If I hadn’t discovered or rediscovered other abilities or interests, I may have been the same old character for a long time that wasn’t working for me, musically or personally, and I had to find a bit of peace of mind by letting it go. Yes, well, I’m stuck with who I am, so all I can do is try–as a person, musically and through music–to make some kind of change within that, discovering another side of myself, or another ability within, instead of just going along with being some other dead person that I was supposed to be for so long. What inspired the transition from one to the other?Īs soon as something old was ending, dying and not working anymore, there was something new that was starting to work out better.ĭo you feel like you’ve made a personal transformation with this project as well as a musical one, especially now that you’ve dropped the Malefic persona? Nocturnal Poisoning’s music is obviously very different from the music you created as Xasthur. Decibel recently caught up with Conner to discuss his striking transition.
It’s easily one of the most dramatic turnabouts in the history of music, and yet it’s gone largely unnoticed by the black metal enthusiasts who were sweating Xasthur’s every move just five years ago. Reference points for the album’s dozen instrumental tracks may or may not include John Fahey and Leo Kottke. It’s essentially Conner finger-picking an acoustic with occasional (and sparse) drumming by Ronald Armand Andruchuk. Last but not least, there’s hardly any electric guitar.
Beyond the fact that it’s the same musician and takes its moniker from Xasthur’s debut full-length, Nocturnal Poisoning has almost nothing in common with Conner’s previous work. Earlier this year, Conner reemerged as Nocturnal Poisoning and released Other Worlds of the Mind on his own Disharmonic Variations label. That it would be Xasthur’s swansong was announced in advance by its creator, Scott Conner, who abandoned his longtime alias “Malefic” and used his real name in the credits for the first time in a career that spanned 15 years and 20-plus releases. In 2010, one-man black metal outfit Xasthur released its final album, Portal of Sorrow.
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