Oh, the things I do as a result of my borderline OCD affliction. Earlier this morning, I posted the next-to-last feature in our Finland Metal Week tribute, and for the sake of being complete, we focused that post on Apocalyptica, Nightwish, and Lordi. Why did we do that? Because they’re globally popular (massively so), they’re sort of metal, and they’re from Finland.
But really, what were we thinking? This site is called NO CLEAN SINGING. Early on, we defined our main focus as extreme metal of the kind that’s fast, brutal, cathartic. Sure, we don’t limit ourselves to the core NCS musical style — as witnessed by lots of the bands we’ve featured in our Finland Tribute Week posts. But at the same time, we don’t want to give people the wrong impression. As far as music goes, most of the time, this is not a nice place to visit, and we’ve never let “popularity” define the music we feature.
We got a reminder of just how far around the bend we’ve gone from this comment yesterday by one of our long-time, bloody-minded readers, Aaron: “Jesus christ this week has been a fucking long one. I haven’t liked a single band you’ve talked about. Nope, not even Children of Bodom.” Man, that was a wake-up call — one we’re answering.
So while we’re featuring Apocalyptica, Nightwish, and Lordi today — for the sake of obsessive completeness — we need to give ourselves, and maybe some of you, a couple of shots of acid, with a paint-remover chaser. Y’know, just to cleanse the palatte.
Just a couple of quick shots to scour out the inside of our craniums (and yours) and make the blood run in crimson rivulets from our ears and allow us to rage at the skies. Just a couple of songs from the likes of NOX and Disparaged. (after the jump . . .)
NOX
We found out about this Dutch death-metal band quite recently. To be precise, we saw their name mentioned in one of those recent Metal Sucks posts listing the Top 2010 albums as chosen by a variety of metal musicians. An EP by NOX called Blood, Bones and Ritual Death was listed as a Top 10 album by no less than Danny Tunker, the relatively new guitarist for the almighty God Dethroned, with these words:
“This EP is a rollercoaster-ride of a death metal album. All ingredients are in place and NOX has never sounded better. Every song delivers.”
Maybe it was a subconscious sign that I’d had too much sweetness and light in the music we’ve been writing about in the last couple of days, maybe it was because I have big respect for GD and Mr. Tunker’s guitar work on Under the Sign of the Iron Cross, but regardless of the reason, I immediately tracked down that NOX EP and listened to it. And holy fuck, is it good.
I’d never heard of NOX, but they’ve been around since 2003 and released a debut album called Ixaxaar in 2007. Even before the release of the album, vocalist Seth (Severe Torture) quit the band, and then so did their drummer Bob. They reformed again in February 2009 with Niels Adams (Prostitute Disfigurement) joining the band on vocals and Seth returning to replace Bob on drums, filling the same role as he had in Severe Torture.
Now, with that new line-up, NOX has unleashed that new EP. There’s a demented intro, then four new tracks, plus a re-recording of the Ixaxaar track “Darkness Undying”. It’s no-holds-barred, blunt-force trauma. It’s fast, brutal, technical, and evil. It has crazy rhythms that don’t know whether they’re coming or going, and don’t care. It lays waste to all in its path. It’s indeed a roller-coaster ride of death fucking metal. Here’s a track to reorient your thinking:
DISPARAGED
That was bracing, wasn’t it? But we promised you two shots, and we don’t lie.
Disparaged is a Swiss death metal band that one of our readers (“Bob McBobbob“) recommended highly. They’ve produced three albums, the most recent of which is 2009’s The Wrath of God. Despite my recent fixation on All Things Finnish, I’ve been listening to this album in my spare minutes, and allow me to say once again: HOLY FUCK.
It rages, it saws, it whines, it moans, it pummels mercilessly. It’s got groove, it surprises with bursts of melody, it’s got outrageously abyssal vocals, it’s got blood-spraying guitar solos that no tourniquet can stop. It’s just a super-fine example of modern death metal, with every track a solid head-slamming winner. Get that paint-remover chaser ready in a tall glass and have a shot of Disparaged:
The Wrath of God is available at iTunes and Amazon MP3.
