Known as one of the first death metal bands to incorporate keyboards, sound effects, and science fiction-themed lyrics into their music.

Co-founder Mike Browning initially wanted to name the band Nocturnal Specter based on lyrics featured in Slayer’s 1985 track “At Dawn They Sleep”. However, not wanting to steal ideas from other bands, Browning settled on the name Nocturnus, which is simply the Latin variant of “nocturnal”.

In 1992, Louis Panzer, Sean McNenney, and Mike Davis trademarked the band name and fired Mike Browning from the band he’d created. This basically nullified Browning’s four-album deal with Earache Records, since he wasn’t in the band anymore. However, the rest of the band were expected to honor the contract.

In a 1992 interview with Metal Forces magazine, Louis Panzer mentions already composed songs for the then-planned third album: “Mummified”, “Paranormal States”, “Orbital Decay”, “The Invertebrate Plague”, “Monster Island”, and “The Great Spot”. Of those, the first was included in the Nocturnus EP, while the next two appeared some seven years later on the third album.

In 2008, After Death performed Nocturnus songs live (songs from The Key as well as a couple of Morbid Angel songs from Abominations of Desolation) on an exclusively European tour. This, however, was NOT considered a Nocturnus reunion (even Mike Browning himself stated this). In 2013, Mike Browning founded Nocturnus AD with After Death members as a reformed version of Nocturnus. This, however, wasn’t a Nocturnus reunion either. Credit : metal-archives