Noxious-Timbre

Self-produced
2009

Noxious hail from South Carolina and formed back in 2004. From looking at the cover I was expecting prog-metal or prog-rock of some sort. There are a few touches or progressive sprinkled throughout. However this album took me back to about 1993 or 94. The grunge influence is heavy on the entire disc. The obvious sources are and Alice in chains and Soundgarden. However this isn't the thick, heavy side of grunge. Instead it is the gentler side with slow passages, subtle build-ups and vocals that gradually grow in intensity. There are some light touches of Zeppelin and say late 70's Rush as well. Noxious manage to keep a firm grip on everything that is going on. They never give away too much too soon as they have a fair knack sustaining some energy throughout the entire song. The biggest drawback for me was simply that the majority of the songs sounded very similar. The pace was largely the same, the guitar sound was repeated many times over and before the album was done I was just hoping they would do something different. Anything different would have helped the severe lack of variety that set in about half-way into the disc. If you like this style then the lack of variety may not bother you, but I found my enthusiasm sinking towards the end of "Timbre".

http://www.myspace.com/noxioussc