Nadja. Skin Turns to Glass. 2008. 3 stars.

Toronto’s Nadja are one of the most prolific and experimental drone bands to occupy the genre, crafting dense and heavy works not unlike those of seasoned acts Sunn o))), Boris and Jesu. Skin Turns to Glass is a re-recording of an earlier CD-R of the same name which had a limited release in 2003. Like the title suggests, this album is a slow, plodding act of transformation, where thick layers of guitar noise, keyboards, and industrial percussion lap over each other to produce a terrifying and psychedelic atmosphere.

The three massive tracks (each clocking over 14 minutes) are majestic and intense, as the waves of noise crash against the stomping rhythms, creating an ocean of dissonance for the listener to drown in. The first ’song’ “Sandskin” leads off the album with an impressive torrent of static-laden drums, providing the menacing current for the distorted guitar squalls to float across. The compositions find a dark, reverberating groove and stay there, with little variation across the journey, opening a hypnotic, meditative zone.

The second song, “Skin turns to glass” is probably the album’s strongest, as the layers increase in technical complexity. Buried, growling vocals can be heard underneath the glacial movements, to remind us that there is still a human presence in the mechanical chaos engulfing everything. The keyboards here also take a more percussive role, as the notes hammer down in tandem with the drumming, adding to the track’s propulsive, space-traveling dirges.

Unfortunately, the second half of the album slowly falls out of the trance, as “Slow Loss” meanders in the most monotonous fashion, as the walls of noise provide no sense of direction, leaving the listener in a black space devoid of color and emotion. The hidden track is frustratingly pointless, with barely audible ambient tones stretching over 20 minutes before there is a final blast of noise. The whole final exercise seems tacked on and unnecessary and detracts from an otherwise purposeful and effective collection.

While Nadja clearly find a comfortable spot within their respective niche, they can’t maintain the intense psychological states they ruminate in, letting the album drone on aimlessly. If Nadja were willing to trim the fat here, then they would surely have a trace-inducing masterpiece on their hands. Until they can refine and mitigate their efforts, their out of body experiences won’t be the smoothest of flights.

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