 Noxagt - Turning it down since 2001 [Load Records - 2003]It’s the kind of album that makes you want to say: this is the best guitar album I’ve heard in 2003. Too bad there is no guitar... Gonna hit you hard and leave you awe-struck all the same anyway... At first, Noxagt was Kjetil Brandsdal’s solo project. Brandsdal has made quite a name for himself in experimental music with releases on labels such as Ecstatic Peace or Corpus Hermeticum. His prime instrument: guitar. In Noxagt, now a fully-fledged band, he sticks to bass while Jan Christian Kyvik plays on drums and Nils Erga on ...viola. Viola might not be that much of a strange instrument in post-rock or orchestrated pop music, but it is quite surprising to find one in heavy music. Especially since it replaces the guitar. “What!?! No guitar!?! A viola !?! What the fuck is this crap.... Music for pussies!!!”. Yeah, I know, some people are stupid. But nevermind: would Tony fuckin’ Iommi ring at their goddamn door, they wouldn’t even recognise him... Anyway... Truth is, Noxagt have released in Turning it down since 2001 one of the heaviest album of the year. No surprise then to hear that the producer is no other than the great Billy Anderson (Cathedral, Neurosis, High on Fire and many more). More than to the producer, the heaviness of Noxagt owes a lot to the three musicians (hmmm, pretty logical I guess). Brandsdal has a real dirt and heavy bass sound and when he launches himself into really frantic parts, you get this huge roar, this huge feedback straight in your ears. Show no mercy, but some sort of purification... Kyvik batter his drums with a ferocious intensity. No rest for the wicked. Erga torture his viola and manages to get out of it the weirder sound or just plays some neurotic themes (if it ever could be...), melodic but, at the same time, vicious. Crippled Lucifer. You're not gonna believe there is no guitar, I tell you... Nasty and catchy and relentless and melodic, you’re in for a good beating that will leave you begging for more. In the last few years, heavy music has seen the rise of many unique bands: Khanate, Isis, Lightning Bolt to name but a few. Noxagt is one of the best of the lot. The viola could have been nothing more than a gimmick, but it really is their strength. Write this down, followers: it’s not enough to have something “exotic”... you also have to be able to use it. And, boy, no lessons are needed for those lads... Photo © Kevin Foust   François Monti
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