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Nightbringer I

Nightbringer I

by Niklas Göransson

A Gathering of Shadows: In 1999, two young underground fanatics from Colorado joined forces to manifest their musical vision. Naas Alcameth and Nox Corvus revisit the inception and ascent of US black metal band Nightbringer.

 

NAAS ALCAMETH: One of my earliest childhood memories is seeing the trailer for Legend. Feeling innately drawn to these kinds of fantasy settings with beautiful props, I desperately wanted to watch it. Growing up in a Catholic household, I didn’t think my mom would allow it – but to my surprise, she did.

Legend, a 1985 dark fantasy film directed by Ridley Scott, is known for its lush visuals and ethereal atmosphere. The story follows a protagonist, Jack, on his quest to save the world from eternal darkness.

ALCAMETH: It had such powerful moments – profound statements, striking performances, and an iconic Devil figure. As a kid, movie villains fascinated me far more than the heroes. Just consider the quotes from Tim Curry: ‘What is light without dark? What are you without me? I am a part of you all. You can never defeat me.’

Tim Curry plays the Lord of Darkness – a towering figure of evil and the film’s primary antagonist.

ALCAMETH: Those words resonated deeply with me. And then lines like ‘Dreams are my speciality. Through dreams, I influence mankind.’ I’d say it was my very first realisation of, ‘This is what I’m about.’ Legend ignited that initial sense of magnetism before I even discovered heavy metal.

 

When did you get into metal?

ALCAMETH: I always liked music – but as a kid, it’s mostly this random hodgepodge of what you come across, right? My father is a BEATLES fan, though they never clicked with me. However, he introduced me to THE DOORS and Jimi Hendrix, and I got really into them. He also loved Clint Eastwood movies; I can’t recall the title, but one had GUNS N ROSES in it.

The Dead Pool – the fifth and final instalment in Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry series – features GUNS N’ ROSES“Welcome to the Jungle” from “Appetite for Destruction”. The band also made a brief cameo in the film.

ALCAMETH: My dad thought the song was really cool, but he didn’t know much about the band. He belonged to one of those penny-a-day CD clubs, where you could buy a bunch of albums super-cheap. After ordering and then listening to “Appetite for Destruction”, he decided it wasn’t for him.

The CD ended up in Alcameth’s hands, igniting an obsession with rock music. Then, he discovered METALLICA.

ALCAMETH: I first heard METALLICA through MTV, and that’s what set me on the path to metal. I convinced my parents to buy me a guitar, but they made a deal – I had to take lessons. The problem was, neither of them knew anything about guitars and ended up sending me to a bluegrass player, which didn’t interest me at all.

Bluegrass, a genre of American roots music, originated in the Appalachian region. It features acoustic instruments like the banjo, mandolin, and guitar, played in a lively, intricate style with strong folk and country influences. Alcameth stuck it out for a few lessons before quitting, ultimately deciding to teach himself instead.

ALCAMETH: In junior high, I met a new group of friends from another elementary school. During my first week, one of them wore a CANNIBAL CORPSE shirt to class. I had no idea what death metal was, but I remember the graphic image of a foetus on the back.

Presumably, this would’ve been CANNIBAL CORPSE’s classic shirt for their 1992 album, “Butchered at Birth”, which had a skeleton foetus as the back print.

ALCAMETH: The first time I hung out with these kids, we went to my buddy’s house – we’re still good friends to this day, and he’s fully into black metal and all that. His room was painted black and had SEPULTURA and MEGADETH posters on the walls, and he showed me all these old-school Relapse catalogues.

In the early 1990s, Relapse Records’ mail-order was a treasure trove of underground metal – featuring everything from obscure demo tapes and CDs to exclusive band merch and fanzines.

ALCAMETH: As a twelve-year-old, I thought, ‘This is cool!’ He showed me his guitar, an Explorer ESP rip-off – like James Hetfield’s (METALLICA) but black with a spider web design. I was like, ‘I’m hanging out with these fucking kids!’ I found out they all played music and had a band called MANIPULATION.

How did you find new metal at that age?

ALCAMETH: Well, back then, the big thing on MTV was Headbanger’s Ball with Riki Rachtman on Friday nights. We’d all stay up late to watch it. They mostly played the typical stuff like PANTERA and ANTHRAX – but every now and then, you’d get MORBID ANGEL or CANNIBAL CORPSE.

