[photo by Nikolaj Bransholm]
Heavy Blog Is Heavy is hosting a stream of “Screwdriver Hymn,” a whiplashing new single from Aarhus, Denmark-based avant-hardcore outfit OXX, and their impending new LP, The Skeleton Is Just A Coat Hanger; These Are The Black Strings That Make You Dance. The album is approaching release through Nefarious Industries next week, after which, the band will embark on their first US tour.
On their newest release, OXX pushes their genre schizophrenia to its painstaking limits. Eschewing click-tracks, endless overdubbing, and micro-managing, the album is the sound of a cathartic, organic explosion bereft of glossy production and studio fuckery. The raw, spontaneous sound of the record acts as an extension of the lyrics; an unfiltered, feverish stream of thought – bits and pieces of novels, obscure cinema, videogames, and more, all rushing by in a maelstrom of impressions of existence filtered through the eyes of the thoroughly unstable.
The Skeleton Is Just A Coat Hanger; These Are The Black Strings That Make You Dance, was recorded by OXX, mixed by Klaus “Q” Hedegaard, mastered by ET Mastering, with artwork by Aske A. Hvidtfeldt, photography by Malte Riis, and design by Greg Meisenberg.
The members of OXX write, “Trying to align our hyperactive musical impulses with that kind of intention, we’ve had a hoot cross-breeding sludgy riffs and discombobulating time-signature fuckscapes into an amorphous blob of a song; a banging-your-head-but-never-knowing-to-which-beat kinda deal. Whether or not that succeeded will be for you and your, hopefully, soon to be broken shit and fucked-on floor to decide. Thanks for listening!”
Heavy Blog Is Heavy writes with the premiere, “‘Screwdriver Hymn’ has a floor-scraping bass riff that the guitars lurch alongside, flirting with math-rock guitar noodling and chaotic, dissonant hardcore scrapes that fans of KEN mode and Gaza will enjoy, just as much as the fans of Clutch might enjoy the dirty southern-friend groove that closes the track. It’s a mess, but it’s fantastic.”
Unload OXX’s “Screwdriver Hymn” streaming at Heavy Blog Is Heavy RIGHT HERE.
Nefarious Industries will release The Skeleton Is Just A Coat Hanger; These Are The Black Strings That Make You Dance on LP and digital platforms next Friday, August 16th. Find preorders at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp where “Birthday Song” is also streaming HERE. Videos from the album and more are also awaiting release.
OXX is DIY booking their upcoming maiden US tour in conjunction with the album’s release. The month-long trek will cover most of the US, running from September 26th through October 26th. Watch for the full routing to be posted as the album sees release in the coming days.
OXX is shamelessly doing whatever pleases them. The band been working toward an auditory mindfuck since 2012. All three members of OXX have previously been active in both the Danish punk/metal scene and heaps of weird shit such as avant/free music, afrobeat, and film scoring. Originally formed to bridge the gap between these seemingly disparate genres, the band has since grown into a feral beast of its own. Ripping feverishly through math, noise, sludge, crust, avant-garde, and whichever other subgenre of extreme music imaginable. One might perhaps call it clusterfuck-core, but if that’s hard to picture, try getting blackout drunk and beating yourself to death with a Thomas Pynchon door stopper; that should put you in the ballpark.
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