Cystema Solari

This is a very challenging album. I may not have been ready for this album, but frankly, I wouldn't even call this album "metal". I would categorize it as "ambient", "atmospheric", "drone", "dissonant" or possibly even "industrial". It is definitely "noise". It does not, as an album, in any sense that I can ascertain, pay homage to, or evoke the sound or the feeling of metal. There aren't even any melodies in any of the pieces.

Having heard some of Nadja's other works (Thaumogenesis) that are clearly metal-influenced, this album would seem to mark a progression, and perhaps at the same time a departure in the band's artistic expression. The sounds are what I would describe as "science-fiction" or perhaps "science fiction horror". Given its more accomplished parts, I might expect to hear some of this album as a soundtrack(without the spoken word) on a modern remake of the movie "Alien".

The album begins in a very off-putting way with a drone of feedback noise over which French is spoken in a strident manner. The spoken language seems to change, going through German, Italian and others, including possibly, Portuguese. The speaker doesn't change so clearly there's accomplishment in someone who can speak several languages fluently while sounding like a native speaker of each. This spoken word continues, periodically, throughout the album.

The album then, about halfway through, deviates, changing gears to a rap or hip-hop sound, keeping the beat with hand claps along with a bass drum element.

Uh-oh. This isn't metal...

At all...

The album then again changes ("flows" is a word that would be too kind) into a style evoking dreamier emotions. Again there is spoken word, but there is not nearly so much dissonance in the performance. This completely removes the feeling of unease and suggests that this music experience isn't necessarily supposed to represent a "terrorized space flight". This change in genres creates confusion and afterwards, there is a big question as to what, if anything, this album is attempting to communicate. The mood changes so much that it sounds like early 1990s ambient, complete with lava lamps and associated episodes of heavy marijuana smoking.

We finally hit a patch that sounds like there could be *some* metal influence. The long long and tedious distorted guitar chords then unfortunately get mixed with more feedback droning and yet more strident foreign language spoken word. It ultimately culminates in a repeating, and repetitious, soup of noise that is combined with something that sounds like trebly-static. It ends even worse than it began, being even more tedious and even more unlistenable. What a disappointing waste of time.

Reiterating the first comments above, this album is, charitably, VERY challenging. I would say that the production is itself executed well, but the arrangement of the music and therefore the intent is not. I can appreciate challenging music . I do not like to listen to music that doesn't in some way challenge me as a listener. However, Nadja's "Cystema Solari" may be so challenging so as to be completely inaccessible - at least to metal fans. It falls so completely into the "noise" genre, that I believe it actually calls into question whether Nadja should even have a listing in the Encyclopedia Metallium.

The experience of listening to this album was, in a word, wearying. And while I could imagine this being the challenge that Nadja set out to create, this album simply wasn't a challenge that I would have gone looking for. The album didn't even succeed in presenting itself to me in a way that would have persuaded me, after listening to some of it, that it might be a challenge worthy of being taken up.

I will not be listening to this again.

Not only do I not recommend listening to this, I recommend NOT listening to it.