NADJA – Labyrinthine
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The history of drone metal started in the nineties, with bands like Earth, Burning Witch and Boris laying the groundwork for a genre that would take doom metal into unprecedented territories of a new kind of low-tuned slowness. In the beginning of the 2000s, more bands were to follow, and while Sunn O))) are the most popular among them, another well know and possibly even busier band are Nadja, consisting of husband-and-wife duo Aidan Baker (guitars, programming) and Leah Buckareff (bass guitar). I doubt that there are any fans of extreme metal that haven’t heard of this Canadian band, considering how much output they have produced over the twenty years of their history. Labyrinthine is already their twenty-eighth longplayer, but there have been uncountable more releases like splits, EPs, singles… Last year, they released their twenty-seventh album Luminous Rot on Southern Lord, THE prestige label for drone music. Labyrinthine has been recorded at the same time but comes out on the band’s own label Broken Spine. What distinguishes this album from everything they did before is the fact that each of the four long tracks – all running between twelve and nineteen minutes – features a different guest singer, which makes for Nadja’s most varied album yet. Also it must be one of their heaviest efforts so far. The opener and title track Labyrinthine features Alan Dubin (O.L.D., Khanate, Gnaw) on vocals. Dubin, whose career started with grindcore in the mid-eighties, adds his tortured but venomous voice to this heavy slab of drone metal who BPM can probably noted down in single digits. The song’s final part is a little heavier, still feeling like slowed down doom metal, with the heavily distorted and down-tunes guitar enriched by a lot scratching noise sounds. The following Rue has vocals by Rachel Davies from Esben & The Witch, a dark indie rock band who released some album on Matador Records. Her voice full of longing and melancholy makes this a less extreme track, which we might have needed after the brutal opener. Despite the melodic vocals, the music still feels like very slowed down doom metal, and it’s only the final movement which adds noise and distortion, before segueing into Blurred with Chinese multi-media artist Lane Shi Otayanii, vocalist in Elizabeth Colour Wheel. This song begins like the previous one ended, with Otayanii adding mournful wails over the drones. The second movement switches into thoroughbred drone metal, and all of a sudden the vocalist sounds like a conjuring enchantress with a loud, imploring voice that will give you goosebumps all over your skin. The concluding, nearly twenty-minute long Necroausterity has Dylan Walker of American grindcore/noise band on vocals. This is the most experimental track on the album, with a meditative, Buddha machine like intro, followed by strange, choppy riffs and ultra-brutal vocals. Later it even feels like a groove metal song in slow motion, upending all expectations you might have had at the beginning of the song. I have followed Nadja with some interest over the years, but can’t say that I am really familiar with their body of work. And yet I can say that Labyrinthine is a great place to start with their music. It is apparently their heaviest album, but also their most accessible one. The first half of the album is less extreme, while the latter half shows the band from a very experimental side, but not in a bad way. The album has been released on their own label, but to guarantee a wider exposure, limited cassette versions of available from small indie label from all over the world: Katuktu Collective (US), Cruel Nature Recordings (UK), Bad Moon Rising (Taiwan), Adagio830 (Germany), Muzan Editions (Japan), WV Sorcerer (France/China), Pale Ghoul (Australia), and Ur Audio Visual (Canada). Fans of extreme doom metal and of course drone aficionados should consider this an essential addition to their collections. |
4 songs |
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63:00 minutes |
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***** **** |
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Genre: drone metal Label: Broken Spine |
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