I guess I've been influenced by the overproduced and slanted Death Metal that is being pushed out nowadays. I've always spoken for more basic productions with less effects and triggered drums. When I got it, it didn't feel the way I wanted anyway. Ok, the Swedish Old School Death Metal which is closest to my heart is a real smack in the face every day, this is perhaps more towards the not so direct Florida Death.

It takes a while to get into "Blood, Bones & Ritual Death", the production is a little blurry and the vocals take over a little too much. So it took a while getting over that but it was absolutely worth it. When the songs finally started to settle, then it was possible to look past the production and then this EP became a really enjoyable piece of music. But because of this, it will probably be more for the die hard Death Metal fans rather than new comers in the genre. This is the 3^rd release from Netherland based NOX, it's a little bit of a shame that it only is a mini CD, 4 full songs, one intro and an instrumental short piece to close it off. Reading the bands biography on Listenable Records website which was written in a quite complex way I couldn't but wonder if this band is all about swank, nerd, devotees or just a nice sense of humor. It's really hard to know before you've actually met the people behind the release. I really like it though when you put some thoughts into the creations, to start with, the name of the band, NOX, as quoted from the Bio 'The band derived her name from occult lore where 'Nox' (latin for 'night') is seen as 'The Darkness of the Unconscious', or 'The Unconscious Will'.

Then the first Ep "Zazaz" which is the part of the curse most people first stumbles over when getting into darker and occult music, "Zazaz, zazaz, nasatanada zazas".The title of their first full length, "Ixaxaar" which continues in the same vein, chaos, demons and hell. All this really made me interested in NOX, the music, the effort put in to everything. It feels a little cheap with only four songs on a release but if NOX can keep the quality up for an entire album, this can be really interesting.