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The five cantatas presented on this disc share several elements. They are all for solo bass and orchestra, and Der am Ölberg zagende Jesus deals with Christ’s agonies in the garden of Gethsemane, with three recitatives setting the scene surrounding two arias for Jesus, ending with an aria by the narrator inviting all to contemplate Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus liegt in letzten Zügen is a meditation on the moment of Christ’s death. Ich will den Kreuzweg gerne gehen expresses the narrator’s desire to follow the way of the cross in Christ’s footsteps. The other two cantatas are more tangentially connected to the events of the passion, although they mention the passion as motivation for the sinner to prepare for eventual union with his Savior.

With their previous album “Paradox”, Nocturnus founder/sci-fi death metal godfather Mike Browning (also original Morbid Angel co-founder) would resurrect Nocturnus lore under its new alteration Nocturnus AD which gave Browning the opportunity to finally continue the mythos that came before with the legendary album “The Key” almost 30 years after the release of one of the most influential death metal albums of all time. The result being Nocturnus AD’s debut album “Paradox” being the proper follow-up to “The Key” (musically and thematically) where the story of Dr. Magus would finally see its sequel three decades later.
The new Nocturnus AD album “Unicursal” sees Browning, along with guitarists Belial Koblak and Demian Heftel, keyboardist Josh Holdren, and new bassist Kyle Sokol…