Don't only dusty students come from Tübingen?
Maybe, but NOX also comes from Tübingen (actually with a slash through the "O", but my spell checker doesn't allow that. Which font can do that? Does anyone have an idea?)
NOX consists of Moritz and Helen from "Hysterese" along with Martin and Butz from the band with the beautiful name "Eat//Read//Sleep".
I haven't found much information about the band in the vast expanses of the internet. Really underground. Just like in the old days. There was no internet, and bands still played. How did they manage that, one might wonder, who has never experienced a world without the internet? Well, letters were written, and phone calls were made to arrange concerts. Totally crazy!
But I'm digressing.
NOX is presented as a dark band with punk and various influences, and I must say, that fits. The first song of the album or the cassette or the download is heavily influenced by the sound of the 80s and 90s dark wave or cold wave. Pleasantly old-fashioned yet beautiful. Gloomy, cold, aloof, and still appealing.
However, before one can dive into the deep sea of melancholy, the next songs come, and it goes full throttle with the pedal to the metal. A hard drum sound drives the guitar and bass forward. Along with a distinctive vocal that manages to sound both melodic and angry at the same time.
Song number four, "Silvermine", eases the tempo a bit and serves as a bridge between the first and the two following songs.
The subsequent songs move rather with pressure in the darkness and cold.
The punk and dark and cold wave influence is clearly audible. Overall, NOX delivers the songs with a dark despair. There is pressure and power behind it. Here and there, one can even hear some very cautious screamo influences.
You won't find a TUBRONEGRO,
you won't find any MISFITS,
and yet you think of them, because the sound of NOX is not the sound of the two bands, but it is also not miles away from it. It is a unique sound that the band plays, and I haven't heard anything like it in a long time.
However, it is also a sound that you have to engage with; otherwise, you won't be happy with the music.
"You're alone but that's ok" is a special release with its nine songs for special people.