MTV’s weekly Headbanger’s Ball show offered metalheads a rare outlet to discover bands before the internet era. A standout feature was the Triple Thrash Treat segment, which showcased three consecutive music videos, often spotlighting more extreme or underground acts – from BURZUM to HECATE ENTHRONED.

ALCAMETH: Then, at fourteen, I met another group of friends and founded my first band, INSURGENCE. Those guys weren’t into metal – they leaned more toward punk rock, so I rolled with that for a while. And honestly, I still like old-school punk rock; that’s where I got my start playing music.

What level of musicianship did you have?

ALCAMETH: Everyone could play their instrument to some degree and practised regularly, but we didn’t have a drummer. For about a year, we’d meet in my friend’s basement to jam. Then there was this guy – one of the cool kids, who dated the most popular girl in school and rode with the BMX crew <laughs>. Yeah, totally 90s.

That was Nox Corvus, the son of a local musician.

ALCAMETH: We were the punk and metal kids, and of course, we knew who he was. One day, Nox came over to play some drums with us and absolutely killed it. Turns out, he was also a sick guitarist. He bailed on his group of friends – as you do at fourteen – and joined us.

NOX CORVUS: Kyle (Alcameth) and I hit it off immediately – we often crashed at each other’s places and soon became inseparable. His creativity stood out to me right away. Along with another friend of ours, Kyle wrote the music for INSURGENCE, and I could immediately tell how talented he was.

Did the band get anywhere?

NOX CORVUS: I’d say INSURGENCE was kind of successful in the local punk scene. As fourteen-and fifteen-year-old kids, we got to open shows for several of our favourite bands passing through. Blast beats were already part of the sound back then – probably sloppy, but effective. Over time, double bass and heavier, lower riffs crept in, pushing us further towards metal.

By the time Alcameth and Nox Corvus turned fifteen, they were fully into American death metal – but had also started taking notice of black metal.

ALCAMETH: That was ‘year one’ of us fully getting into it. I’d visit a music store that had a section called ‘Angry Music’ and buy tapes purely based on looks – say, if they had a cool logo or cover. One of my first finds was “The Nocturnal Silence” by NECROPHOBIC. At that point, I didn’t really understand the difference between death and black metal.

Black Mark Production released NECROPHOBIC’s debut album, “The Nocturnal Silence”, on CD and cassette in August 1993. This record – which features DARK FUNERAL co-founder Blackmoon on guitar – is a milestone of atmospheric Swedish death metal with elements of melodic black metal.

ALCAMETH: The singer of INSURGENCE was also getting into black metal. One day, he came to me, ‘Check this shit out: EMPEROR. You’re gonna love it ‘cause they sing about wizards!’ <laughs> Because I’ve always been a huge fan of fantasy books. Big fucking surprise, eh – black metal guy loves fantasy.

What about tabletop role-playing games, like Dungeons & Dragons?

ALCAMETH: Fuck yeah. You see the same thread over and over, right? Preteens getting into fantasy, discovering guitars and heavy music, and then eventually black metal – it’s universal. That’s why you find Dungeons & Dragons on BURZUM covers; they’re literally lifted straight off The Temple of Elemental Evil.

 

BURZUM’s self-titled 1992 debut and “Det som engang var” featured cover art by Norwegian artist Jannicke Wiese-Hansen, both heavily influenced by the Dungeons & Dragons module The Temple of Elemental Evil.

ALCAMETH: It might seem laughable or even comedic, but this shows there’s a kind of chain drawing kids into these ideasespecially the deeper concepts like good versus evil, the power of darkness, and the vastness of it all. When I first saw Mortiis’ early promo shots, I thought, ‘That’s taken straight from Blix’, the character in Legend, which itself was inspired by older paintings of Nordic trolls.

Blix, the sinister goblin henchman in Legend, is a visually striking character with a grotesque, troll-like appearance.

Mortiis, who essentially invented the dungeon synth genre, was a founding member and bass player of Norwegian black metal band EMPEROR. After performing on the classic split with ENSLAVED, he left the band in 1992, shortly before they recorded “In the Nightside Eclipse” – the album recommended to Alcameth by the INSURGENCE singer.

ALCAMETH: I went back to his place to hear it. While he put on the CD, I popped a cassette into the tape player and dubbed it as we listened. On the bus home, I listened again on my Walkman, and it just blew my fucking mind. I was fascinated by the astral feel of italmost like a classical music approach, so over-the-top and majestic.

