Nocturnal Breed

A band like Nocturnal Breed is what comes about when a bunch of (supposedly) humorless black metal musicians get tired of acting so grim and nihilistic all the time, and decide to have some fun for a change. In this case, the musicians involved were Dimmu Borgir members Ed Damnator (aka Sven Atle Kopperud, bass/guitar) and Rick Hellraiser (aka Nagash, drums), plus Gehenna Man Destroyer (aka Kenneth Svartalv, vocals/guitars/bass), and their idea of fun entailed performing frantic thrash metal in the proto-blackened, '80s vein of German and Brazilian masters like Sodom, Destruction, Vulcano, and Sarcófago. So, beginning with 1997's Aggressor album, different lineups of Nocturnal Breed toured sporadically and delivered an infrequent assortment of releases, including 1998's Triumph of the Blasphemer EP and No Retreat...No Surrender LP, 2000's The Tools of the Trade LP, 2004's "Motörmouth" and "Warthog" singles, and 2007's Fields of Rot LP, by which time only Destroyer remained from the original trio, and was now surrounded by vocalist/guitarist Ben Hellion, guitarist A.E. Rattlehead (aka Crest of Darkness' Akke), and drummer Tex Terror.