Dual Wielding Darkness: Colton Deem on Nogothula and Valdrin’s Sonic Assault
Nogothula
Dual Wielding Darkness: Colton Deem on Nogothula and Valdrin’s Sonic Assault
In the ever-churning depths of the underground metal cosmos, few figures embody the duality of precision and chaos quite like Colton Deem. As a guitarist, vocalist, and sonic architect behind Nogothula and Valdrin, Deem has carved out a niche that bridges progressive death metal’s cerebral intensity with blackened atmospheres and sci-fi surrealism. With both bands releasing standout albums in recent months—Nogothula’s Telluric Sepsis, a labyrinthine descent into cosmic decay, and Valdrin’s Apex Violator, an opus steeped in arcane fury—Deem stands at the intersection of two distinct yet equally ferocious creative visions.
In this exclusive conversation with Highwire Daze, we dive into the sonic and lyrical architecture of these releases and trace the philosophical undercurrents that drive Deem’s artistic evolution. Whether conjuring cyclonic riff storms or layering supreme vocal intensity, Colton Deem is not just playing metal—he’s reshaping its boundaries.
Let’s enter the vortex…
We’re here with Colton from Nogothula and Valdrin. First of all, let’s talk about you. Where are you based out of and what is your local metal scene like there?
Cincinnati, Ohio. And the local metal scene, it goes through fluctuations. I moved here in 2013. So, at that time was when a lot of bands started popping up, like Valdrin for instance started around that time. The band I was in at the time was called Gomorrah. Outside of death and black metal, there was a lot of other stuff too. Just a good indie scene, as well as a couple of power metal bands.
Telluric Sepsis by Nogothula (Blood Harvest)
Let’s talk about Nogothula. How did that project come about?
It was Eric Payne. We’ve been friends since like 2014 or something. He played in the Verment and we had always kind of talked. It’d be fun to just do something, whether it was like some random, funny grindcore project or something a little bit more serious. And it just kind of never came into fruition. But during the pandemic, everyone kind of had a lot more time. I don’t remember who approached who, but it was just one of those things where we started talking about it and like, “Why don’t we do that?” So yeah, the extra time. And the OSDM revival type stuff was happening – the more simplistic like caveman-y, Mortician style stuff that was popping up. We were just kind of like, “We could do that!” But it slowly turned into not that so much, as we kept writing, it got more and more technical and a little bit more weirder.
We started throwing riffs around in his basement. Then Alex Hooper, who was also in Vermint, got added. and he plays drums. And then he kind of helped us finish out our first little grouping of things, which ended up getting released as Gore Vortex Ascension – the demo EP. And then Nick, our other guitar player, we added him after that came out. And he was also in Vermint. So, it pretty much was multiple guys that were in Vermint, minus one, and then me. And that’s kind of what Nogothula started.
The recent album Telluric Sepsis is so intense. Is there any overall story or concept behind that album title, first of all?
Yes and no. It’s a bit of both. When I’m writing lyrics in general, it always helps for me to have some sort of overarching concept – that way I can write things with some sort of direction. And I’m like, okay, well, I know where to go. It’s just filling in the in-betweens. So, it’s just essentially about some sort of like parasitic alien race that is in the earth, and they eventually awaken and come up and then they just kind of take over and just slowly poison the world. And then by the end of the album, they just expand going towards the universe and just into space.
You guys recently played Maryland Death Fest. How did that go? And what were some of the highlights?
It’s a weird experience, honestly. I mean that in the most positive way. We had had a run scheduled that we were doing with another band that just didn’t work out. But one of the dates that they had was we were pretty much just support until they went to Maryland and then we were done. They happened to… I don’t know if bands dropped off or if they were just still trying to fill slots and they pretty much were like, well, these guys are already with us. So, they just reached out and said, would you guys be willing to do that? Obviously, we were like, yeah, but we didn’t actually think anything was going to come of it. So, when we got the confirmation, it was incredibly surreal, especially since we haven’t done much and we don’t have the biggest following. So, to be added to such a legendary festival with insane lineup. It was a lot to take in. It was incredibly nerve wracking. When we played, it was a Friday evening. We came up on Thursday and we stayed for the four main days. It was just kind of like a little vacation. It was a fantastic time.