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There. We feel so much better. Don’t you?
37 Responses to “FUCKING DEATH METAL: NOX AND DISPARAGED”
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Disparaged sound pretty awesome. Jebus, that guitar sound is straight up Bolt Thrower though, isn’t it? (Not a bad thing of course)
I believe you are right! And no, not a bad thing at all.
Check out “Reborn” and “Bringer Of Death” from the same album on their website, they’re available for free download in the merch section for some reason, they’ll pummel your nuts into your cranium, yet for some reason you’ll be grateful……..
Disparaged is pretty cool, definitely enjoying these guys.
A random thought I had as I was reading was that I had subconsciously ignored the Children of Bodom post. I used to like them a lot but now I don’t really find them that interesting. For me, they were a ‘bridge’ band. We’ve discussed ‘gateway’ bands here before (for example – korn, linkin park or other nu-metal) that originally brought us to metal. When I say bridge band, I mean a band that is discovered after passing the proverbial ‘gateway.’ Children of Bodom was one of the first bands I checked out once I moved beyond the radio stuff, but they mostly served to open more doors for me, and I found that there was a lot more stuff I was more interested in and soon moved on…anyone else have a similar experience with that band?
As I’ve said before, In Flames was the gateway band for me — but COB wasn’t far behind them. Still like me some COB, but the interest level has definitely waned over time.
Yeah man, but I guess that’s the difference for me – some of those In Flames records are classics and they’ll always have a place despite them being one of the first real metal bands I listened to. COB, on the other hand, I listened to early and they’ve long since faded out of my listening rotation.
Yeah, didn’t mean to suggest I’ve moved on past In Flames — their releases will always have a place in my listening rotation too — though I hope their 2011 release is better than the last one.
+1. A Sense of Purpose was a letdown after Come Clarity.
Yes, exactly the same. Actually, CoB and In Flames and Amon Amarth were my gateway bands.
I get bored listening to them too often now (overexposure?), but there’s a soft spot in my heart for them.
Though part of my lack of interest in CoB also stems from how much my ex-wife loved Alexi’s guitar work.
But who can blame her??? He’s a fucking killer guitarist….
Indeed he is, and the eyeliner and black nail polish seem to be an aphrodisiac, too. For women, I mean.
The eyeliner I can understand. The nail polish pisses me off.
But I hate black nail polish on EVERYONE with light skin. It looks like their fingers are moldy.
I like both, especially Disparaged.
Funny how you just realized how you’ve been putting up too much “pussy stuff” as well. Yesterday I realized I’ve been doing the same, so I put up some Asphyx.
I saw your Asphyx post. That may have subconsciously been part of my wake-up call. 🙂 Also, yesterday I saw a fan-filmed video of Martin van Drunen performing two Pestilence classics with Ritual Torture the night of Dec 13 in San Diego. Someone was trying to tell me something.
After watching the abortion that is Lodi, these two songs sure hit the spot. Nom nom nom nom.
Nox is good, but you weren’t kidding about the rhythms. It’s interesting. Definitely not music to listen to while trying to concentrate on something else.
How would you all label the vocals? I’m thinking more of a later era Suffocation…what the hell are those vocals supposed to be called???
Disparaged is a bit more my typical fare. Dude sounds like Alex Camargo from Krisiun, which is, in my opinion, truly high praise. The guitar keeps getting oddly melodic though. Like a pause in a storm. It’s jarring and appealing at the same time….
There are some Nox songs on that EP that are even more rhythmically jarring than the one I picked. It’s not really the kind of polyrythmic thing that goes on in math metal. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it does rivet your attention, and I would guess it’s really difficult to play. I don’t think the vox sound like Frank Mullen, but I’m also having trouble coming up with a name for them. They sound deep and “throaty” but not quite as jagged and gravelly as lots of death-metal vocals.
