Artist: Novichoke
Album: Wounds
Label: Independent
Release Date: 10/12/2021
Country: Russia
I’ll keep this short as I’m working on our album’s we missed articles at the moment, but this release was so abbrasive and shocking that I felt I had to cover it, even if briefly.
Novichoke draw upon elements of grindcore, cavernous, blackened death metal, harsh noise, power electronics and sludge and then take those elements and feed them through a meatgrinder. They then take that end result and blast it at full volume with HEAVY distortion applied. Be warned this album will annihilate you and I don’t mean that in a vague general sense. This music will induce something in you, best case scenario a migraine, worst case scenario a mental breakdown.
This is a perfect example of when it’s okay to actually judge a book by its cover. The album art immediately drew me in simply due to how horrifying it is. This album is 100% the audio equivalent of the emotions that this album’s cover makes the listener feel. The mind behind Novichoke put me onto the work of Luis Perez Banus, the artist responsible for this piece and I have to say that I immediately fell in love. Please check out his work and keep an eye out for that name as there may be more written about him on our site in the future.
Anyway, back to the music. The band’s name comes from the chemical weapon that has become synonymous with political assassination in Russia. A title that is extremely fitting for the music presented on this release. The name isn’t randomly chosen either, the band has a political focus. In fact, all proceeds from the album will go to Gulagu.net, a project against torture in Russia.
In summary this album will hit you with completely unhinged guttural and shrieked vocals, menacing and completely dissonant guitar work and a literal wall of harsh noise and experimental electronic elements. So, if you’re ready to get your ass kicked in audio form them embark on the journey and prepare for 12 minutes of 25 seconds of abuse.
Listen to and order the album:
