Customer Reviews

When I See the Sun Always Shines on TV

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most cover albums, especially metal albums, tend to be very unoriginal and sound very close to the original artist's song. Though this is not a problem at all with Nadja. Besides Type O Negative, I think Nadja has the most original covers from a metal band. Since the duo has a very unique sound/style, they can cover a song in their own way. They chose such a great selection of artists to cover, unlike most metal bands who choose mainly older metal bands. Nadja goes for their heavy new/dark wave & shoegaze influences, and of course their metal influences. Since they cover Slayer's Dead Skin Mask, which I must say was an awesome choice, since most bands just choose Slayer's 80's stuff. Plus Dead Skin Mask is very doom like, which hits the spot for Nadja, so they stretch out the song and pretty much double the length of it to this eerie, haunting, heavy, and very unique cover. And of course the other songs they selected to cover are phenomenal, I just wish the did a Godflesh cover, since their heavily influnced by that band, and they can easily pull off an amazing cover. Hopefully they'll release another cover album in the near future.

It's a testament to this man's talent that he could cover artists as disparate as Slayer, The Cure and uhh...The Kids in the Hall and make them sound so stylistically congruous. Music of this shoegazing nature has always placed tones first, vocals second and this album is no exception. The swarm-of-locusts guitar tone envelops my ears to the point where the vocals, while pleasant enough, sound like an afterthought. I can't really write much more about this album without straining. It's just great. Easy to lose your head in the fog they conjure with such ease. I haven't heard all the originals but it's apparent to see they've made the slow songs even slower, distilled to the basics without losing the originals' vitality.

Step 1: take great songs from My Bloody Valentine, the Cure, A-Ha (yes, THAT A-Ha!), and others
Step 2: apply massive amounts of feedback, fuzz, and distortion
Step 3: work at a sludgy, plodding, excruciatingly slow pace

Nadja has done all of this brilliantly and will force you to approach these songs in a new way. Nadja's relentless attack pummels and bludgeons each song, exposing unexpected angles, yet they somehow manage to retain each band's core essence. Hard to do and amazing when somebody pulls it off.

Noise and drone lovers will dig this record, as will adventurous fans of the original artists. Four stars.