Album Review: Noctule – Extinguish Thy Flame
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Ex-Svalbard singer, Serena Cherry, returns with the second album from her video-game-inspired black metal project, Noctule. Coming five years after the Wretched Abyss debut, Extinguish Thy Flame’s gestation has been in the works since before the debut’s release. Originally conceived as a choral black metal album, it eventually came to life as a combination of melodic death metal and symphonic black metal, this time around the subject of Elden Ring.
I’m not about to embarrass myself with making any comment about the game; the last video game I completed was Lego Indiana Jones on the Nintendo Wii and that was many moons since. I will repeat Serena’s opinion that Elden Ring is “one of the greatest and toughest video games of all time” and bow to her greater knowledge on such things.
In that respect, I have no idea as to the success of Extinguish Thy Flame as a representation of the game, so I’ll save my comments to its musical aspect.
As with Wretched Abyss, Serena wrote and recorded all music here, relinquishing the production duties this time around to Keir Campbell, and where the last record was issued by Church Road Records, this one is totally self-released.
Beginning with the brief atmospheric intro that is Welcome to Limgrave, which acts as appetite-wetter through folky acoustics and the sound of vast, ancient plains, before Devour the Gods arrives with Serena’s raw-throated vocals and melodic extremity. Stomping rhythms and galloping guitars give it an almost Arch Enemy feel, yet the darkness is all-too apparent in the sibilant, hissing delivery of the final section.
First single, Lord of Blood blends a jaunty bounce with rasping vocals and blast beat percussion, layering clean guitars over dark riffs; second single, Goddess of Rot, finds Noctule going a little more ambient, echoing vocals sound screamed from the void and sit low in the mix, the measured and endlessly repeating riff has spiralling guitars seemingly trying to escape gloomier, doomier tones.
Gothic piano and classical strings usher in the symphonics of Grafted, the Emperor / Dimmu Borgir blasts and raw vocals at odds with the orchestral outro; Lament of the Omen King has a big, bold power metal intro, and Age of the Stars begins in a traditionally classic metal style and finds Serena in perfect synchronicity with herself in the guitar harmonies.
Ominous gothic piano and crashing waves mark the arrival of the short interlude, O’ Death, which acts as an elongated introduction to Become My Blade Once More’s acceptance of the classical nature of the genre, alongside a Cradle of Filth-style narrative passage. Extinguish Thy Flame concludes on a surprisingly bright and upbeat Hallowhorn Grounds, with an uplifting and triumphant pomp, stirring folk mid-section and heroic conclusion.
Purely due to its creation must Extinguish Thy Flame be applauded. Serena’s vision is staunch and her commitment to the subject matter unwavering. In its execution, the record is forty-minutes of ripping melodic black metal, all from a singular vision.
How closely this aligns to its subject matter I will leave others to discuss, save to say if you’re looking for a rollocking black metal record that won’t see you on the highway to hell, Nocule’s new one could be right up your street.
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