While listening to the new excellent Nocturnus AD-album "Paradox" I came to the conclusion that I should do an interview with the band. Nocturnus is a well-known and respected name in the history of extreme metal, also due to the fact that the band had some kind of pioneer role in integrating synthesizers in death metal. So I spoke with mastermind Mike Browning about the new album, his other (previous) bands and projects such as After Death, Acheron, Voodoo Gods and Morbid Angel, occultism and the death of ex-Morbid Angel guitarist Richard Brunelle (R.I.P.), who sadly passed away in the course of this interview.
The new Nocturnus AD-album "Paradox" was released some months ago, how are your thoughts and feelings concerning it afterwards ? Where would you place it in relation to the previous Nocturnus-albums "The key" and "Thresholds"?
The reviews and sales have been way past my expectations! I knew that we would have people that liked it and I was hoping that a few people would say that it is a worthy successor to "The Key", but I never expected for everything the record company made has sold out and in a second pressing already and the reviews are not just good, you can tell by reading the reviews that people are going in great details about the songs, lyrics and how it makes them feel when they listen to it and that it is the perfect followup to "The Key". It's really blowing my mind, but it is hard to judge your own songs because you never know how people will receive it, especially on the internet.
To me it is the direct continuation of "The Key" lyrically and maybe even musically. "Thresholds" has always been a weird bittersweet album to me because I knew it was the beginning of the end of what I wanted Nocturnus to be when I started the band. I wanted "Thresholds" to be the followup to "The Key"- story and there is not one thing on "Thresholds" that continues from "The Key". It was a good album by itself on its own, but it was nowhere near what I wanted it to convey, so that is why "Paradox" is a real paradox!
The videoclip for "Apotheosis" is really cool, do you think it helped a lot for reaching this success? Do you think or experienced that the"old"metal heads bought the album and like it, because they knew the name Nocturnus from back then or are there a lot of maybe 18 or 20 year old younger listeners who discover Nocturnus / Nocturnus AD for the first time with the new album?
What can you tell us about the lyrics? Is there any connecting concept concerning the lyrics ?
Yes for sure, there are nine songs on the album and one is an instrumental and six of them connect back to "The Key". Four of them, "The Antechamber", "Return of The Lost Key", "Apotheosis" and "Aeon of The Ancient Ones" continue with "The Key"- story, which were the last four songs on "The Key". Also "Seizing The Throne" continues with the story of "Lake of Fire" and "Standing in Blood and Paleolithic" continues the history line after "Neolithic". Although each song is kind of written to stand on its own as well.
By the way, are the Voodoo Gods still active? Once you contributed your part to the releases of some German bands,
by name Disörder and Hatespawn. How did this collaborations happen, did the bands ask you? And if yes, do still some bands ask if you could join and give some creative input? Do you feel honored if people still think and/or feel that you are still a big name in (the history of) death metal? And did you know the band called "Baron" from Cologne, which split up long ago and played great death metal in the vein of old Morbid Angel, I think Alex von Poschinger from the Voodoo Gods helped this band two decades ago in some hinsights?
by name Disörder and Hatespawn. How did this collaborations happen, did the bands ask you? And if yes, do still some bands ask if you could join and give some creative input? Do you feel honored if people still think and/or feel that you are still a big name in (the history of) death metal? And did you know the band called "Baron" from Cologne, which split up long ago and played great death metal in the vein of old Morbid Angel, I think Alex von Poschinger from the Voodoo Gods helped this band two decades ago in some hinsights?
I am not sure if Voodoo Gods is still active, I haven't heard from Alex in a few years, but Voodoo Gods was his band and he asked if I would do some stuff for him for his album, pretty much that whole thing had a bunch of guests on it. Alex lived here in Tampa for a while and asked me about it back then, but he moved back to Germany and then one day out of the blue he called me from Germany and said he was ready for me to do some guest work on it, so I did and although it took a while, he finally sent me some of the finished CDs and it came out sounding pretty cool.
