Nazxul
Encyclopedia
Nazxul is a black metal
band from Sydney
, Australia
. At one time featuring members of other prominent local metal bands including Mortal Sin and Sadistik Exekution
, Nazxul has released two albums, an EP and several split releases with other bands.
ist Adrian Henderson, keyboards player
/guitarist Lachlan Mitchell, former Mortal Sin and Slaughter Lord drummer
Steve Hughes
and Dalibor Backovic on vocals
and bass
. A self-titled demo (1994) appeared through Vampire Records. Soon after guitarist Greg Morelli from Sydney thrash band Grungeon joined the fold. Nazxul began work on an album called Totem that was released in 1995. Originally envisioned as a mysterious studio-bound project, the group only appeared in publicity photos as shadowy figures or draped facelessly in cloaks.
who were experiencing one of their well-known self-imposed dormant periods. This line-up produced the EP "Black Seed" in 1998 and late in the year played live for the first time at a show in Sydney, with Henderson moving to bass guitar.
Hughes left the group after this to pursue a career in stand-up comedy
and soon left Australia to live in the UK. His replacement was Peter Kostic from Sydney rock
band Front End Loader
. Almost immediately, Nazxul was booked to support Finnish
extreme metal group Impaled Nazarene
on part of an Australian tour. In a remarkable turn of events, Kostic's other band was then approached to tour with British rock group Skunk Anansie
over the same period but declined due to the drummer's commitment to Nazxul; the Skunk Anansie tour was in turn cancelled when the group suddenly split up. Morte was fired after this tour and Backovic returned for Nazxul's appearance at the Metal for the Brain
festival. In the meantime, "Black Seed" was re-released with several live tracks recorded during the tour added to the track listing. The cover was slightly amended with the iconography rendered in gold instead of green.
After playing a final show for the year all activity from Nazxul then appeared to cease abruptly. Kostic joined Regurgitator
in 2000 and the Hard Ons in 2001. Hades recorded two more albums with Sadistik Exekution before embarking on a solo career. Mitchell continued his work as a professional sound engineer / producer and in late 2001 formed a rock
band Brace with several former members of Canberra group Henry's Anger
. Backovic left Nazxul in 2000 to pursue a career in the film industry as a screenplay writer and director. In 2002, Sydney black metal label Decius released a limited-edition live album (titled simply Live) on 12" vinyl. The recording was of the group's 1999 Metal for the Brain performance. A year later, the Nazxul track "Apostasies Legions Arise, Xul!" appeared on a compilation release from Hiberica Records along with tracks from American band Krieg, Necroplasma from Sweden
and Goat Semen from Peru
.
The band was not at an end however. Four tracks of dark ambience
, recorded by Henderson, Mitchell and Morelli, were released on a split EP with Melek Tha in 2004. The same year, Nazxul regrouped with a new line-up that included Henderson, Morelli and Mitchell plus two former members of Wollongong
black metal band Secretain, Daniel Lomas (vocals) and Luke Mills (guitar), and drummer Tim Yatras
from another Wollongong band called Battalion. Originally booked to tour with Dimmu Borgir
, the Norwegian
band cancelled its visit but several months later Nazxul undertook a tour with Adelaide based gothic metal
band Virgin Black
instead. Nazxul then became dormant for some time since. Mills continued to play in various black metal bands and Yatras was the drummer with Lord
between 2005 and May 2009.
's tour; this tour was cancelled however. The band completed work on the long-awaited Iconoclast album, first mooted in 1998, during the year.
Greg Morelli was killed in a motorcycle accident in the early morning hours of 20 November 2008 after hitting a greasy patch of the road during a severe storm on Parramatta Road in North Strathfield
. Morelli had only just completed guitar parts for the Iconoclast album, before his death.
Nazxul has asked everyone who listens to "Oath (Tides Resurrection)" to think of Morelli. The song is in honor of him.
Iconoclast was released in mid-2009 by German
label Eisenwald Records. Guitarist Petar Peric from Infernal Method replaced the late Morelli, and drummer John McLaughlin replaced Tim Yatras. International touring went ahead at the end of 2009 with shows in England
, Germany
, Holland, Belgium
and Russia
.
