Who would’ve thought when I woke up this morning that I’d end the day addicted to blackened d-beat crust. Christ, I didn’t even know what that was until lunch time. So here I am with a copy of Nux Vomica blazing in one ear while trying to jam as much of the stuff in to the other as possible. Dirty, distorted music is their game and making your head spin in reckless, psychedelic abandon is the clear and present aim. Nux Vomica takes its cues from the crumbling industrial landscape hidden just behind the gleaming towers of every city, takes you to the very edges of your consciousness and, well, pumps you with the sonic equivalent of hallucinogenic drugs. All that while occasionally winding things up, often imperceptibly at first, to slam dancing metal-punk speed. It is indeed a heady brew. Hardcore, crust, heavy stoner doom and then plenty of black metal spewings just when you think things couldn’t get any more interesting. Each one of the three tracks here stands tall on its own but all three together than they’re truly spoiling us.
This is the Portland, Oregon band’s third full length and the debut with Relapse who if I’m being honest must have done very little chin scratching before agreeing to sign these guys. After disappearing down the rabbit hole with the first track you’re lifted out with one of those beautifully melodic intros that I’m learning the band does so well and a riff that melts over the top like it was designed to make you stop, listen, close your eyes and sink into the moment. But the band hardly ever stops for a minute to bask in the glory of a well-placed chord progression. We’re moving onwards, constantly pushing forwards into something that I can only say was designed by someone hoping you have a long evening and something very long and rolled up to help you through it.
Compared to some of the other things I stumbled upon in the back catalogue this is much less frenetic, there is far more control over all the moving parts, as if someone has pulled it all together in a much tighter and planned way. All the ideas that Nux Vomica thrown in abundance are knitted carefully together, the riffs, things borrowed from other bands, lifted from earlier tracks. It’s a carefully laced cocktail. By the time the final track gets into full swing you’re up from your reverie and you couldn’t imagine being anywhere else but in the middle of the mosh pit struggling against the wall of bodies. The weirdest thing is, as with all trippy sludge, stoner and crust bands, you’re struggling to work out where all the fucking time went. 44 minutes and 21 second has just passed you by and you have no idea how it could possibly has happened. What has happened is that you have just heard five geniuses at work and you are now a Nux Vomica fan for life. So when are you guys coming to London then? Highly recommended.
(9/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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