To End It All Scourge of Woman

Eye of Nix playing Halloween show with Death cover band; horrific side project streaming LP

Last week, Seattle black metallers Eye of Nix re-released their great 2017 album Black Somnia on Prophecy Productions, and here’s an excerpt of Invisible Oranges’ review of the album:

[Joy] Von Spain deserves mention in the same breath as Diamanda Galás and Siouxsie Sioux despite lacking the range of the former and the pop allusions of the latter: she shares an uncompromising attitude and a fervent desire to make her voice a conduit for catharsis. Even when on the dark folk of “Fear’s Ascent” which sounds like a Greek Orthodox dirge using her eerie voice to intone a rapturous hymn, the intensity is astounding.

Yet it’s the screams that stand out. Screams that are crazed, hyperbolic yelps on “Wound and Scar.” Screams that become a hypnotic séance during “The Curse.” Screams that are blackened and operatic while contemplating “A Hideous Visage.” If she did nothing else, those screams would be enough. Comparisons to Chelsea Wolfe will be made and they will be mostly wrong. Wolfe’s roots as a singer-songwriter with dark folk despair is wonderful, but Von Spain — either despite or maybe because of her eclectic background — is more metallic and classic Goth than most of her peers.

They’re set to begin a short Northeast tour tonight (10/31) at Portland, Maine’s Geno’s Rock Club, and getting in the Halloween spirit, the show will be headlined by a very awesome sounding cover band. Members of Falls of Rauros, Obsidian Tongue, and Shabti will play a tribute set to death metal legends Death. More info on that show here.

The tour also stops at Knitting Factory Brooklyn on Saturday (11/3) for the first-ever U.S. edition of Prophecy Fest (which Invisible Oranges is co-presenting), where they’ll be playing Black Somnia in full. The only place to buy tickets is at Prophecy’s website but we’re also giving away a pair of two-day passes.

Speaking of Joy Von Spain’s screams mentioned in the review above, Joy and her Eye of Nix bandmate Masaaki Masao also play as a duo called To End It All and they recently released the album Scourge of Woman which is perfect for Halloween… or really any day of the year. Halloween music often goes hand in hand with horror, and this is an album that takes on the real-life horror that we sadly seem to encounter every day (song titles like “Burning Rapists” should give you an idea). And with Joy’s blood-curling screams, listening to this album often sounds like listening to a horror film — combined with abrasive, atonal, industrial noise. It’s a real powerful record and you can stream it below.

Stream Eye of Nix’s Black Somnia below too:

Eye of Nix — 2018 Tour Dates
10/31/2018 Geno’s – Portland, ME
11/01/2018 Chanticleer – Ithaca, NY
11/02/2018 Sugar City – Buffalo, NY
11/03/2018 Prophecy Fest @ Knitting Factory – Brooklyn, NY
11/04/2018 Dusk – Providence, RI
11/09/2018 Highline Bar – Seattle, WA