Further material was written, during which time Backovic departed and two new members joined, singer Morte from an avant-garde black metal group called Bestianity and guitarist Rev. Kriss Hades from the notorious Sydney death metal band Sadistik Exekution who were experiencing one of their well-known self-imposed dormant periods. This line-up produced the EP 'Black Seed' in 1998 and late in the year played live for the first time at a show in Sydney, with Henderson moving to bass guitar.
Hughes left the group after this to pursue a career in stand-up comedy and soon left Australia to live in the UK. His replacement was Peter Kostic (ex-Front End Loader). Almost immediately, Nazxul was booked to support Finnish extreme metal group Impaled Nazarene on part of an Australian tour. In a remarkable turn of events, Kostic's other band was then approached to tour with British rock group Skunk Anansie over the same period but declined due to the drummer's commitment to Nazxul; the Skunk Anansie tour was in turn cancelled when the group suddenly split up. Morte was fired after this tour and Backovic returned for Nazxul's appearance at the Metal for the Brain festival. In the meantime, 'Black Seed' was re-released with several live tracks recorded during the tour added to the track listing. The cover was slightly amended with the iconography rendered in gold instead of green. After playing a final show for the year all activity from Nazxul then appeared to cease abruptly.
The band was not at an end however. Four tracks of dark ambience, recorded by Henderson, Mitchell and Morelli, were released on a split EP with Melek Tha in 2004. The same year, Nazxul regrouped with a new line-up that included Henderson, Morelli and Mitchell plus two former members of Wollongong black metal band Secretain, Daniel Lomas (vocals) and Luke Mills (guitar), and drummer Tim Yatras from another Wollongong band called Battalion. Originally booked to tour with Dimmu Borgir, the Norwegian band cancelled its visit but several months later Nazxul undertook a tour with Adelaide based gothic metal band Virgin Black instead. Nazxul then became dormant for some time since. Mills continued to play in various black metal bands and Yatras was the drummer with Lord between 2005 and May 2009.
In 2008 Nazxul reformed and were listed as the national support to the Australian leg of Mayhem's tour; this tour was cancelled however. The band completed work on the long-awaited 'Iconoclast' album, first mooted in 1998, during the year. Greg Morelli died in a motorcycle accident in the early morning hours of 20 November 2008 after hitting a greasy patch of the road during a severe storm on Parramatta Road in North Strathfield. Morelli had only just completed guitar parts for the 'Iconoclast' album, before his death. Nazxul has asked everyone who listens to "Oath (Tides Resurrection)" to think of Morelli. The song is in honour of him.
'Iconoclast' was released in mid-2009 by German label Eisenwald Records. Guitarist Petar Peric (ex-Infernal Method) replaced the late Morelli, and drummer John McLaughlin replaced Tim Yatras. International touring went ahead at the end of 2009 with shows in England, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Russia. Nazxul's third album titled 'Irkalla' was released in March 2021.
Members
Adrian Henderson (bass, guitar, keyboards), Lachlan Mitchell (keyboards, guitar), Dalibor Backovic (bass, vocals), Steve Hughes (drums), Greg Morelli (guitar, keyboards, vocals),Rev. Kriss Hades (guitar), Morte (vocals), Daniel Lomas (vocals), Luke Mills (guitar, vocals), Mitchell Keepin (guitar), John Mclaughlin (drums), Peter Peric (guitar), Peter Kostic (drums), Tim Yatras (drums)
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazxul
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazxul
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