U.K.’s The Novus Deliver Catchy Garage Rock Jams On Their Heavy New EP

The Birmingham, U.K.-based group The Novus thrash with an easily palpable emotional chaos on their latest EP, which feels like it sees the band — and by extension their listeners — sorting through emotional wreckage and finding just more volatility behind the first layers.

The group combines a kind of sultry, cruising rock melody with a real heavy and especially ferociously energetic performance. Ultimately, the creeping tension feeling in the music thereby feels simultaneously alluring and explosive. The band maintain a hard edge to their sound — and at the same time, the fist-pumping streaks of melody that do ring out amidst the haze ensure that there will be a great time.

On “Darkness,” The Novus really lean into the sultry aspect of their songcraft — there’s even what sounds like a bluesy harmonica riffing that opens the song, and the heavy guitar performance feels like it’s lumbering along with a weight of some kind of emotional filth of sorts, like erratic steps of a solitary bar-goer. Listening and really immersing in the feel of the especially poignant song feels like staggering through a cacophonous street at night as the wind howls on all sides.

Thanks to their heavy, belted out riffs and the mesh in which they’re immersed, The Novus deliver a simultaneous sense of a kind of ominous overcast horizon and a subtle thrill in the drive forward. From the kinds of interpersonal loss that the band touch on in these songs, a new experience can emerge, and the grim excitement starts seeping through the cracks on these ultimately catchy rock jams.

5/5 Stars

Photo via Jessica Rose Lena

Check out a music video for their song “Frosty” below!

Check out the EP below!