Early history and Wretched Abyss (2020–2022) When she was 16 years old, Serena Cherry purchased a four-track recorder, a
Jackson guitar and a
Boss DR-110 Dr. Rhythm drum machine and began writing
black metal songs, releasing three EPs under a
moniker. A few years later, she hired a live band which opened for
Gallhammer and
Nachtmystium, though it eventually fell apart and she returned to working on music on her own. Cherry said that her black metal element "never stopped but it simmered down" whilst in the band, and that she "always found I had way more [blackended] ideas than I could cram into a Svalbard album"; In 2020, after losing her job and the cancellation of Svalbard's tours for that year due to the
COVID-19 pandemic and its associated
lockdowns, Cherry began playing
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) and returned to writing black metal music. "I wrote three songs instrumentally, just for fun", Cherry told
NME in 2021, "Then I thought 'Oh, I might write one song about my favourite
weapon…' And then, 'maybe I should write about my favourite
dungeon' ... And it snowballed from there! It felt like such a natural pairing that it would have been mad not to just run with it." Cherry named her project "Noctule" after
the bat of the same name, feeling that the name "[sounded] quite black metal". Cherry played every instrument on the album, and taught herself how to
program drums (instead of using
drum loops) and use
Logic Pro during its production. and its lyrics further reference certain dungeons, storylines and items in the game. Cherry said that she wanted to distance herself from the heavy and often personal subject matters she wrote about in Svalbard's songs, who praised its songwriting and melodic qualities.
Metal Hammer listed the album as one of the top 10 black metal albums of 2021. The positive reception to the album online led to Noctule receiving offers to play gigs, prompting Cherry to recruit a live band for the project, In August 2022, the band played at Church Road Records' 5th Birthday Bash at the Black Heart in London. Noctule was put "on hold" following these performances as Cherry returned to her normal job and touring, leaving her with no time to write black metal, and because she found Noctule's performances too expensive and time-consuming for her to make into a regular occurrence.
Upcoming second album (2023–present) Cherry had already begun planning Noctule's second album prior to the release of
Wretched Abyss. In a 2023 interview with
Decibel, Cherry said that "exploring my passion for games by writing songs about them is definitely what Noctule is about now", and that the project's next album would now be about a different game. By February 2024, Cherry was working on the album; in a May 2025
Metal Hammer Q&A, she revealed that she had spent time working on it in the studio with Urwin. In August 2026, Noctule is scheduled to embark on a tour of the United Kingdom with Spectral Wound and
Wolves in the Throne Room. == Discography ==