Nox Vorago
Obsidian Stonemirrors ()
Wydane przez Self-financedRok wydania Kraj SwedenNapisał Wouter7
Do you also long for metal to at long last stimulate you intellectually again? Good, cos this is a honest-to-God promising band, for a change. Nox Vorago is a symfo death metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden - not that that would be obvious upon hearing this record. In a lot of ways they are continuing the sound of (the sadly defunct) Luciferion, although they aren’t quite as dynamic or clever in their arrangements and missing the traditional metal flair that band carried so triumphantly. Nox Vorago is much slower too, with vocal stylings closer to Amon Amarth (or Gorefest) than to Emperor and the likes. On all other fronts Nox Vorago is well above average and far better than of any of their contemporaries. The tempo is at a steady midpace with occasional forays into faster territories, but all is done in service of the song. This is important, because a lot of bands seem to think that being brutal begins and ends with how fast they can play, how low they can tune their guitars, how many breakdowns they can pinch into a record or how monotoneous their singer can growl. Unsurprising to say, none of that matters if you don’t have songs to back it up. "Obsidian Stonemirrors" contains just that, songs. Wandering in and out of death metal, doom and symfo metal without any notable hiccups or flagrant blunders, this band is finally reducing the genre back to its basics. Sure, there are faults: processed choirs, some uninspired Alastis-like chugging here and directionless groove riffs there, but in all this is inspiring in a lot of ways that modern day extreme metal is often not. It is by no means revolutionary sounding, or even novel at this point. No. Far from it. What it does do is convince this jaded and somewhat cynical scribe. There might be some life to the old corpse, after all. Sign me up for more of this...
www.myspace.com/noxvorago
