Nox Aeris

Janus returns with their second full length album, Nox Aeris (Night Air), a ten track offering that is filled with hard hitting guitar and bass sound, melodic vocals, and a splash of the industrial element thrown in. The band describes the album as Dark but Cathartic. I gave the album the usual repeated rotations and here’s what I came up with.

Janus really has a big sound when it comes to their tracks coming right out of the gate. The guitar, drum, combo with a touch of electronic musings really sets you up for a bit of head nodding and toe tapping beat manipulation. David Scotney really has a great voice relaying a wide range of emotion from anger to defeat to realization. The band as a unit have something, that’s for sure. Unfortunately the more I listened to the album the more I began to pick up on the fact that there are some elements of the album that play hard against it.

The first thing I noticed is that the songs do not have enough of a spacer between each track ending and the next track beginning. Sometimes that’s important and sometimes it’s absolutely unnecessary. Unfortunately that bit of space, or even track arraignment, could have made all the difference. The big problem I had with this album is that the bands formula for writing and playing their songs begins to sound too repetitious. Each song might be about something completely different from the last or it could be exactly the same topic, but with that lack of a spacer the songs are jumping all over one another, and because the band begins a lot of their songs the same, with that hard hitting edge, honestly, when I was away from my desk or not paying attention to the rotation of the tracks in my car I began to think that it was all just one very long song. Yet another problem is that even when I surmised that the album had in fact moved on to the next track I noticed that a few of the songs on the album have the same formula. Hard hitting intro, Mellon collie vocal delivery, and then a chorus delivered with the same tone and the same vocal set up (almost).

For the few tracks that I did enjoy off the album I really liked them. Scotney’s voice really is great, the rest of the band play tight as a unit, and I think with maybe a bit more thought their next album could be huge. The only thing that I would suggest is a bit more electronic pulse throughout. I was starting to get nostalgic feelings towards bands like Orgy and Linkin Park on some tracks. I have a feeling Janus can do better then what would otherwise come off as mimicry. Until next time I’ve got my fingers crossed that the band can deliver something a bit more thought through. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.