Reviews list for Noxis - Violence Inherent in the System (2024)

This is the debut album from Cleveland's Noxis and is an album of quite brutal and occasionally technical death metal. I love the guitar tone, it sounding thick and meaty with a marked weight to it. The production pushes the bass to the fore quite often, deliberately I am guessing because the basslines provide a point of emphasis in a number of places, especially early on. The playing is very tight, with an impressive crispness and precision as all three of the instrumentalists are in lockstep and never seem to lose a beat nor drop a note. And therein lies a bit of the downside for me. I am not advocating sloppy playing or messy production as such, but it is no secret that I am an old-school fanatic and I often find death metal that is very tight and precise comes off as a bit sterile to my ears. Noxis do counter that to some extent by veering towards a visceral brutality, which I often find to be a mitigating factor that can balance out overt technicality, at least to a degree. The vocals are, in the main, an aggressive and bullish, bellowing roar, which I like, but they do occasionally drop into "stuck-pig" mode, on second track "Blasphemous Mausoleum for the Wicked" for example, which is a style that is a particular bugbear of mine.

So there are a number of factors that work against Noxis, at least based on my normal taste profile. The technical shifts and flourishes, the very precise nature of the instrumentation and overly crisp production that often leaves me cold and the resorting to a vocal style I am not a fan of all suggest I am in for an unsatisfying experience. Yet, somehow Noxis manage to keep me onboard, probably due the suggestion of brutality they maintain throughout the runtime. This gets me through the early part of the album, which is where I think there is a greater concentration of the problematic elements for me, and sustains me enough to reach the second half which feels less technical and more in-your-face brutal. Then there is the crazy "Horns Echo Over Chorazim" which isn't only one of the most brutal-sounding tracks on the album, but also has a crazy solo section that seems to be performed by a large selection of wind instruments, such as oboe, saxophone and so on, each following the other to perform a single solo. Weird, yet strangely compelling.

The four tracks from "Horns..." onwards are more to my liking than the earlier parts of the album, with less emphasis on the technical aspects making the band sound freer, looser and more relatable for me at least. The title track, which follows "Horns.." is a formidable beast and sees the band hinting at an old-school desire to sound as intimidating as they can. There are still some interesting moments in this latter part of the album, the off-kilter guitar solo and especially prominent basswork in the middle section of "Emanations of the Sick" as well as the previously mentioned wind instrument solo in "Horns..." are inspirational and really stand out during these more brutal tracks, more so than I feel they would in the more overtly technical earlier material.

So, ultimately this was, for me, an album which started off OK without especially wowing me, but which kept me sufficiently engaged to persevere and find the buried gems that are the final four tracks. These are the motherlode of the album as far as I am concerned and would have made a killer EP, but as it is, this is a decent album of pseudo technical and brutal death metal with a killer final 22 minutes.

What would happen if you took the brutality of early death metal giants like Cannibal Corpse and Cryptopsy, and proceeded to spice them up with Imperial Triumphant's technicality and progression? Well you'll likely end up with something similar to Noxis. This band was a recent discovery And I was quite impressed by the result.

I do have to stress that this kind of death metal is not my strong suit; I do like progressive music, but Noxis are a little bit too far off the technical side then I'm comfortable with. That being said, the songwriting capability on Violence Inherent in the System is very memorable. Even though this album does have some wild tempo and style changes throughout the individual songs, something about them feels interconnected. Riffs are not as quickly discarded as they are introduced to the audience, instead these riffs are mutated almost to the point of unrecognizable as the song progresses, as the songs main motifs are blended together into something new and exciting, creating a cacophony of sound at the end of tracks and really embracing the brutality of its early influences like Cannimbal Corpse and Dying Fetus.

Whereas the Imperial Triumphant comparisons come through in the albums engineering and production. It is alarming (nay, I say unheard of) where a bass can receive so much prominence on a death metal record. Metal music as a whole has a terrible habit of leaving a true fundamental part of the band hanging out to dry while the down tuned guitars try to mask this deficiency. More often than not, these projects, whose main objective is to sound heavier, end up becoming quite the opposite. With Violence Inherent in the System, no such issues exits. Paired with a bass drum that is not overcooked where it sounds like my ears are popping every time a kick is played, and suddenly, the records more ethereal moments, like the bridge on "Tense and Forlorn" do not emit a sense of deflecting. Despite the style change, it still feels heavy and creates a feeling of belonging, even if it may only serve as an interlude before more technical death riffage.

