Another day, another cassette. Another debut, this time Cleveland, Ohio’s Noxis, bringing forth the primal, grimy technical death with Violence Inherent In The System. Once again discovered combing through various end of year lists (pretty sure it was Last Rites) I was immediately taken with the cover art – some things never change. But then I heard the music, the band trotting out some supremely slimy Morbid Angel and other 90s inspired death metal and I was hooked. Had to have it, and cassette just felt like the perfect format.

I get why so many people resort to comparisons when reviewing music: when it comes to metal sometimes the best way to give someone a sense of something new is to compare it to something old. So let me throw a few more band comparisons your way: Demilich (the angular technicality), Cryptopsy (the sudden shifts in rhythm), Immolation (the 90s death groove)… but at the same time, Noxis are a thoroughly modern band. Kicking off the album with “Skullcrushing Defilment” you’ll probably hear two things right off the bat: the very highly tuned snare drum and…that bass. Damn that bass. I love both things, and having those unique touches allow the guitars more space and range to do their thing, which is very riff heavy technical death metal.

That potent combination comes even more to the fore with “Blasphemous Mausoleum for the Wicked”. Bassist David Kirschenbaum uses the entire range of the bass, accentuating the riffs with upper fret pops with a lot of high end to really stand out. Drummer Joe Lowrie brandishes that snare sound to wicked effect – I keep talking about how as I get older the drumming becomes more and more important to an album’s success, and Violence Inherent In The System is no exception. That leaves guitarist Dylan Cruz the freedom the get as furious as he wants with his riffing and solos, knowing he has Kirschenbaum and Lowrie to back him up.

The extended ambient opening to “Abstemious, Pious Writ of Life” orchestrated by Kirschenbaum gives me just enough time to reflect on vocalist Ray Conde. It’s not that his voice is perfect for this brand of death metal (it is), it’s that maybe I’m realizing the benefits of the vocalist just being the vocalist and not having to worry about playing an instrument at the same time? Beyond having an extended range in his death growls that always remain intelligible, Conde shows a freedom with his vocal patterns, not needing to locking into a specific cadence to make it easier to concentrate on playing as well as screaming. Taken together the band are pretty much unstoppable throughout Violence Inherent In the System.

Easily one of the best death metal album of 2024, and definitely one I should have listed in my own wrap-up (for some reason I can’t remember why I didn’t, so accept this as an apology/correction). Noxis weave a potent brew that shows off their technicality and songwriting chops with killer production enough groove to make it all stick. If I think about the “why” of consuming this, it really boils down to nostalgia for something that never really existed. I’m always chasing the dream of what metal sounded like to my ears as a kid, knowing the impression it left on me when I left mainstream being for more extreme waters. And as the brass sound off on the fantastic “Horns Echo Over Chorazim” I think Violence Inherent In The System gets close…real close to binging that feeling back.