Combining elements of technical death metal, metallic hardcore, progressive metal, and many other stylistic points in between, I'd like to welcome OXX to the No Echo family.
The Aarhus, Denmark-based band was formed in 2012 by guitarist/vocalist Alex Bossen and drummer Martin Aagard, welcoming bassist Anders Frodo S. Mikkelsen into the fold earlier this year. In 2019, after releasing their third album, The Skeleton Is Just A Coat Hanger; These Are the Black Strings That Make You Dance, OXX toured the US for the first time, and last year they went out with Cleric on a two-week tour through parts of Europe.
OXX will be releasing their fourth studio album, The Primordial Blues, later this month. The album was recorded by the band, mixed by Klaus Q Hedegaard Nielsen, mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Obituary, Sleep), and features guest contributions of violin/viola from Kristine Kier, cello from Emalia Slusarczyk, double bass from Adrian Christensen, and piano from Esben Tjalve.
Today, we're excited to help share the music video for "The Lake and Everything Around It" with our readers. It's a dizzying track with an arrangement that reveals odd twists and turns when you least expect them.
The direction, photography, and editing for the video was a collaboration between Anders M. Teibel and Peter Søndergaard:
OXX guitarist/vocalist Alex Bossen said this about the song:
“‘The Lake and Everything Around It’ is the centerpiece of the album. Many of the foundational themes and motifs that have found their way into the other songs, originate here. In that way, it gives a kind of overview of what’s going on on the rest of the album, and a glimpse into most of the directions we head in. I think that makes it a pretty nifty single.
“In the last couple of years, we have been experimenting with undercutting, or contrasting, our mathy sensibilities with a more folkloristic and rootsy harmonic language. Lots of wide, open voicings and more pronounced pentatonic sensibilities in the riffs (hopefully in a decidedly non-stoner way). And this song is probably our most successful attempt at that so far.
“While OXX is neither extreme metal nor bluegrass, we have been very fascinated by the technical commonalities between the two: tremolo picking and continuous, up-tempo 8th note strumming is basically the same thing. And so, the simple heuristic for most of the riffs on ‘The Lake…’ is an attempt at exploring that commonality—a strumming based approach to distorted guitar. In the end, the song is more or less a very distorted, odd-time folk song. Something like Tony Rice sitting in with Meshuggah.
“I’m not that into detailed exegesis of lyrics and themes, but to me, ‘The Lake…’ is a song about psychosis. It’s also about trees and badgers and lakes, and as far as I’m concerned it can be about whatever you like.”
The Primordial Blues will be released August 18th via Nefarious Industries with limited runs of 100 CDs and 50 cassettes and all digital services (pre-order).
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