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Nox Mortis > 7 Lies > Reviews
Nox Mortis - 7 Lies

An underground quirky masterpiece + 1 dragon song! - 97%

Amaru_cheetox, January 17th, 2009

Nox Mortis are a strange one, crossing doom, gothic and an earthy production with clean-cut guitars and keys that lay just beneath the surface occasionally taking the fore, supporting the songs before a slicing riff kicks off and the song lapses into a dreamy atmospheric state. Believe me when I say this band will take some listening to before you can comprehend them and their songs. I won’t go through every song, but I will mention a few to give a rough idea of what to expect (not that it will help), but here’s the bottom line – this album is an underrated, underground masterpiece that really is worth tracking down.


The guitars need particular mention here, shifting between an almost post-metal Isis-like melody, before shifting into a slightly groove, slightly progressive tune before a soaring depressing doom riff sprouts up; the song “3:31 PM” even sounds like early Katatonia, ‘emotional’ slightly-distorted guitars with clean cut guitars layered and a bass evident but not intrusive. In fact this song shows the dynamics of the band brilliantly, shifting from a hazy thick production to a clean guitar laden segment, harsh doom/death vocals giving way to a clean sung chorus that penetrates the fog for a moment before fading.


The song after is a personal favourite, “Parabel Chifirierter Instrumentalisierung”, which is one hell of a mouthful. But it involves no bass, a simple drum beat and keyboards taking the fore with clean vocals. And the vocals ARE odd, highly accented (german for those that didn’t see on the front page) slipping between spoken word and singing, eery, earthy and haunting. The whole song is given the production you’d expect from an old record, crackling, slightly dampened vocals and echoing drums.


The production I should mention, as it takes some getting used to and may be part of the reason this band seems so, well, strange, not to mention it seems to change for each song. Sometimes you’ll get a foggy ‘underground’ style production, sometimes you’ll get your classic modern day clear doom metal production with all the instruments easily picked out, sometimes the drums sound like they were recorded in a giant hall, other times a normal recording studio. But this gives each song a certain distinction, a certain feeling, which always compliments the music.


So what should you expect from this record? Think an avant-garde metal band with a heavy gothic doom/death feeling, but with as much clean vocals as harsh. The harsh vocals are deep and guttural, the clean vocals are ghostly and haunting, and the music is as dense as a forest at times and as clean as a mountain spring at others. It has memorable riffs, beautiful riffs, and riffs that fade into the background. It has intelligent, evocative lyrics (if you can work them out, not written down anywhere I can find).


Think atmospheric, think different and think emotionally affecting avante-gard doom But KNOW that Nox Mortis are an unusual band that’ll take time to get to, but whether it’s that black-metal riff you pick out in that one song, or the key’s just audible when the production thickens, it’ll be an album you find something new in every time, an album that reveals itself to you much as the songs do; bit by bit before shifting into something totally unexpected. And that’s not something a lot of bands can lay claim to.