Live albums
Demos
EPs
Split albums
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
band from Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. At one time featuring members of other prominent local metal bands including Mortal Sin and Sadistik Exekution
Sadistik Exekution
Sadistik Exekution is an Australian Death Metal band that formed in 1985 and has existed somewhat sporadically ever since. While last playing live in 1999, the band recorded two more albums and while they have publicly declared to have disbanded several times since, the group reunited for a single...
, Nazxul has released two albums, an EP and several split releases with other bands.
Early years "Totem" (1993-1997)
The group was formed in 1993 by guitarGuitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Adrian Henderson, keyboards player
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
/guitarist Lachlan Mitchell, former Mortal Sin and Slaughter Lord drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Steve Hughes
Steve Hughes
Steve Hughes is an Australian musician and stand-up comedian.-Music career:In the early 1980s he formed the Sydney thrash metal band Slaughter Lord, who recorded some demos before disbanding. Hughes then joined Mortal Sin in 1989 and stayed with them until 1991...
and Dalibor Backovic on vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
and bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
. A self-titled demo (1994) appeared through Vampire Records. Soon after guitarist Greg Morelli from Sydney thrash band Grungeon joined the fold. Nazxul began work on an album called Totem that was released in 1995. Originally envisioned as a mysterious studio-bound project, the group only appeared in publicity photos as shadowy figures or draped facelessly in cloaks.
"Black Seed" (1998-2007)
Further material was written, during which time Backovic departed and two new members joined, singer Morte from an avant-garde black metal group called Bestianity and guitarist Rev. Kriss Hades from the notorious Sydney death metal band Sadistik ExekutionSadistik Exekution
Sadistik Exekution is an Australian Death Metal band that formed in 1985 and has existed somewhat sporadically ever since. While last playing live in 1999, the band recorded two more albums and while they have publicly declared to have disbanded several times since, the group reunited for a single...
who were experiencing one of their well-known self-imposed dormant periods. This line-up produced the EP "Black Seed" in 1998 and late in the year played live for the first time at a show in Sydney, with Henderson moving to bass guitar.
Hughes left the group after this to pursue a career in stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
and soon left Australia to live in the UK. His replacement was Peter Kostic from Sydney rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Front End Loader
Front End Loader
Front End Loader is an Australian rock band consisting of Davis Claymore , Bowden Campbell , Richard Corey , and Peter Kostic . Peter also drums for Regurgitator and The Hard-Ons.-History:...
. Almost immediately, Nazxul was booked to support Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
extreme metal group Impaled Nazarene
Impaled Nazarene
Impaled Nazarene is a Finnish black metal band that incorporates elements of grindcore in their sound and punk rock in their aesthetics. The band is currently signed to Osmose Productions of France....
on part of an Australian tour. In a remarkable turn of events, Kostic's other band was then approached to tour with British rock group Skunk Anansie
Skunk Anansie
Skunk Anansie is an English rock band whose members include Skin , Cass , Ace and Mark Richardson .Skunk Anansie formed in March 1994, disbanded in 2001 and reformed in 2009...
over the same period but declined due to the drummer's commitment to Nazxul; the Skunk Anansie tour was in turn cancelled when the group suddenly split up. Morte was fired after this tour and Backovic returned for Nazxul's appearance at the Metal for the Brain
Metal for the Brain
Metal for the Brain was Australia's largest heavy metal music festival. The event was held in Canberra annually, usually towards the end of the year, and featured Australian bands almost exclusively...
festival. In the meantime, "Black Seed" was re-released with several live tracks recorded during the tour added to the track listing. The cover was slightly amended with the iconography rendered in gold instead of green.
After playing a final show for the year all activity from Nazxul then appeared to cease abruptly. Kostic joined Regurgitator
Regurgitator
Regurgitator are an Australian rock band from Brisbane, currently consisting of Quan Yeomans , Ben Ely and Peter Kostic . The band formed in 1994, its original line-up consisting of Yeomans, Ely and drummer Martin Lee...
in 2000 and the Hard Ons in 2001. Hades recorded two more albums with Sadistik Exekution before embarking on a solo career. Mitchell continued his work as a professional sound engineer / producer and in late 2001 formed a rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Brace with several former members of Canberra group Henry's Anger
Henry's Anger
Henry's Anger was a Canberra based heavy metal band. Their second album Personality Test was nominated for an Aria Award for Best Rock Album and reached #38 on the alternative charts...
