NOXAGT : “THE IRON POINT” CD….The press kit for this one promised that it’d “burn a hole through your temple and sear your brain”. Wow! Now why would I want that? In any event, these Norwegian pummelers have put together a pretty hard-hitting, vaguely ambient mix of instrumental thud and bass rumbling that slots in well with labelmates LIGHTNING BOLT. There are a couple of MELVINS-like crunchers that I rate very highly (“Blood Thing”, “Naked In France”), and in terms of tempo it’s lodged somewhere between heavy sludge/doom metal and the speedier numbers on Lightning Bolt’s latest. There are some nods to Scandanavian compadres CIRCLE in that there’s a real distant, icy drone/buzz on some tracks that deliberately blunts the riffage a bit, and then there’s even a little Gregorian mysticism going on in this chant-like number that’s quite honestly intolerable. In sum, my temple remains whole and my brain unseared, but I wouldn’t wander too far if these guys hit a stage near you. Just bring those big orange foam earplugs your mom makes you wear.

posted by Jay H. at 10:15 AM