Review Nox Interna - The Seeds of Disdain 2011

The internals of the night, that is what they call themselves, spanish band Nox Interna which is latin for what I just wrote. And that they move in the darker areas of the street and mainly in the night is clearly visible from looking that the cover, it shows something of a darker nature of man which seems to be what this band is exposed to. The Seeds of Disdain is the second album of this band and with this they are trying to reach a slightly wider audience than they did with the debut from 2009. They are trying to appeal to all of us who is at our prime during the nights, nox interna.

They are playing music of the gothic metal kind, think of bands like HIM and you would be rather close. The style is moody darkish metal but with a wide use of keyboards to brighten the atmosphere a bit, they do make very good use of their keyboards having a lot of such sounds in their music. The vocals is of the typical gothic type, think HIM again, Daedalean Complex or Icon and the Black Roses are other bands I come to think of immediately. The album is just over 47 minutes long and it has thirteen tracks, of which one is a cover of Alphaville. I should also add that I come to think of bands like Alphaville and De/Vision when I listen to this album as their keyboard use sometimes dip into the area of synthpop. I should also point out that the sound of this album is very good with a top notch modern production, which puts the songs at their prime.

I think it stands clear already from the opening tones of the prelude track that this will be a great album, when the first real track then starts it becomes obvious. In this track we are presented to the keyboard sound and the overall sound of the band. Track six Born Under Saturn’s Sign is another earcatcher with its uptempo and catchy chorus, track eleven called 1984 is a nod to Orwell’s classic dystopia from the sixties, track twelve is the Alphaville cover Victory of Love and the ending track is the title track. These tracks I mention are tracks that linger a bit longer in the mind than the rest of the album, which of course also are very good.

I think this is a really good album in the end, there is enough variation for it to remain good throughout, the sound is excellent and the use of keys to add another dimension is very good, sometimes the synthesiser use even remind me of The Birthdays Massacre’s sound, it comes in a few of the tracks for short periods and is just great of course. The band also remind me of german band Coronatus for the bilingual disposition singing in both spanish and english (Coronatus of course in german and english) which adds another level of interest for the listener, it adds another dimension to the music I think is fair to say.

If I am to make a few remarks though, I think the band loose a little bit in the middle of the album with the start and end being a bit better than this part. I think they could have removed one or two songs from that part to add some more quality feel to the album, it feels just a little longish being 47 minutes and then some. Then there is the cover artwork which is not particularly interesting or descriptive, I thought it would be a bad dark black metal rubbish album which it fortunately wasn’t. I think though that looking to the entire things, that these remarks are quite a bit nitpicking and I think the album as a whole is very good and that makes this remarks a little bit academic as I don’t think they effect the album in any wider regard.

So in the end I would say that these nocturnal people show how to make a very interesting and good album, I have really enjoyed this album. Also I should extend a nod of appreciation to the band for bringing forwards Orwell’s future vision which would seem a bit outdated now, but is it?

HHHHHHH

Nox Interna The Seeds of Disdain

Nox Interna
The Seeds of Disdain