The vipers who’d depend on the pit for sustenance stir, hiss and writhe with the impending collapse of the western world now snaking in front of our dimming horizon line. The interruption of long-standing, foundational relationships of coercion and exploitation manifest as a side-effect of the information age today, revealing violence and force in the seeming abstract yet objective sense. Speaking to the ill-natured devolution of humanity and the raw injustices revealed as the naked greed of generations past-and-present drop their black veils Cleveland, Ohio-based death metal quartet NOXIS addresses the death-drive, the ego, and the dissolution that comes without purpose beyond proliferation (among other topics) as they present their impressive debut full-length album. After just ~five years, a pandemic, and a handful of key line-up changes in their wake a band as freshly formed as this rarely produces an album as thoughtfully crafted and vitalized as ‘Violence Inherent in the System‘, a broadly ranged treatment of brutal, technical and classic death metal elements in a vibrant here-and-now sort of way. For all the finesse-tipped muse and talent for the exciting elasticity of their craft showcased here it may yet surprise that there is depth and life behind the eyes of a nowadays death metal band such as this, earnestly aiming to go their own way and actually doing it off the jump.

Noxis formed circa 2019 by way of main songwriter/bassist Dave Kirsch, who’d played in an early line-up of Inoculation as well as some death-grind and technical death metal bands prior, alongside current vocalist (and then drummer) Ray Conde who’d quickly expanded their efforts to a quartet and put out a slow n’ steady demo tape (‘Necrotizing‘, 2019) which’d been clearly inspired by the Cleveland-area brutality of their scene at the time but stood out for a rotten slow-burning Finnish death meets tech-death inspired sound. Folks loved that tape and the infectious spread quick enough but it was their first official mLP (‘Expanse of Hellish Black Mire‘, 2020) that’d gotten some serious ears on their sound including my own, wherein my review was thoroughly impressed but seeking a signature: “Though they’re not yet crafting their own distinct rhythmic language the fellows in [Noxis] offer an exemplar twist upon club-waving brutality in craft of tuneful, sentient ignorance;” noting the clangorous production sound and a big, emboldened brutal death infused personae with a bit of weirdness as resounding virtues. I think I’d mentioned ‘Blasphemy Made Flesh‘ in conveying what sort of potential I’d felt the band’s sound had but more importantly that potential needed a personal, standout touch.

This is what makes introducing ‘Violence Inherent to the System‘ and exciting prospect as an album which finds those ambitions rethought, revised, and shaped into something which is clearly their own search and seizure of singular sentience. The body had the right muscle memory for what’d come next but here we find their thousand eyes finally opening in real time. There is, however, a not-so missing link that glues the step from mLP to LP together in the form of a split LP with Philadelphia’s Cavern Womb (‘Communion of Corrupted Minds‘, 2021) where we find an atmospheric expanse arriving upon their still-brutal sound and an earlier version of “Paths of Visceral Fears” which ends up as one of the only songs from their formative efforts to make it onto this LP, though I’d say “Breath of Corruption” was built with some of those same nucleotide combinations. Was the future brutal, cavernous, thrashing, progressive, tech, atmospheric? Some, but not all of those things.

At some point beyond 2021 they’d nabbed current Nunslaughter drummer Joe Lowrie and more recently Dylan Cruz of Hanging Garden and Scumbag (re: that weird-ass ‘Blood Drinker‘ EP I wrote about a while back) on co-vocals/guitars and while Kirsch is still the core songwriter these folks appear to have brought something extra to the sessions for ‘Violence Inherent in the System‘ where the focus is on kinetic energy, violent rhythms, strong technical aptitude, and a level of flourish which gives depth to the stab-and-blast mania that Noxis conjure most often. This is delivered via a mid-to-late 90’s (meets now) level of tech-death pulver to start, featuring a pronounced bass guitar tone and meatier rhythm guitar layers in surround as opener/drop-in mosher “Skullcrushing Defilement” manages the intensity of death-thrash and brutal death at once, accelerating through its riffs in irregular swipes. Developing this opening fanfare before the shredding and Kirsch‘s virtuosic bass wrangling begin to generate their mesh of early Cryptopsy-level slap (see also: the title track) and ground-pounding pulses helps build an expectation of rhythmic finesse, mastery of their own brand of interplay. The thing that I’d felt was missing from their mLP kinda feels like the nuke they’re leading with here off the bat as “Blasphemous Mausoleum for the Wicked” chops it up.

Though there are many forgotten arts of extreme metal rhythm buried beneath the 2010’s, time and dust the death metal groove did in fact evolve beyond 1998 and especially in the hands of brutal death metal, this is part of what appears to drive the taut and erratically stated rhythms found throughout ‘Violence Inherent in the System‘ to some degree and this means we escape the usual claustrophobia inducing walking-pace chunking outright. There is maybe one point for a few seconds where I was sure “Replicant Prominence” was going to break into “Chaos A.D.” to start (“Torpid Consumption” does go kinda ‘Obscura‘-level Korn riff for a split second) but it turns out to be one of the finer examples of Noxis‘ spirited treatment of pace and bent time, expanding and contracting in the way the harder hit early days of StarGazer had circa the mid-2000’s on their first LP where ornate ‘Unquestionable Presence‘-level rhythmic cyclones grant respite and tension in alternating extremes. Per my own experience that’d been the song to turn my head and start paying closer attention.

(Speaking of) “Torpid Consumption” offers a serious peak for the avant-technical death fusion happening on this album’s building waves of insight wherein so much of the veering, blasting madness developed over the course of the first four songs comes to a foaming head. Here I’d say we’ve started to reach the peaking level of abstraction and virtuosic performance on this album, feats which are not only wild in motion but movements which convey a wildly intense vibrancy which remains unpredictable but inherently death metal by design. Fans of the first and second Kataklysm albums should be keen to the restlessly kicking estrangement available to this moment and the momentum created therein is crucial as we make passage for the remarkable second half of the album; “Horns Echo Over Chorazim” is where Noxis turn the corner, reaching that transcendental point of mastery as they break into one of the bigger moment on the album. No, I’m not talking about -just- the wild clarinet solo and its tuba n’ trumpet-assisted exposition but the tautness with which they snap into this song and how that dragging-hard groove spirals into tangent(s) you’re not likely to hear anywhere else this year.

From that point ‘Violence Inherent to the System‘ maintains interest through its endpoint, first by way an even more rabidly brutal, densely stated animal in the title track (“Violence Inherent in the System”) as it extends to mood of “Horns Echo Over Chorazim” before the slow atmospheric break in the final third of the song, taking its own horrified drift-out before the solo hits at the end. The last three or so songs on the running order begin to suggest we’ve taken a trip through Noxis‘ greater transformation, achieving some manner of identity and modus as we hit the finale, riding into closer “Emanations of the Sick” with a much better idea of what these guys are all about beyond flash and blasts.

Finding that cyclonic point of interest, beginning to fully hear their signature arise and the thoughtfully applied personality of the band arrive, all of it feels like the right list of achievements behind a serious debut full-length and for my own taste this sets Noxis up as one of the more inspired and memorable bands to come from their Cleveland-area font of brutality these last several years. In terms of lyricism, curated artwork, and the repeatable nature of their music… all of it is equally dense in both statement and meaning to the point that you’ll more than likely be impressed when pulling out the lyric sheet for this one. ‘Violence Inherent in the System‘ is the rare sort of debut record you only get when a band puts in the work, aiming to make every strike count and that investment shines here in this well above-average showing. A very high recommendation.

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