Aaron: “Jesus christ this week has been a fucking long one. I haven’t liked a single band you’ve talked about. Nope, not even Children of Bodom.” Man, that was a wake-up call — one we’re answering.
I’m not one to complain, but I totally agree. You guys will come back hard though!!!! So…. Due to their completely retarded name it appears that I’ve totally slept on the Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza… whoops… III The Series of Unfortanute Events is crazy good. Also, how do you feel about Carnifex’s 2010 release “Hell Chose Me”? I guess they were doing the whole deathcore thing, but this album is way more on the death metal side of things.
I’ve been late catching up to Danza, but thought Danza III was insane. A couple of songs from that album are on our master list for picking the “most infectious” songs for this year. Agree about the Carnifex progression. I liked Hell Chose Me — though I was also into the more straight deathcore from the previous releases. I still listen to “Slit Wrist Savior”. I still get a kick out of that pause right before the breakdown when Scott says in a deadpan voice, “Fine. Fuck you then.” I’m easily amused.
It’s the attitude man. Sometimes it just comes across perfectly… Some of my favs in that vein are Chino’s chorus from “7 Words” and the chorus to “Firsty” from Hed P.E’s 1st album. Also there’s a line from the new TAS record in “BTM FDR” that goes… “You spread disease when you spread your legs, time yo suck today’s dick”. That shit cracks me up everytime!!!!
Off of that Carnifex album “Heartless” is a possibility for that list. That song always stays with me for awhile after I hear it…
Definitely the attitude. And “Heartless” is already on our list of songs to consider. 🙂
Swing and a miss lol
No man, that was a clean single. 🙂
I paused Vital Remains for this shit… And fucking LOVED IT! Thank you!!!!! <3 (It's okay to put a heart here, this is a bromance)
Although I may come across as a psuedo-brute, or something similar, I TRY to expand my metal horizons with bands that aren't death metal (Cloudkicker, Cynic, Municipal waste, etc.)
A thrash or prog week would be more fucking golden then the shower in that Pig Destroyer video, you know the one I'm talking about 😉 .
Unfortunately, I do know the vid you’re talking about. 🙂 Do you have a favorite thrash album for the year?
Ugh. Can’t even decide, even looking through my music library… I am particularily fond to Evile though. And oldschool Kreator, Sodom, Exodus, Annihilator, Megadeth(Old stuff, I get bored after Countdown to Extinction), Municipal Waste, Suicidal Tendencies…
If there were going to be a 2010 re-thrash post/ multiple sections, I’m leaving it to metal encyclopedia to decide who gets the top spots.
Thanks. I won’t be doing a “best of the year” list because it makes my head hurt too much, but we’ll have lists from contributors soon.
you should just have a post calling people to post their top ten, might be a diverse list, haha
Sometimes I think you have some kind of wormhole tunnel into my brain, because that’s exactly one of the things we’re going to do. We have some regular contributors who have written year-end wrap-up pieces with lists, and we’re also going to do our “most infectious songs” list, but a big reason lists are fun is to discover music worth tracking down — so the more lists, the better. There will be an announcement tomorrow . . .
Probably the two best songs posted this week. I’ll have to hunt the Nox release down.
Glad you liked them. Getting a legit copy of the Nox release isn’t easy. I found the CD at The Omega Order, but no (authorized) digital downloads anywhere.
Omega Order is good enough for me. I never buy digital copies, I’m old fashioned and want that physical copy (even though I then make a digital copy for all my music playing devices). Problem is space …
I think we figured out previously that we think alike on this subject. My physical copy of Nox is on the way . . . However, I couldn’t wait for it to write this post, so I did a bad thing.
well since you ordered it wouldn’t that cancel badness out?
Serious question:
Is it a bad thing if the band already has your money?
Hah! Beat me to it. Oops!
That’s my philosophy: I have a good job, I have more money than I deserve, and therefore I should pay for music when a band/label gives me a way to pay for it. If there’s simply no way I can find to pay, and I just absolutely have to have the music, I will download it. If I’m too damned impatient to wait for a CD, I’ll download and then order the CD, which is what i did here.