30 YEARS AGO: NOCTURNUS RELEASED "THE KEY"

 

This month marks the 30th anniversary of a really underrated masterpiece: NOCTURNUS´debut album "The Key". Featuring former MORBID ANGEL drummer Mike Drowning delivering also the vocals, NOCTURNUS was also one of the first death metal bands to feature keyboards. And here we had Louis Panzer with his keyboards all over the compositions and really high in the mix. And also the technical guitar riffs and solos created by Mike Davis and Sean McNenney. Some curiosities: Jeff Estes's bass tracks may have been 100% recorded by Mike Davis: based on a Mike Browning interview Jeff showed up to the recording already drunk and hardly able to track the songs, stating also that Mike recorded most of the bass tracks, however it is unknown what tracks Jeff recorded, if any. Side B of the album forms a concept, where time travellers go back to the birth of Jesus Christ and prevent it, thus erasing religion. The band stressed that it's meant to be anti-religion in general, and not anti-Christian. Below you can check the video for the track "Lake of Fire".