Review Noctule – Extinguish Thy Flame

Whether hell, Middle-earth or the realm of Blashyrkh, conceived by IMMORTAL and ruled by eternal winter: fantasy worlds have a long tradition in (black) metal. Since the overlap between metalheads and gamers is remarkably large, it is almost surprising how few bands devote themselves to specific video game worlds. With her solo project NOCTULE, Serena Cherry set out to do exactly that: „Wretched Abyss“, the solo debut of the SVALBARD singer, revolved entirely around „The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim“ – not without a wink, the Briton described her music at the time as „True Tamriel Black Metal“.

Cherry is now leaving this cosmos – but not the general subject of gaming. With „Extinguish Thy Flame“ the Briton instead turns to another action role-playing game: „Elden Ring“. Each song is dedicated to a different boss from the game – but there is also a second, deeper level: the game helped Cherry out of a depressive phase. „Just like a difficult Elden Ring boss, depression has a way of beating you down“, explains Cherry. Through gaming she learned to resist this; in this way, the game saved her life.

NOCTULE have also moved forward musically: while the debut was still unambiguously rooted in melodic black metal, melodic death metal dominates on „Extinguish Thy Flame“. This is undoubtedly due in part to the album’s much more powerful sound compared to its predecessor. But it also applies to the vocals, which at times are somewhat reminiscent of AT THE GATES, as well as to the music itself: the riffs, often supplemented by many additional guitar tracks, create a dense wall of sound, with the lead guitars in particular sometimes providing (melodic) black metal vibes, sometimes reinforcing the melodic death metal aspect and recalling an extreme version of INSOMNIUM.

These very melodies (for instance in „Lord Of Blood“), as well as the resolute vocals and the powerful drumming, rank among the absolute strengths of the album – while the dramaturgy of the individual tracks is not always entirely convincing. Some songs remain surprisingly lacklustre given the many compositional registers Cherry pulls, or end unexpectedly. Perhaps one or two songs are simply a bit too crammed: admittedly, the songs do reveal themselves over time and keep unveiling further details – at first, however, „Grafted“, with all its melodies, feels not just refined but downright overloaded. The short instrumental „O‘ Death“ does offer a brief breather before the final third of the album. Otherwise, however, the album leaves little time to let what you have heard sink in.

With its concentrated impact of melody and heaviness, „Extinguish Thy Flame“ has become an exciting but also demanding extreme metal album that can certainly be compared to bands like SINSAENUM in technical and stylistic terms. This may clash with the expectations of everyone who had previously filed NOCTULE away as rather relaxed, ponderous melodic black metal. And perhaps in one place or another, a little less would indeed have been more. On the other hand, this also means that „Extinguish Thy Flame“ remains an exciting album with great grower potential even after many spins – and anyone for whom too much is happening on „Extinguish Thy Flame“ can always relax afterwards by listening to „Wretched Abyss“ again.

Publiziert am 25. September 2026 von Moritz Grütz