Album Review: Glowsun, NOVÆ
Posted in Reviews on April 29th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
French heavy psychedelic rockers Glowsun return after some 11 years with their self-released fourth full-length, NOVÆ, and a new lineup around guitarist/occasional vocalist Johan Jaccob. The largely instrumental band were last heard from in 2015 with Beyond the Wall of Time (review here), which was issued by Napalm Records.
The German mostly-metal label for one hot minute circa 2012 had an imprint specifically for heavy rock called Spinning Goblin Productions, and Glowsun were there with Alunah, Orange Goblin, and a hopeful cast of others. Glowsun released 2012’s Eternal Season and reissued 2008’s The Sundering on Spinning Goblin, but the label’s interest waned, as will happen with such forays when a party finds out just how much money there isn’t to be made in underground heavy rock, the imprint was subsumed, and by Beyond the Wall of Time came around, it was Napalm-proper, and Jaccob would be kept further busy doing covers and poster art for the likes of labelmates Greenleaf and Monkey3, as well as fests like Yellowstock, Hellfest and others.
Time passes, and as noted, so did the lineup. For the six-track/53-minute NOVÆ, Jaccob reunites with drummer Yann Duvivier, who was the first to hold the position in the band when, in the late 1990s, Glowsun evolved out of Jaccob‘s prior outfit Blue Curse, and bassist François Hannecart of mathcore specialists Oddism (among others), rounding out the trio. The journey is largely absent from the listening experience itself — that is, Jaccob didn’t come back with a bunch of songs outwardly about what he’s been up to for the last decade-plus — rather, he, Hannecart and Duvivier, are simply moving forward with the next stage of the band.
And certainly opening with the 11:52 longest track (immediate points) “Change” feels well enough earned. The first of the six inclusions begins with a slow meditation and builds up gradually, some Mideast flair in the guitar, but a steady nod with a heavy underpinning, spacious and breezy-feeling for how large the tones actually sound. Which is to say, they’re going to get heavier, and they do. Strikingly so. “Change” meanders a bit in its second half instrumentally, taking on a mellower, jammier vibe, but when Glowsun turn back after the howling solo nine minutes in, they’re nigh on Monolordian in their heft, and the ending of the opener seems in part to hold out longer as though to give the listener time to process what they just heard.
That tonal weight and roll in this moment indeed earns that aftermath, and without being a crutch they’re leaning on, Glowsun return to this markedly terrestrial roll at various points throughout NOVÆ, whether it’s the payoff of second cut “Alive” or the crunch and crash they bring to most the finale title-track, diverging as they do from the willful slog and tempo push for a quieter, almost dubby, aside. Glowsun circa 2026 are thus surprisingly heavy, and having kept most of the warmth and some of the exploratory ethic of their prior work, the fullness of their impact is distinct in delivery.
A moderated pace gives a sense of breakout for faster parts, and the other message “Change” sends at the start of the record — of atmosphere — is further realized even as the buzznod of side A capper “Dryad’s Tears” twists itself with morose Sabbathian darkfuzz splendour. There’s doom in Glowsun. Going back to Beyond the Wall of Time — and, indeed, to the mid-’10s — the band had more distinguishable desert rock foundations, and one would kind of expect that at that point. With NOVÆ, the intent toward reach and impact come through no less stylized, but heavier in style as the 10-minute “Charly le Chien” mirrors the longer opening of side A at the start of the album’s second half. There are still broad spaces being evoked, but the riffing is less specifically rooted in Kyuss via Colour Haze.
Personnel could be part of that, or just the passing of years, different equipment, etc., but NOVÆ benefits just the same from the balance in the songs of ambience and impact. As one might expect, “Charly le Chien” takes its time opening, with minimal stretches of forward and backward guitar leading the way into the central procession growing heavier as it goes. Its gradual ascent is a highlight of the album, much as was “Change” at the outset, and when “Charly le Chien” lands in its crescendo, the effect is no less resonant. Glowsun are more patient now than they were, but still able to provide some shove when called upon, as in the tempo kick after eight minutes into the side B starter, where the lead guitar seems to call out “No More Tears” just a little bit before they return to a more languid, bass-led flow at the finish.
The remainder of side B is given to “Dementia” and the aforementioned title-track, both of which are about six and a half minutes long. The effect this has is that, for being not a minor undertaking at 53 minutes, NOVÆ seems to find its way into a quick finish. “Dementia” is doomy-bassy, but instead of opening to an Electric Wizardly roll, it keeps its jazzy rhythmic nuance, and toys with filling the open space in the mix until, at last, it lets loose in the second half.
Sheer, raw charge is a thrill there, and ditto that for the crash and rumble of “NOVÆ” cutting off the feedback ending of the song prior. The closer feels more barebones tonally than much of what comes before it, but holds over the atmospheric affect so that even as Glowsun realize their inner Sleep, they remain consistent. There’s a letup that becomes a fluid, undulating waveform as it builds to its full brunt, which it does before letting go into feedback to close the album as if underscoring how much of the overarching impression they wanted to make was in getting down to the business of hitting hard. After 11 years and a two-thirds lineup change, I’m not about to sit here and predict Glowsun‘s future, but they sound revitalized and renewed of purpose, and if NOVÆ were to be the beginning of a new era for them, it would be a strong (re)start.
[Note: the band are currently taking preorders for physical editions in a crowdfunding campaign. I was neither pushed to nor compensated for posting a link, so I’m going to: https://www.ulule.com/glowsun/.]