The Disorder guys also contacted me on MySpace and asked if I would do vocals on their EP and so I did and sent them a mix of the whole album, so they thought it would be cool to put both their mix and my mix all on one CD, since it was only an EP, so we called it "Disorder Vs Mike Browning".
The guys from Hatespawn also contacted me about singing on an old Morbid Angel cover song they did, so I did that too. I still get people asking me to do stuff for them, but lately I haven't had that much extra time to be able to do anything extra, it still surprises me how many things I get asked to, two different people asked me just over this last weekend about doing some side projects with them!
I dont know the band Baron, I will have to check them out!
What can you tell us about the current death metal scene in the United States in general and in Tampa/Florida in particular? Do you have some special secret tipps concerning unknown or lesser known bands from your area, the USA or worldwide?
Well, I can only speak for what I see here locally and that only certain bands will pull a crowd here anymore. It used to be that people would go out and support all or at least most of the shows. But now its quite different, some bands will pull three or four hundred on a week night and others forty or fifty people on a weekend and a lot of the younger crowd will only come to watch one particular and then leave as soon as that band finishes. It seems these days if you want to be succesful then just outright copy a band who is popular this week and you will do well, haha.
One question which is connected to a certain point with the image of Nocturnus and the lyrics as well: what is your philosophy of life and world view? Do you believe in life after death and if yes, in which kind? Are you (still), connected officially with the CoS, Nocturnus still using the CoS sigill. And how would you describe your interest in occultism? How would you define the term"occultism"? Occult in the sense of unconscious attitudes and causes for actions / more in a psychological sense or in another way? Did your attitude towards all these things change a lot over all these years and if yes, have there been some specific reasons? And what do the other members of Nocturnus AD think about occultism, is there a lowest common denominator concerning these things?
I believe that after we shed this mortal shell that our energy or essence has the ability to remanifest itself into either one new shell or split up into many new shells.
When I was in Acheron, Anton LaVey had made the band members of the CoS, but after I was out of Acheron and LaVey had passed, Vince had a falling out with the new head of the CoS, but I currently don't know what their status is today. The sigil was actually LaVeys personal symbol and he trademarked it without the circle. I incorporated it into the logo of the band name, so it was never used by itself and without a circle around it. By using it with a circle, it turned it into a sigil and not considered a personal symbol, so I used it in a completely different manner as part of a band logo. Like for instance the Baphomet or a regular upsidedown pentagram can be used by anyone. But I never used it without the circle like LaVey had it for his personal symbol.
My interest in the Occult goes back to around 1977 when I started reading my mom's books on witchcraft, she dabbled in it when I was young, so I found an interest in it and being young and rebellious, I took it to the extreme in Satanism and The Necronomicon, but then I saw The Book of The Law and discovered Crowley and then Kenneth Grant and I just kept expanding my knowledge and my book collection is over 600 books, mostly occult and metaphysical and Egyptian history and some sci-fi and horror. But Occult basically just means hidden, there are hidden meanings in lots of things, you just have to see them from the proper angle to discover them. But there is no doubt that Ritual work definitely causes change to occur in the unconscious psyche, which in turn manifests into the physical realm. I would say that the more my knowledge gained, the more my eyes were opened and the more I was open to going back and learning things that I thought I would not ever want to learn when I was younger. The broader the base of your pyramid the higher the apex can go. I even became a Freemason because I wanted to know for myself what it really was all about and once a Master Mason, I went through the entire York Rite through the Royal Arch and was dubbed a real Knights Templar, so I experienced these things first hand.
Two of the four other band members are pretty versed in the occult and the other two are familiar with it, but it doesnt bother any of them in a negative way. The lowest common denominator is really up to each individual and it is not my place to decide someone elses path when it comes to these things.
Personally I believe in coincidence in some cases, in some not, so what do you think in your age, would your life has taken maybe a totally different direction if you wouldn't have discovered extreme metal and became a metal musician? Could you imagine this case or do you think that sooner or later it was unavoidable to get in contact with extreme metal and to start bands and all this kind of stuff because of your personality?