When EMPEROR recorded “In the Nightside Eclipse” at Grieghallen in Bergen, Norway, their vocalist Ihsahn was only seventeen. While his bandmates spent the evenings drinking at a bar with local metalheads, Ihsahn stayed behind, pouring over the keyboard he’d borrowed from Mortiis, and crafted the album’s groundbreaking orchestral elements.

ALCAMETH: I tried to find the CD at a local record store but ended up with the ENSLAVED split instead. Even now, that’s still one of my favourite releases. As soon I heard the first track, I thought, ‘It’s perfect: cold, evil, and very genuine.’ EMPEROR influenced me, and they influenced Nox Corvus. Basically, we decided right then, ‘This is what we’re doing.’

NOX CORVUS: I loved EMPEROR right away and kept going back to them. Even now, if I have a couple of drinks and put on “In the Nightside Eclipse”, I might shed a tear. I still feel the same old magic from my youth; it’s one of those albums that will always hold true.

 

In a more personal interview featured in Bardo Methodology #8, Alcameth spoke about Curtis, a close but troubled friend who is currently serving a twenty-year sentence for an axe assault. Alcameth also mentioned how, in their youth, Curtis served as a black metal mentor of sorts.

ALCAMETH: Curtis was about eight years older than Nox and me – and as teenagers, we really looked up to him. Thankfully, he set us straight, sharing his vast knowledge of underground metal and guiding us down the right path. I’d often visit Curtis to dub tapes of BATHORYPROFANATICABLASPHEMY, and the like.

NOX CORVUS: He was the first true black metal musician I knew – fully involved in a band, not just a kid messing around. More than that, Curtis became a mentor, showing us what to listen to and how to approach these things.

ALCAMETH: Curtis was kind of like the black metal Godfather, and he’s obviously a maniac – into weightlifting, swords, the whole nine yards.

NOX CORVUS: We called him Curtis the Barbarian, and he really lived up to that name – heavy drinking, throwing axes in the backyard… the type to rip off his shirt if bumped into at a bar, flexing Thor’s hammers tattooed on his biceps. Pretty intimidating guy. We met him through Moshpit Records, where Kyle worked for a few years.

ALCAMETH: We had a local metal shop in Colorado Springs called Moshpit Recordsa little hole-in-the-wall death and black metal store. Our bread and butter was selling all the mainstream stuff that kept us afloat, like power metal, SLIPKNOT, or whatever.

With Alcameth as the store manager, Moshpit Records also had a respectable selection of underground metal.

ALCAMETH: Every now and then, a kid would come in asking for GRAVELAND, KVIST, or some really obscure shit, and I’d strike up a conversation. Like, ‘Hey, you wanna go drink a few beers?’ If you listened to this stuff before the whole internet craze, you were legitimately into it. That’s how I built my circle of friendsmost of whom I’m still close with today. There are about five of us, and nearly all came from Moshpit.

 

In 1998, Alcameth, Nox Corvus, and a guitarist named Josh Tavrow joined EXCOMMUNION – a black metal project founded by their mutual friend Curtis. Things didn’t quite work out, and Curtis eventually left but encouraged them to keep the name. The band soon shifted towards death metal and, later that year, released the demo “Rites of the Excommunion”.

ALCAMETH: Black metal was my true passion, but I also had a deep appreciation for old-school death metal. Some of the most influential shit for me include “Onward to Golgotha” (INCANTATION), DISEMBOWELMENT, and similar. That style operated on a different plane but felt just as evil. Bands like SUFFOCATION were far less interesting than the dark, dreary, and otherworldly approach.

NOX CORVUS: Death metal had a heaviness and an evil vibe we liked, but our true goal was to capture the essence of black metal. We just couldn’t get it exactly right. You can hear black metal vocals and blast beats on that EXCOMMUNION demo, which wasn’t typical of death metal drumming. We were still teenagers, trying to recreate the magic of “In the Nightside Eclipse”.

 

In 1999, driven by a desire to contribute to the phenomenon that had shaped their lives, Alcameth and Nox Corvus formed NIGHTBRINGER. Shortly thereafter, they recorded a two-song demo tape on a four-tracker.

NOX CORVUS: The first NIGHTBRINGER line-up had Kyle on guitar and me on drums. Honestly, it sounded a lot like EXCOMMUNION, just with more of Alcameth’s vocals. He wrote most of the material, and I handled the guitar parts that required a fast-picking hand – but it was essentially blackened death metal.

