Nocte Obducta - Tech/Extreme Prog

Nocte Obducta is a progressive black metal band from Rhineland, Germany. To date they have released nine albums and one EP, with a tenth album due out next month. They also have a side project Dinner auf Uranos which also features progressive elements, but is less metal-oriented. They have been mentioned on these forums before in a discussion of progressive black metal, but for unclear reasons do not appear to have been suggested as an artist addition, unless there has been a topic I have been unable to find.

The band's style is generally quite symphonic and avant-garde by black metal standards, with a large amount of dynamic variation in many of their songs and lengthy compositions that twist and turn featuring multiple sections. Their most representative album is perhaps their breakthrough, Nektar: Teil 1 - Zwölf Monde, eine Hand voll Träume (Nectar: Part 1 - Twelve Moons, a Handful of Dreams), a concept album about the seasons. It features a scant five tracks, three of which are longer than eleven minutes. The band's follow-up, Nektar: Teil 2 - (Seen, Flüsse, Tagebücher) (Nectar: Part 2 - (Lakes, Rivers, Diaries)), continued in a similar style.

The band broke up for a few years, but released the album Sequenzen einer Wanderung (Sequences for a Hike) during the hiatus in 2008. It had been recorded previously, but was delayed due to issues with record companies. This album is arguably even more progressive than the band's previous output, consisting of two lengthy tracks and lasting for forty-four minutes. Within the lyrics they are divided into twenty-one separate movements, some of which last for very brief periods of time, but the compositions evolve organically in the style of the best concept albums. This album is significantly lighter by the band's standards, featuring almost no harsh vocals and featuring lengthy instrumental passages; it is usually considered an example of straight-up progressive metal.

The band’s earlier albums aren’t as well known as some of their later work, but to mind they are hardly less progressive than their later, better known material. Some people have complained about the sound quality on these releases, but I don’t understand why. The instruments are well recorded and the mixes separate the instruments clearly. The guitar tone on these albums is actually amongst the best I’ve ever heard, and to be honest I feel the mastering on these recordings is better than on some of the band’s later albums, which are loudness war victims (although since the band’s reformation they have not had this problem). In my opinion the only real technical problem with the band’s early recordings is that Schwarzmetall is inexplicably mixed in mono (and, alone amongst the pre-Stille recordings, also has loudness war issues).

I haven’t heard all the band’s albums yet (I forgot about them for a few years), but having rediscovered them I couldn’t resist suggesting them here. Nearly every album they have released features substantial progressive elements and is likely to be of interest to fans of progressive metal. Unfortunately, they don’t have a Bandcamp page, but in the discography below I’ve provided YouTube/Bandcamp links in cases where I was able to find an entire album (I could not find complete versions of a couple of their early albums, but I think the remaining albums provide sufficient proof of the band's prog credentials). Translations are, with the exception of the Nektar albums and Verderbnis, my own, with the caveat that my German is not what it used to be, and with a couple of terms translated using multiple synonyms since they have multiple meanings:

1999 - Lethe (Gottverreckte Finsternis) [Lethe (God-Crazy Darkness)]
2000 - Taverne (In Schatten schäbiger Spelunken) [Tavern (In Shadowy, Sleazy Dives)]
2001 - Schwarzmetall - Ein primitives Szischenspiel [Black Metal - A Primitive Interlude]
2002 - Galgendämmerung - Vom Nebel, Blut und Totgeburten [Gallows Dawn - Of Mist, Blood and Stillbirth]
2003 - Stille - Das nagende Schwigen (only release I could find on Bandcamp) [Silence/Stillness - The Nagging Silence]
2004 - Nektar: Teil 1 - Zwölf Monde, eine Hand voll Träume [Nectar: Part 1 - Twelve Moons, a Handful of Dreams]
2005 - Nektar: Teil 2 - (Seen, Flüsse, Tagebücher) [Nectar: Part 2 - (Lakes, Rivers, Journals)]
2008 - Sequenzen einer Wanderung (Teil I, Teil 2) [Sequences for a Hike/Journey]
2011 - Verderbnis - Der Schnitter kratzt an jeder Tür [Depravity - The Reaper Scratches in Every Door]
2013 - Umbriel (Das Schwiegen zwischen den Sternen) [Umbriel (The Silence Between the Stars)]

Next month they are scheduled to release Mogontiacum (Nachdem die Nacht herabgesunken) (the subtitle translates as "After the Night Sunk").

Here is, lastly, the sole album they have released as Dinner auf Uranos, which bandleader Marcel V.A. Träumschander says is considered an official continuation of Nocte Obducta (I will leave it up to the site maintainers whether they should be added separately, and as what style if so):

2010 - 50 Sommer - 50 Winter (50 Summers - 50 Winters)

Nocte Obducta are still fairly obscure in the field of German black metal compared to better-known artists like the Ruins of Beverast and Lunar Aurora, but they provide some of the most interesting examples of the genre for progressive black metal fans, and I think they have sufficient prog credentials to merit a page on this site.


Edited by CassandraLeo - June 05 2016 at 13:58

Well that's frustrating. What albums haven't been evaluated? I'll try to find samples of them through other sources that aren't blocked by region, though I'm at a loss as to what would be reliable for that. If you have suggestions I will certainly search them.

Edited by CassandraLeo - July 10 2016 at 23:28