (The Last Act of Terror)«, is a riff-laden beast with no fillers or dead spots that would only serve to weaken the hate-filled snarling vocals, the tasteful guitar solos that are performed the way guitar solos ought to be performed, and the hellish thundering drums. The whole is dressed in a warm organic sounding mix, that gives the song more feeling and personality, the Nocturnal Breed way of course.
»Carry The Beast« was recorded at the Necrolab Studios and at Nocturnal Breed’s private “Bunker Studios”, with front cover and logo adaption by Andrej “Maggot Meister” Bartulovic & All Things Rotten.
Courtesy of Dark Essence Records
Discography:
• »Raping The Angels« Demo (1996)
• »Black Cult« Demo (1997)
• »Raping Europe« EP (Hammerheart Records, 1997)
• »Aggressor« LP (Hammerheart Records, 1997)
• »Triumph Of The Blasphemer« EP (Hammerheart Records, 1998)
• »No Retreat… No Surrender« LP (Hammerheart Records, 1998)
• »The Tools Of The Trade« LP (Holycaust Records, 2000)
• »Motörmouth« EP (Neseblod Records, 2004)
• »Warthog« EP (Prostata Records, 2004)
• »Überthrash« Split (Duplicate Records, 2004)
• »The Remasters« Boxed Set (Painkiller Records, 2005)
• »Black Cult« Compilation (Painkiller Records, 2005)
• »Überthrash II« Split (Duplicate Records, 2005)
• »Fields Of Rot« LP (Agonia Record, 2007)
• »Napalm Nights« LP (Agonia Record, 2014)
• »The Whiskey Tapes Germany« Compilation (Folter Records, 2018)
• »We Only Came For The Violence« LP (Folter Records, 2019)
• »The Whiskey Tapes Poland« Compilation (Mara Productions, 2021)
• »Face Your Aggressor (25 Years In The Bunker)« Compilation (Folter Records, 2021)
• »Carry The Beast« LP (Dark Essence Records, 2023)
Nocturnal Breed is:
S.A. Destroyer (Kenneth Svartalv) – Vocals, Bass, Guitar
Axeman I. Maztor (Eivind Berre) – Guitar
Tex Terror (Thomas Ødegaard) – Drums, Vocals
FFO: Aura Noir, Bewitched, Kreator, Desaster, Sodom, Witchery, Toxic Holocaust, Infernö, Bestial Mockery, Deathhammer
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well