I do believe that everything happens for a purpose, sometimes when something really bad happens, you wonder why did that bad thing have to happen, but then several months or even years later, you are able to see that this bad thing was necessary to make way for something else to take its place. I think with me it was a natural progression because my mom sang in a local 70's rock band and so I was introduced to music and watched them practice in my moms house. So I listened to a lot of music when I was young and through that it conditioned me to take it further and further, just like the younger musicians do today, the only difference is I learned how not to let my ego get the best of me through my occult training. I will forever be the student and never the master.
Your opinion about Behemoth, who took the synthesis of extreme metal and occult beliefs or attitudes to a new (commercial) level? Did you meet Nergal maybe in the context of working with the Voodoo Gods?
Coming to some sad things, some weeks ago Richard Brunelle passed away. Of course I don't ask for some interna concerning his death because this is not a stupid gossip magazine, but maybe you want to say some words about him to honor him as a human and as a musician as well. What kind of person was Richard? Furthermore I read that you said that you wished you have had the chance to make a jam session in your house with him for a last time, sadly this could not happen anymore. Maybe you want to share some of your thoughts about Richard here?
Are you still in contact with the early Morbid Angel-members John Ortega and/or Dallas Ward or do you know what they are doing today? Furthermore David Vincent will publish some kind of autobiography in february. I once heard you didn't always spoke about David Vincent in a good way, are you still interested what he will write there about his later experiences with Morbid Angel? And as ex-Acheron member I want to ask if you know why Acheron is no longer, there should be a follow up band called "One with darkness", but now Vincent Crowley plays some shows under his own name, do you know what will happen concerning this in the future?
I haven't seen or heard from John Ortega in probably 20 years or more and not sure about Dallas either. Several years ago I had heard from Dallas because he had just got out of prison and I was talking to Richard and I had set up a day that they were both coming over to my house and all three of us were going to get together and jam, but Dallas never showed up and I found out that he went back to jail again, so it never happened, then just about two years ago he got out again and I talked to him on facebook a couple times and all of a sudden he disappeared again, so I dont know what happened, but he may be back there again.
I don't talk to David Vincent and I am sure his book will be quite a few fabrications and gloryfying himself! If people can't see through his bullshit I don't know what to say, but he clearly took credit for stuff that I wrote and recorded before he was ever even in the band and I never got any royalties or credit for the things that I did. But go ahead and buy his book, he needs to pay his bills, haha.
I am not sure about Vince and why he is not doing Acheron anymore, he probably just wants to move on and do something different is my guess.
I want to know your opinion about the After Death stuff, I like it very much, some people even say it's your best stuff. First of all it's totally underrated, many more people should know it, even a lot of people who are familiar with Nocturnus/Nocturnus AD don't know the name of the band. I mean there are so many shitty bands out there who get big label deals and this cool stuff is mostly unknown to the most people in the extreme metal community. Is this lack of recognition concerning this era something that bothers you? I like the After Death stuff for sounding more "obscure" and more mystical, don't find better describing words...Do you know what I mean, did other persons feel about After Death the same way? Sometimes listening to After Death I think of Absu, there's a certain similar mood in the music of both bands. What do you think ?
What do you think about movies that deal with occultism? I like "Rosemary's Baby" and some days ago I watched "The Ninth Gate", "Devil's rain" (where Anton La Vey helped with the concept) is some funny thrash. Can you recommend some movies?
Some of my favorites are "Lucifer Rising", "Haxan", "Night of The Demon", the original "Wicker Man", "A Dark Song", and "The Dunwich Horror".
We are already working on new songs for the next record, we have the music to one and almost finished with a second one. I have song titles and lyric ideas for at least ten new songs too, so things are moving along well. We have a few big festivals already booked for next summer, like Maryland Death Fest, Brutal Assault, Sublime Terror Fest and yes, one big fest in Germany that we cant announce yet, but is confirmed! And for me personally I will keep raising my 12 year old daughter and working and I will be learning more about 3d animation and art!
The last words are yours ! Thank you very much for time, energy and patience for the interview!