The album certainly starts to become more progressive as it chugs on, with the most direct change happening after the interlude "Excursion". "Horns Echo over Chorazim", "Violence Inherent in the System" and "Emanations of the Sick" begin to include more instrumental solo breaks, which is not only a nice change of pace from the relentless riffage of the first half of the album, but their appearance is not so forceful and demanding that it distracts from everything else, like it would with thrash records. But that begs the question: what do I think of the solo on "Horns Echo over Chorazim"? For the first real solo break on the album, it does feel a little out of place. The drastic timbre change and instrumentation is a little alienating... but you notice it. Just when you think Violence Inherent in the System is beginning to slow down, out of nowhere comes a clarinet solo to slap you across the face and bring your attention back solely to this record. You might be disappointed that it is the only appearance of such a solo on the album, but its introduction to part 2 is emphatic and sets the pace for the rest of the album as well.

I do enjoy Violence Inherent in the System. For the type of influence that it takes, it has never been a style that enthralled me. Technical death metal is far outside my comfort zone of normal listening although I have opened my eyes to such sounds in recent years. And while this record does have its moments that make me sigh and murmur "here we go again..." I also think it has enough new trends to stand out among the contemporaries, rather than just copying the greats, as most 20 Buck Spin death metal bands do these days. A sure recommendation from me, even for those who are hesitant about technical/progressive death metal.

Best Songs: Blasphemous Mausoleum for the Wicked, Abstemious, Pious Writ of Life, Torpid Consumption, Horns Echo over Chorazim, Tense and Forlorn

Apparently, the guys in Noxis hate being referred to as a technical or progressive death metal band. This is strange really when you consider the amount of technicality and odd time signatures in their music, for a band who want to focus on how death metal they really are at their core, this can be a tough sell. Assisting with the latter part of that sentence though is the amount of head bobbing riffs they can muster and the extensive level of groove that gets applies to them as well. On Violence Inherent in the System, whatever their motivations and influences, Noxis take the listener on a fantastic exploration of the foundations of death metal whilst being unafraid to add modern and even avant-garde touches.

You cannot fail to be sucked into this record if you like Cryptopsy, Demilich or Adremalech. In an age where death metal suffers from endless regurgitation of the old school sound, it is not always sufficient to simply extend the already well-established bloodline that started in the 90’s. Unless, you are super tight at playing your weapons of choice, which Noxis most certainly are. Enter current Nunslaughter drummer Joe Lowrie. Described in an interview as being a “cyborg” by his bandmates, he gives a strong performance across the ten tracks that make up the record. Now, he is no Saint Merat (we even get straight up d-beat drumming on the title track), and he doesn’t need to be given that this is a very different sound to the expansive soundscapes of Ulcerate. However, when coupled with Kirsch’s bass work (which is top notch) the two instruments become a singular unit almost, pulling and pushing tracks in different directions. This creates lots of opportunity to put those riffs front and centre, something that Dylan Cruz manages to achieve fantastically. That groovy riff that opens Torpid Consumption is real “get your eyes back on the road” moment, and the album is simply littered with such occasions (such as the title track) that make you stop whatever you are doing and put more of your attention onto Violence Inherent in the System.

That bass does come across as too placed on some occasions though; notwithstanding the fact that Kirsch clearly has free reign to do whatever he wants, it sounds like he does not need to go as far as he does sometimes. It does not necessarily confuse things but certainly adds a bit of bloating in places. I have heard the clarinet and horn solos on the appropriately titled Horns Echo over Chorazim several times and after swinging between “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?” and “actually this works” I find myself in the latter camp most of the time, even though I am not usually a fan of such intrusions.

This record caught me off-guard. Laid up in bed with a raging chest infection and suddenly out of Xmas activities I had much unexpected time to listen to some 2024 releases, and Noxis have been an absolute curve ball for me. They would certainly make top three on my year end list but are unlikely to remove Ulcerate from the top slot. However, as I said above, this is a very different album to Cutting the Throat of God, and one that holds its own in the world of modern death metal whilst still being able to display a very healthy set of roots in the past.