. Backovic left Nazxul in 2000 to pursue a career in the film industry as a screenplay writer and director. In 2002, Sydney black metal label Decius released a limited-edition live album (titled simply Live) on 12" vinyl. The recording was of the group's 1999 Metal for the Brain performance. A year later, the Nazxul track "Apostasies Legions Arise, Xul!" appeared on a compilation release from Hiberica Records along with tracks from American band Krieg, Necroplasma from Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Goat Semen from Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
.
The band was not at an end however. Four tracks of dark ambience
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, recorded by Henderson, Mitchell and Morelli, were released on a split EP with Melek Tha in 2004. The same year, Nazxul regrouped with a new line-up that included Henderson, Morelli and Mitchell plus two former members of Wollongong
Wollongong, New South Wales
Wollongong is a seaside city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It lies on the narrow coastal strip between the Illawarra Escarpment and the Pacific Ocean, 82 kilometres south of Sydney...
black metal band Secretain, Daniel Lomas (vocals) and Luke Mills (guitar), and drummer Tim Yatras
Tim Yatras
Tim Yatras is an Australian musician and composer, best known as a writer of several J-pop songs, as well as a former member of Wollongong based heavy metal band, Lord, and creator of the Black Metal/Rock/Trance act Germ.-Biography:...
from another Wollongong band called Battalion. Originally booked to tour with Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1993. Dimmu borgir means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse. The name is derived from a volcanic formation in Iceland, Dimmuborgir...
, the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
band cancelled its visit but several months later Nazxul undertook a tour with Adelaide based gothic metal
Gothic metal
Gothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...
band Virgin Black
Virgin Black
Virgin Black is an Australian band that combines gothic-doom and symphonic metal influences. Signed to The End Records and Germany's Massacre Records , the band has released 4 albums and 1 EP...
instead. Nazxul then became dormant for some time since. Mills continued to play in various black metal bands and Yatras was the drummer with Lord
Lord (band)
Lord is a heavy metal band from Wollongong, Australia. The group began as a solo project for "Lord Tim" Grose of Dungeon in 2003 and expanded into a complete band when Dungeon broke up in 2005. They have released three albums and an EP to date. Lord has appeared with major acts that include...
between 2005 and May 2009.
"Iconoclast" (2008-present)
In 2008 Nazxul reformed and were listed as the national support to the Australian leg of MayhemMayhem (band)
Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1984 in Oslo, Norway and regarded as one of the pioneers of the influential Norwegian black metal scene...
's tour; this tour was cancelled however. The band completed work on the long-awaited Iconoclast album, first mooted in 1998, during the year.
Greg Morelli was killed in a motorcycle accident in the early morning hours of 20 November 2008 after hitting a greasy patch of the road during a severe storm on Parramatta Road in North Strathfield
North Strathfield, New South Wales
North Strathfield is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Strathfield is located 15 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay...
. Morelli had only just completed guitar parts for the Iconoclast album, before his death.
Nazxul has asked everyone who listens to "Oath (Tides Resurrection)" to think of Morelli. The song is in honor of him.
Iconoclast was released in mid-2009 by German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
label Eisenwald Records. Guitarist Petar Peric from Infernal Method replaced the late Morelli, and drummer John McLaughlin replaced Tim Yatras. International touring went ahead at the end of 2009 with shows in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Holland, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Discography
Studio albums- TotemTotem (Studio album)Totem is the debut album by the Australian black metal band Nazxul. It was released in 1995.- Track listing :...
(1995) - Iconoclast (2009)
Live albums
- Live (2002)
Demos
- Nazxul (1994)
EPs
- Black Seed (1998)
- Quickener of the Dead (2010)
Split albums
- 4 Spears in God's Ribs (2003)
- Develish Purification (2004)—with Melek-Tha