A proper entrance into the scene of any style of metal can be an exceedingly tricky thing to pull of purely due to the fact that there’s just so much material to go around that it’s difficult to be noticed. Unless you stand out either in quality or an eye-catching performance, the chances of being heard by many aren’t high. Even with that goodness on your side, it can be difficult to be heard by the right crowd. If that’s the fate that Noxis is to suffer as well after the release of their debut EP then I will be incredibly saddened for this work does not deserve to be forgotten.

A death metal EP are dimes a dozen nowadays with there always being a hundred fresh offerings at any given time, or at the very least it feels like there are. The competition is always stiff no matter how you want to look at it, and that makes finding a release worth the search even more challenging but that doesn’t at all mean that there aren’t plenty out there worth it. Noxis is a fantastic example of just that, and it’s with “Expanse of Hellish Black Mire” that we get a first go EP with a sound that’s just as intoxicating as it is gloriously deadly. Riffs abound and a blood lust so powerful that you can feel it emanating in every single note as Noxis truly make for a noxious concoction that’s intoxicating in its smallest moments and massively addicting in its largest, and there isn’t one of these four tracks that couldn’t stand strong on their own in order to represent what this band is capable of. There’s power in every stroke and death metal talent to be had all throughout in tantalizing amounts that instantly makes this release a need-to-know work for any proper connoisseur of the current state of the old school of death metal, for “Expanse of the Hellish Black Mire” is the very kind of material that plenty of those picky bastards are salivating for. And should a single one of those smarmy pricks try to deny the excellence at play here, I will gladly fistfight over it.

This is a work like many others that we’ve heard many times over the years, but that in no way takes away the glory that is constantly happening here. Noxis has put a fantastic step forward here and it’s a perfect reason to add them to the list of promising death metal acts that we’re going to want to keep an ear out for. If “Expanse of Hellish Black Mire” is just the beginning, then I’m absolutely trembling to see what comes next.

“Expanse of Hellish Black Mire” releases on October 30th via Rotted Life!

LISTEN to an advanced song from “Expanse of Hellish Black Mire” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Noxis on Facebook here.