Noctambulist Talks Burning Down Churches and Denver’s Black Metal Legacy

Denver black-metal band Noctambulist straddles the line between technical proficiency, speed and a wall of sound that pulverizes listeners’ bones into jagged dust.

While the wall of sound may ring some bells, Noctambulist is no Grateful Dead. Nor is it Phish, or any of the other hippie capitalist bands that dominate the musical conversation around here. You will find no allegories to woke spiritual narcissism in Noctambulist’s sound. While the musical competence between black metal and jam bands is similar, and both styles’ vocals may be an acquired taste, the disparity between the two sounds can seem stark. The bohemian ethos is one of flowers in guns; the metal ethos is the gun.

As the first blackened note rings out from guitarist Andreas Tees’s guitar, an opal haze descends over…