The stage that we were playing – there was like two other stages going about the same time that we were going to play. And so I was like, if there’s not going to be that many people like, I’d understand. But yeah, it filled up, dude! It was an insane amount of people, and it was definitely the most that we played in front of. And yeah, the show went well. A lot of people were really, really into it, it seemed. It was an absolute amazing time, the phenomenal experience. It was great. I’m incredibly happy that we were offered that opportunity. And it’s mainly all due to the dudes and the band called Obscene from Indianapolis. They pretty much hooked us up. Thanks to those guys.
Valdrin
With this album initially coming out like a year ago, Is there any chance of new Nogothula of music in the future?
Yeah. We’ve had some conversations. We do have a few demos kind of floating around and we’re slowly tapping away at that stuff. Nothing set in stone. So, I don’t know if we’ll do another full length or if we’ll just do like a smaller offering just to make it little bit faster and get it out sooner. But yeah, there definitely is more music on the horizon. If everything goes smoothly, maybe even like by next year.
Valdrin has an EP coming out that you are on. You’re currently celebrating your 10-year anniversary with Valdrin. How did you wind up in that band?
It’s a kind of an embarrassing story. Wo, we played in the same scene and shared the stage more than a few times. And we all of us slowly became friends and started hanging out. I think it was New Year’s Eve. So we had a bunch of people, I think over at like our apartment at the time. don’t remember much of that evening is how I’m going to preface this, but at some point, I guess, I was speaking to Carter Hicks and was telling him like how much I just enjoyed the first album, Beyond the Forest and asking questions about it.
And I was just like, “there’s lots of guitar parts” because they were a three piece at the time. Like they had four members when the album was recorded but had only played live with four members like once or twice and then the guitar player left. So, for a while they were just a three piece. And so, I was just like, “there’s lots of guitar parts dude – and they’re not there when you play it live – you just let me do it.” And pretty much, somehow just drunken me made an impression or something. And not that long after he followed up, and I was like, “You know what? I think we could try this out and see what happens.” That’s kind of the end of the story. We just got together, and everything seemed to work out and gelled.
The new EP is called Apex Violator. What is that title of that album mean to you, Apex Violator?
So with Valdrin’s lyrical content, every single album is like a chapter or just a segment of a story. Our last album, Throne of the Lunar Soul, follows a trajectory with the particular character, the same name as the band, Valdrin. This one is about the antagonist. The Apex Violator name is pretty much just him becoming the ultimate zenith of evil essentially. So, it’s about him getting to that point what he’s going to do and then it all kind of comes to a head pretty seamlessly.
Apex Violator by Valdrin (Avantgarde Music)
Has either of your bands ever played out here in the Los Angeles area, or is that something you might do in the future?
No, we haven’t. I mean, that would be incredible. The furthest west we’ve gone – it’s not even that West. Indianapolis or Chicago, maybe. That would be awesome though. I know there’s a ton of awesome bands in that area. So hopefully one day.
What has it been like working with such underground record labels as Blood Harvest and Avantgarde Music?
It’s been good. Admittedly, Blood Harvest is the first label that I’ve ever had a contractual obligation with. And I don’t really have anything bad to say. They’re fantastic. Rodrigo has a lot on his plate, but he does a good job with his releases and he has a good eye for talent. And I’m not trying to say that like just because I’m on there, but the other bands that he’s put out prior have seemed to grow and become more known. I think that he’s got some sort of like hidden talent with that. And then Avantgarde – so far I have they’ve been fantastic. They’re incredibly communicative and they go out of their way to be upfront and transparent with a lot with a lot of things and very accommodating. It’s also cool to be on a label like a like Avantgarde – just kind of how that legendary status, especially like the early black metal days. But yeah, it’s been awesome. Blood Harvest and Avantgarde have been fantastic to us.
What’s up next for Nogothula and Valdrin?
With Nogothula , I think we have maybe one show that has yet to be announced in the next couple of months. Outside of that, we’re just gonna try and get together a little bit more and try to hash out some new tunes and step it up a little bit more. And then with Valdrin, we’re working on doing some more runs and shows outside of this basic area, but there’s nothing yet to be announced.
(Interview by Ken Morton)
