#noxagt

[nmtkmrnke]

[imathers]

Top 20: Tørrfall — Tørrfall

Now this one, I do know why I dug it out of the promo pile. Noxagt's Turning It Down Since 2001 is a record I loved instantly, and while I've written about the trio's very different later work, seeing that new trio Tørrfall involved one Nils Erga was enough to earn it a listen. Erga's viola was the most distinctive thing to me about Turning It Down Since 2001, and even though he's not playing it here I had surprisingly high expectations for this new project.

As I wrote on Dusted, Tørrfall both exceeded those and kind of made them meaningless at the same time. This might be the new release I played the most in 2023, not least because these 44 minutes have been the perfect backdrop to writing, working, reading etc. Always involving, always compelling, and I've just never gotten bored of it. Feels like a record that knew exactly what it set out to do and then did that near perfectly.

[mantricumshop]

Noxagt “the iron point” LP - SOLD OUT Limited USA Tour October 2004 edition with screen print logo on cover. Prices without postage. Orders to: [email protected]

[icedisko]

Noxagt - Acasta gneiss

[lehaineblog]

Noxagt - 03 - SOMEONE CALLS YOU EVERY NIGHT BUT SAYS NOTHING. YOU CAN'T SLEEP.

[ifeellikeaporsche]

Noxagt, "A COLLEAGUE CAME TO YOUR HOUSE AND PUNCHED YOU. YOUR ROOM BECAME VERY MESSY." from Brutage (2014)

Eight years removed from their last outing, Noxagt have returned and the results are downright transcendental. Brutage eschews the comparatively accessible noise rock of The Iron Point and the self-titled LP in favor of long-form compositions that lean heavily on repeated structures and subtle shifts. It results in what is probably the heaviest Noxagt record, wherein characteristic burly basslines coexist decidedly un-peacefully with sheets of cymbal crashes and guitar feedback. The guitar in "A COLLEAGUE CAME TO YOUR HOUSE AND PUNCHED YOU. YOUR ROOM BECAME VERY MESSY." floats above the locked groove, eventually becoming pervasive enough to impart anxiety and dread on the rest of the players; the car goes off the cliff and disappears in midair. There are no crescendos or fiery finishes, just unnerving hints at something going awry hidden in the pummeling onslaught. Noxagt have morphed into something far more menacing and powerful on Brutage, the band bulldozing through these fully-capitalized four tracks (and one short intro) with calculated tectonic movements, not blinking once. A truly intimidating return for a now peerless outfit.

Brutage came out on Norway's Drid Machine Records. It can be purchased on vinyl through Armageddon Records in the US, and digitally at the Drid Machine Bandcamp page.

[dustedmagazine]

Noxagt — Brutage (Drid Machine Records)

<a href="http://dridmachinerecords.bandcamp.com/album/noxagt-brutage" data-mce-href="http://dridmachinerecords.bandcamp.com/album/noxagt-brutage">NOXAGT: Brutage by Drid Machine</a>

Norway's Noxagt are a power trio in the purest sense of the term; however else their music has changed, or they have, they remain committed to figuring out just how heavy their particular kind of instrumental music can get. When they started releasing records that meant Kjetil Brandsdal’s bass and Jan Christian Kyvik’s drums were augmented by Nils Erga’s viola on 2003’s Turning it Down Since 2001 (the year Brandsdal began Noxagt as a solo project) and 2004’s The Iron Point; between those records and their last released through Load Records, 2006’s self-titled album, Erga and his very distinctive sound were replaced by Anders Hana on baritone guitar.

Out of all their records, that still commendable effort is the only one where the band didn’t quite seem to know how to go for the jugular; Erga’s sawing, blaring viola had been such a prominent part of what made Noxagt’s early work so great (especially the debut, maybe the best metal record made with strings as a part of the main band until recent SubRosa records) that switching to a more conventional set up resulted in something that felt a lot harder to pick out of a lineup.

In 2008 Hana was replaced with John Hegra on guitar, but the even more standard power-trio instrumentation and six-year wait for Brutage doesn’t mean that this record is more conventional than past work; if anything it’s the band’s most extreme work to date. Some of the best songs on Turning it Down, like “Mek it Burn,” “Cupid Shot Me” and “Swarm,” were vicious, short shocks, doing their damage and then immediately taking off. On Brutage (literally “more rough” in French), Noxagt have instead constructed a kind of riffductio ad absurdum, hammering away at their instruments and the listener as if trying their hardest to embody the proverbial hammer for which everything is a nail.

After “…”’s brief introduction, sounding like Noxagt is practicing their start-stopping on a truck which is slowly bearing down on the audience, “YOU WERE FOLLOWED BY A MAN FROM THE STATION TO YOUR HOUSE.” (yes, all the titles are like that) takes a good 10 minutes to work over its hammering, relentless theme.

On first listen, it can feel like these songs are monomaniacal to the point of distraction, but once you’ve played it enough that the sheer performative intensity of the songs is no longer overwhelming, it’s possible to admire how sleekly and naturally the song moves from theme to theme. “SOMEONE CALLS YOU EVERY NIGHT BUT SAYS NOTHING. YOU CAN’T SLEEP.” makes immediately clear how relatively varied and reasonable the preceding track is, because it really does just try and batter the same riff into your head for nine minutes. It’s like a less hyper cousin to Shooting Guns’ equally gobsmacking “Motherfuckers Never Learn” from last year’s peerless Brotherhood of the Ram, but where the Canadian band folds in elements from space rock and heavy psych, Noxagt have the scraping relentlessness of pure noise.

Aside from that intro there are only four tracks, all four equal in impact, but after the record’s first half Noxagt relaxes their grip to allow just a bit of breathing room. “A COLLEAGUE CAME TO YOUR HOUSE AND PUNCHED YOU. YOUR ROOM BECAME VERY MESSY.” begins by having Brandsdal and Kyvik grind away while Hegra slowly coaxes plangent feedback out of his guitar, and the contrast of stasis and constant circular motion gives the track an added sense of tension. Just when it seems like the band is going to allow the dread implicit in the song’s structure to loom closer and closer for all 11 minutes without actually arriving, the feedback starts layering and sliding and the entire track takes a very slow elevator to hell.

The eight minutes of “A DRUNKEN PERSON KICKED YOU AT THE STATION AND YOU HAD TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL.” is basically cleanup/aftermath, stuttering white noise and a blown-out haunted carousel kind of loop cycling throughout; if you’re listening to Brutage on headphones, it makes for a wonderful decompression chamber.

You need that gentle reintroduction into life, because Brutage can absolutely absorb the rest of the world when played at specific volume. The densely packed melodic nuggets of Noxagt’s early work are nowhere to be found here.  They've been replaced by a commitment to wringing every last drop of potential out of each refrain and crescendo the band hits. In a body of work seemingly devoted to exploring the myriad ways a band can be heavy, this might be the heaviest thing Noxagt has ever done. Listeners not accustomed to the pursuit of transcendence through brutality may regard it as anti-music, but fellow travellers will find Brutage to be outright intoxicating.

Ian Mathers

[icedisko]

Noxagt - SOMEONE CALLS YOU EVERY NIGHT BUT SAYS NOTHING. YOU CAN'T SLEEP