Culture 4 min read By Mason Emerson
Serena Cherry Turns Elden Ring Into Extreme Metal on Noctule's New Album
Former Svalbard vocalist Serena Cherry channels her love of Elden Ring into Noctule's second album, 'Extinguish Thy Flame,' out September 25, blending black metal and melodic death metal with lyrics about the game's bosses and her own struggles.
Serena Cherry, the former vocalist of British band Svalbard, has announced that her solo extreme metal project Noctule will release its second album, «Extinguish Thy Flame», on September 25. The record is a full-throated tribute to the fantasy video game Elden Ring, which Cherry credits with saving her life during a period of severe depression.
Where Noctule's 2022 debut, «Wretched Abyss», paid homage to the 2011 role-playing game Skyrim, the new album shifts its focus to Elden Ring, the sprawling open-world epic developed by FromSoftware and released in 2022. The game has sold more than 30 million copies and is known for its punishing difficulty and bleak, atmospheric world. Cherry said she began writing the album almost immediately after starting the game. «As soon as I started playing it, I knew I had to write about it», she said. «Extinguish Thy Flame was my way of saying thank you to a game that I attribute to saving my life. I was so depressed just before it came out, and it gave me purpose and gave me strength».
Musically, the album fuses the heavily distorted, aggressive textures of black metal with the more melodic but equally intense style of melodic death metal, often called melodeath. Cherry described the result as bigger and meaner than Noctule's debut. The album opens with the instrumental track «Welcome To Limgrave», named after the game's starting region, before moving into a series of songs each dedicated to a different Elden Ring boss. With more than 200 bosses in the game, Cherry selected only her favorites, including Malenia, the sword-wielding figure behind the single «Goddess Of Rot», and Mogh, the towering antagonist of «Lord Of Blood». Another track centers on Morgott, a demigod cast out by his family, a theme Cherry said reflects her own feelings of not fully belonging in the metal scene.
Cherry's lyrics are not pure fantasy. She said she drew parallels between the game's lore and her personal life, particularly in the resilience the game demanded of her. «I'm not naturally that great at video games», she said, «but with Elden Ring, everything about it was so tough that it brought out a stubbornness in me that's actually quite healthy». That stubbornness, she added, now motivates her to go to the gym and to pursue her musical projects. She described the game as «a stern parental figure that motivates you to keep going».
Noctule began as a DIY bedroom project during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Cherry lost her retail job and live music was shut down. She had experimented with black metal as a teenager using a tape recorder and a rudimentary drum machine, and lockdown gave her the chance to revisit the genre. Friends encouraged her to release the early Noctule tracks online, and she was overwhelmed by the response. «It reassured me that extreme metal still has those corners that are open to something that doesn't follow the rules», she said.
Work on «Extinguish Thy Flame» was slower, assembled in spare moments during Svalbard's world tours between 2023 and 2025. Cherry recalled recording vocal ideas on her phone in a toilet in Australia. Unlike Svalbard, where creative decisions are shared, Noctule gives her complete control. «With Noctule, I could do what I wanted and nothing could stop me», she said.
Cherry also pushed back against the idea that comfort in games must come from cheerful titles like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley. «There's comfort in art that's unapologetically bleak», she said. «Sometimes you just want to sit in the darkness». For her, Elden Ring's unflinching portrayal of a world in turmoil offered a sense of purpose rather than escapism. The album is a celebration of that challenge, and of the bosses that embody it.
