Undoubtedly the most prolific doom band in history; while Nadja’s discography – approximating 33 releases since 2003, and counting – doesn’t quite rival the ridiculous output of say Agathocles or Unholy Grave or even Merzbow, yet, it is certainly by no means do to a lack of effort on the part of cute Canadian couple Aidan Baker and Leah Buckaroff, who apparently, never go out anymore. In fact if you add in Baker’s almost 100 releases as a solo artist or collaborator (since 2000), he might actually bypass both of the aforementioned grindcore legends discographies combined, averaging between Nadja and solo work, 13 releases a year!! 

As your faithful reviewer only possesses 8% of these releases (8 Nadja, 2 solo), I do fear I am somewhat underqualified to review Nadja’s latest collaboration, their second with New Zealand’s Black Boned Angel. I can maintain, based on my paltry experience with the band that this collaboration bears all the marks of excellence that charactarize the small sampling of material I am familiar with, featuring hypnotic, droning, ambient doom songs of vast breadth and length, music that combines radiantly distorted guitar, booming percussion, and oftentimes harsh manipulation of electronics into a whole that is often as soothing as it is crushing. What I can’t tell you in terms of this collaboration is where Nadja ends and Black Boned Angel begins, other than to say perhaps this is slightly noisier than other releases I have spent time with , though even that proclamation is made within the shadow of a doubt, as Nadja are no slouches in the noise department either.  

Equally, it is difficult to explain why this release is any better than any other of the 32 releases, suffice it to say that it is of equal quality and provides equal satisfaction as to anything else I have heard from the duo, and as such is as worthy of a recommendation for fans of both more ambient, epic doom (such as Tyranny and Until Death Overtakes Me) in terms of pacing and composition as well as the spacier end of the post-hardcore spectrum (Isis, Rosetta et al) in terms of atmosphere and sonic exploration. The best I can say with some confidence is that there is no doubt that this will end up in my top ten (Nadja) releases of 2009, though where it finally ranks will have to wait til I catch up with the other 7 releases issued so far this year and I’m sure 2 or 3 more to be named later.

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