Norwegian power trio Noxagt seems to be interested in many things, but fucking around certainly isn�t one of them. Turning It Down� is complex, dark, gloomy, and just plain brilliant, nine tracks of heavy instrumental noise straight from the post-rock handbook�with a twist. Instead of math-y guitar heroics, the trebly parts are voiced by a viola, played here by Nils Erga to staggering effect, constantly shifting dynamics over Kjetil Brandsdal�s sludgy bass lines and Jan Christian Kyvik�s dragon�s-footsteps drums to points where it sounds either classically beautiful or almost unrecognizably harsh. It takes some getting used to, but not much. To be frank, there isn�t much about this album that isn�t phenomenal; Kyvik�s drumming goes from funky to frantic�), and Brandsdal�s bass sounds downright evil.

The combination of viola with roaring, from-the-bowels-of-hell noise seems counterintuitive on paper, but in Noxagt the two meld seamlessly; Erga�s viola charts scraping, atonal screeds across the surface of the distorted bass, sounding almost medieval as the duo of bassist Kjetil Brandsdal and drummer Jan Christian Kyvik pound out caveman jams underneath. But no matter what its role is on any particular track, the viola provides the flavor for each song on the album. It provides the only hint of melody in this otherwise uncompromising music, and as harsh as the sounds Erga coaxes from his instrument can be, they still provide some small handhold in the vast seas of noise coming from his collaborators. The music is unrelentingly intense. Turning It Down is a hard, fast burst of energetic, blistering noise.