Track by Track: ‘Nexion’ by Nexion

Nexion burst onto the scene as a genre-bending black metal project known for their churning, caustic soundscapes, occult themes and intensely aggressive shows. If you’re familiar with black metal, it’s rare for any group in the genre to immediately get crowds moving and mosh pits started, but Nexion is a clear anomaly. Having released their self-titled EP in April, the band will be finally be hosting a release show on February 9th at Gaukurinn, where you can pick up a CD or vinyl. Joined by Dynfari, 0, and CXVIII, it’ll be a show to remember.

To learn more about the EP, we sat down with singer Josh Rood. “‘Nexion’ is our first release, so we wanted it to establish a musical and thematic foundation that we could later build off of and showcase each end of our musical spectrum a bit more than we might otherwise,” he says. “While we really don’t worry about what ‘genre’ we are, I would say that what we created is a black metal release at its core, but one that also has a lot of overt elements of death metal, for example, and some doomy parts.”

“Two elements that you might notice immediately—the two horns of Nexion—are aggression and darkness,” he continues. “Thematically Nexion is enwrapped in mythic and cosmic language and symbolism. This was never really a decision but just how I approach music. Our performance is a ritual and however you want to describe our lyrics and imagery, they have personal and cosmic meaning for us. The EP itself, based on our idea of creating a musical foundation, is intended to be a self-contained cycle of myth, the cosmos, and existence. It’s narrated as four images seen through four gateways, or “nexions”, reflecting different stages of the cycle.”

I. Of Genesis

In the beginning there was nothing. Until the stars were formed, and died, and formed again. We have no life, until we are given it, and it’s a gift we have no say in. We build temples, and we give birth to gods, and we adore those gods until we sacrifice them on the altar of our next god, all while we try to come to terms with the reality that we are meaningless specks on a cooling swirl of stars whirling it’s way towards another swirl of stars. This song is meant to be explosive and aggressive. The opening big bang. The initial violent act through which Nexion was given life.

II. Of The Coiling Void

The first sin. The first murder among the gods. The desecration of the ‘pure’. The first realisation that sin is a lie, and so is meaning. The first drop of poison in our veins when we really begin to think about existentialism, who we are as people, and what it all means. The first time we peer into the void, see it coiling and uncoiling, and know it will do so forever. This song is meant to have an oppressive atmosphere which churns into a final, dissonant crescendo of what some might call beauty or majesty. But then the scales of Leviathan are majestic.

III. Of The Pestwielder

Jose Gabriel Alegría Sabogal, the man who gave imagery to our lyrics, based our cover off of his interpretation of this song. Musically ‘Of The Pestwielder’ probably encapsulates the full range of Nexion. Crushing aggression that melts into haunting flourishes. Passages of chanting incantations meant to be heard beyond the veil. Over it always looming a shadow wielding a sword and a chalice of bile.

We wanted it to be like the final rays of a dying sun gleaming off the bones of a broken world.

IV. Of the Final Throes of Creation

Here, we get one final vision through one final doorway that brings an end to the circle and to the disc. This song is in all ways about endings. We actually wrote the outro to this song first, and then constructed the rest of it off of that. Everything in the EP leads up to this moment. All of the chaos, violence, and madness that rages throughout the album, from the first opening act onward, culminates and leads up to one final moment. We wanted it to be like the final rays of a dying sun gleaming off the bones of a broken world. Before it all starts again.

Listen to the full EP here: