Nucleus Torn

Nucleus Torn
Nucleus Torn band photo
Background information
Origin	Switzerland
Genres	Alternative metal Avantgarde metal Apocalyptic folk Experimental
Years active	1997 - Present
Labels	Prophecy Productions
Website	http://www.nucleustorn.ch
Members	Fredy Schnyder Patrick Schaad Christoph Steiner Anouk Hiedl Rebecca Hagmann Christine Schüpbach-Käser Maria D'Alessandro Anna Murphy

Nucleus Torn is an alternative metal/neofolk music band from Switzerland.

Nucleus Torn was founded in 1997 as a one-man band by Fredy Schnyder, a versatile musician playing a variety of instruments including acoustic and electric guitars, the piano, recorders, the hammered dulcimer, the bouzouki, percussions, the oud, and others. Two years later, Schnyder was joined in 2004 the band's second EP Krähenkönigin was released by the Swiss producer Kunsthall, following a two-track demo release titled Submission (2003). In fact, Krähenkönigin had been recorded in 1998 by Fredy Schnyder alone, but it was not released until 2004 --- and even then the release was limited to 300 copies. Fredy Schnyder himself explains this delay in the production/release of Krähenkönigin by the fact that the material had originally been composed by him in "pieces for solo classical guitar" and without access to studio recording equipment. Stylistically, Krähenkönigin is a solo classical guitar album, with the tracks sharing the same general motif and almost comprising a single piece of music. The acoustic guitar themes would be further developed by the band in their later albums, but none of them any longer pertain to the "purely classical" genre as does Krähenkönigin. The three EPs (Krähenkönigin, Silver and Submission) were later remastered and re-released by the band (together with two previously unreleased tracks) on their compilation album Travellers (Prophecy Productions, 2010).

In 2006, Nucleus Torn released their first full album (CD) Nihil; this was also their first release with the German label Prophecy Productions. The official information on the album mentions that it was the result of "roughly three years of labour". This album deviates in its musical style from the band's previous releases: if the EPs can be attributed to the folk rock, neoclassical or neofolk genres,Nihil features a decidedly broader stylistic pattern, bringing the band into the scene of progressive rock and extreme metal. The band's founding member Fredy Schnyder explains this change in the playing style by the desire to blend different genres to convey more emotions: