Nux Vomica Refuse to Let Fans’ Expectations Dictate Their Actions

Portland-based melodic death/crust punk genre-manglers Nux Vomica have gotten a lot of grief for their newer material. In the basement-bred, anti-everything crust punk community, changing up your sound or allowing melody to creep into your compositions raises a red flag.

The band's roots are planted firmly in the upper crust, but the straight-forward style of their earlier releases is missing on 'Asleep in the Ashes,' their most recent multifaceted, deeply cathartic full-length. Are Nux Vomica sellouts, or are they just ... artists?

Drummer Zacrilege explains, "We anticipated that some people would have a negative reaction to the new songs, but we won't let people's expectations affect our song writing. We love the music were writing now, and that's more important to us than what people have to say about it."

Asleep in the Ashes got rave reviews from scores of publications and fans alike, but as the old saying goes, you can't please everyone. The skinsman acknowledges, "We've had mixed reactions. We are aware that a lot of people who were into the earlier more straight-forward style were disappointed. At the same, the band has gained alot of momentum recently, and it seems that a lot of people are stoked on the new s---."

And stoked they should be, since Nux Vomica's latest is an absolute monster. The band stand by their decision to evolve, as Zacrilege makes clear. "We feel 'Asleep in the Ashes' is the best documented representation of the style we currently play. The songs are more developed and draw from a larger pool of influences and genres.

"After Wake Up On Fire broke up, we felt the need to have an outlet for some of the sounds and ideas we were conveying with that band. Our old drummer [Marty Pants] wasn't really into playing drawn out, 'artsy' stuff. Nux originally set out to be more limited musically, but after relocating, switching members and no longer having our previous band around, we felt free to explore and mix it up and basically play any and everything that we like in our one band."

One thing they do still have in common with their crusty counterparts is, they like things dark. Really dark. "The lyrics cover topics relating to the constant struggle to live in this fucked up world full of corruption, violence, poverty and all the other social ills everyone is familiar with, and to hopefully bring some meaning to it all. A lot of our lyrics seem bleak and depressing, but when people who have similar thoughts read them, it hopefully has the positive effect of helping them know there are others who see things that way, too.

"We wouldn't exactly call our band 'political,' but we were born out of the punk scene and it still influences how we think and who we are. 'Asleep in the Ashes' was sort of a play off 'wake up on fire' and has a post-apocalyptic sound to it we all liked," Zacrilege shares.