ALCAMETH: I didn’t have a clear sense of direction but poured all this fervour into it. We only produced an absurdly small amount of that demomaybe ten tapesand handed them out to friends, so it gained no traction whatsoever.

Soon after forming NIGHTBRINGER, Alcameth and Nox Corvus added a new member – James Alabas, or Grimnar – whom they’d met while performing live with EXCOMMUNION.

ALCAMETH: James caught my attention because he’d always come to our shows but sit in the back not even watching, just drawing. I’d look at his sketches, and they were these amazing, morbid fucking pieces. Hair-in-the-face type of guy, one of those dudes with so many scars on his arm that he looked like a burn victim.

NOX CORVUS: Alabas and Christbutcher – the EXCOMMUNION bass player – had a band together… something like ‘SODOMY OF CHRIST’; I can’t recall exactly. Anyway, James was a truly dark soul, but probably more of Kyle’s friend than mine. I’ve never been very social and usually stick to a small circle.

ALCAMETH: The first time I visited James, he slept on a blood-drenched mattress on the floor, and the walls were covered with incredible artworkall of it painted in his own blood. And I’m thinking, ‘This guy is fucked in the head but totally understands darkness.’ And if those are the forces you’re engaging, these are the individuals you seek out. Unfortunately, they can be very hard to organise, and James was one of those individuals.

 

Naas Alcameth adopted his artist name in the year 2000, drawing inspiration from the works of 16th-century polymath Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. Quite heavy reading for someone about to turn twenty.

ALCAMETH: I did read that kind of literature at the time, though not with any articulate understanding. It was more like how anyone gets into esoteric subjects: through sheer fascination. Even now, his Three Books of Occult Philosophy remains a steep read it’s incredibly dense. But back then, it really intrigued me.

Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy are foundational texts in Western esoteric thought. The trilogy delves into natural, celestial, and ceremonial magic, covering topics such as astrology, alchemy, and Kabbalah while examining the interplay between the physical and spiritual realms.

ALCAMETH: When I first started studying the occult, it was like any teenagergoing to the local library, finding the metaphysics section, and grabbing whatever looked the most adversarial. You’d come across the usual suspects, like the Lesser Key of Solomon, flipping through pictures of demons and performing makeshift rituals in some ditch.

The Lesser Key of Solomon is a 17th-century grimoire compiling earlier texts on demonology and ceremonial magic. It catalogues seventy-two demons, detailing their characteristics, sigils, and the rituals allegedly used by King Solomon to summon and command them.

ALCAMETH: I was fortunate to meet someone who’s still a dear friend of mine, Ophis. He introduced me to authors like René Guénon and Julius Evola. If it weren’t for him who knows, I might never have discovered all these things that completely changed my life.

Early 20th-century French metaphysician and philosopher René Guénon is renowned for his works on traditionalism and spirituality, advocating a return to timeless, universal truths. Julius Evola, an Italian philosopher and esotericist influenced by Guénon, delved into Hermeticism, alchemy, and the occult.

While both explored traditionalism, Evola’s interpretations often diverged, blending his own perspectives on ancient wisdom and spiritual hierarchy.

ALCAMETH: Ophis, this sheltered kid from a fundamentalist Christian background, was so intelligent that he not only discovered these ideas on his own but truly understood them. Then he started hanging out with us – and of course, we got him super fucked up and corrupted the kid right away.

Once they began socialising, it turned out that Ophis was a guitarist, and he joined NIGHTBRINGER in 2000. By then, James Alabas had moved out of state.

NOX CORVUS: It took a while for Ophis and I to connect, but I liked him. He was another connection from Moshpit Records, if I remember right, and Kyle saw his potential immediately. At first, I thought, ‘Who’s this guy, and why are we letting people into our band?’ But that’s just my antisocial nature.

 

Meanwhile, EXCOMMUNION prepared their debut album, but Alcameth still found the drive to launch another black metal project.

ALCAMETH: It kind of just happened haphazardly. A buddy of mine from Denver had a home studio and could program drum machines. Around that time, I’d started learning to record riffs and experiment on my own. I’d head up there on weekends and mess around with ideas on the fly. Then, all of a sudden, it was like, ‘Okay, well, here’s this band, RHUNE.’

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