Nadja & Vampillia - The Primitive World

It’s probably not news to you that Nadja are a very prolific band. In ten years they have released twenty-nine full-length albums, eight EPs, and nine splits. A large amount of their output has been very high quality, but like most bands that create such quantities of music, once they get into the swing of making and living off of music it’s difficult for them to stop doing it, even if they have no fresh ideas. For a few years there it seemed like Nadja were making too many unnecessary collaborations with artists whose music was not necessarily a good pairing, making uninspired ambient or post-rock wanderings that had only small servings of character. A lot of people ceased to pay attention to them, but I’m pleased to say it’s time to start listening to Nadja again. This newest release, The Primitive World, sees the Canadian duo pair-up with eleven-piece Japanese “brutal orchestra”, Vampillia, a strange and indulgent new underground act that seems to be causing an awful lot of head-scratching around the place right now. Check out their extremely bizarre and hilarious film clip for the song “Heyoah” and see what I mean (don’t let the Sigh flashbacks irk you, this is nothing like it!).

The entire album centers around a massive track called “Icelight”, and this song is going to ruin your day in the best kind of way. It is a twenty-three minute beast of a drone metal track – slow, atmospheric, dark and long. It is filled with classic Nadja static, that kind of soft static you could drown in, and also: It’s totally metal, sporting pained roars and elephant heaviness. The other four tracks build up and release on either side of this monster; the first and last tracks are piano filler, “Northern Lights” is a triumphant prelude to darkness (think Jesu), and “Anesthetic Depth” is an ambient cool-down after the drone. Throughout all of this, Vampillia provide tastefully placed piano, strings and probably other things that do not intrude on the power of the drone, yet manage to sprinkle some melody on top of the sound torrent.

The Primitive World is a return to metal and form for Nadja, and a good thing for an as-of-yet-not-completely-accepted group like Vampillia, especially one who are trying to promote a very diverse image. If you are not a Nadja fan, this is a very good place to begin (amongst others), and for the fans already out there this regression will be welcomed. Let’s hope both bands realize what they’ve done and take notes for their futures.

In short: Great little drone metal album with powerful riffs and loaded sounds. Finally, another good Nadja work to add to the collection.

Standout tracks: “Icelight” of course

Score: 9.0