Invictus — Nocturnal Visions

[Memento Mori / Me Saco Un Ojo — 2026]★★★★★

Reviewed 2 February 2026by Josh Landry

Japanese death metal band Invictus debuted in 2020 with an album called The Catacombs of Fear. This is their second album, several years later, titled Nocturnal Visions.

It's very much a piece of historically accurate old school death metal, perhaps sounding closest to Immolation during their mid 90's heydey, with nods to classics such as Gorguts' "The Erosion of Sanity", Suffocation's "Pierced from Within", and others, taking influence from the most cerebral of the original stalwarts. Creating this atmosphere is as much about what is not included as what is; there is melody present here, but executed in a subtle fashion, and this is no 'melodic death metal' recording. Veins of magma red tonality can be found hidden amongst the dissonant tremolos and the occasional shredding solo.

This isn't as progressive and forward-thinking as a band like Death or Atheist, but it has fluent and confident musicianship and songwriting. Nearly every riff is a catchy, sinuous power driver. The band can blast when they want, but blastbeats commonly take second place to groove laden mid-paced palm muting and chug. The liner notes mention their thrash metal influence, and this is certainly true for the drummer, but the guitar is tuned far too low for thrash, exuding a sinister energy with its enveloping low octave sludginess.

The production keeps a stygian, filthy tone while being less claustrophobic than the days of Scott Burns. The drums in particular sound fantastic in all their untriggered glory. The complexities of the guitars can be easily heard.

True to the style of the genre, it's a short full-length at thirty-five minutes, superficially monotonous but very replayable, and full of density and clever riffs to unpack. Truly sounding like a lost album from the 90's, Nocturnal Visions successfully captures the grim hellworld energy of groups like Immolation. I relate to their desire to recapture this era of death metal, and it's something I don't really tire of, if it's done well. This one is recommended.

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