Thaumoradiance

Five Nadja releases this YEAR, and it's only half way through April! Quite damaging to my bank account indeed.

Fair to say, though, that while Thaumoradiance is pretty cool and what not, it seems to have been released for the purpose of suckering in poor fan boys like me who'll buy anything that has pretty packaging and a limited amount of copies. It's good- some parts in particular are freaking HUGE, but overall I think they could've put in a bit more.

This live recording consists of two songs both of some of the '07 releases- Radiance of Shadows (the title track of it), and that rather lovely opus that was Thaumogenesis, but in a very edited form. There's a lot of comparisons that can be made with Trembled, (their other, impossible to find live album). The same doomy yet serene vibe is there, with less of the epic layering and fuzziness that's in most of the Nadja studio albums. I guess it sounds a lot like the early work, quite muddy and riff intensive, everything repeating and flowing along until you're in this numbed state of hypnosis, which as far as I'm concerned is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for here.

The two songs both sound pretty damn good, no doubt. Radiance is of a fairly upbeat tempo with some quite jarring dynamic shifts here and there, before everything settles down until Baker starts going nuts with his looping pedal, adding in layers upon layers of strange, shifting guitar lines and noise until the whole thing caves in on itself. Granted, it's nowhere near as hostile and malevolent as the studio version is, but it's still quite a huge sound indeed, and I imagine this would make your head explode when heard live. Thaumogenesis is a fair bit more typical for Nadja, lots of ambience with some nice, slow motion riffs that always seem to bring to mind Isis' Oceanic played back at half (or maybe eighth) speed. The whole thing is a pretty enjoyable and quite relaxing experience- really, the album's quite solid indeed.

But there's still a complaint about this that I think is quite valid. Whereas Trembled gave us 4 songs running about an hour or so, some of which were unreleased and what not, Thaumoradiance only gives us 2 songs, running at a paltry 40 minutes. Now, certainly there's some bands that work best playing short explosive sets, but Nadja sure as hell isn't a Grindcore/Crossover band. Surely it wouldn't be too much to ask for maybe 4 songs, hell, SIX songs, and 80 minutes worth of material. Also, what on earth is the point of releasing a live show full of songs you released only a few months beforehand? Sure, but Thaumogenesis on there, but maybe chuck in some stuff from Bodycage and Truth Becomes Death and what not. It's pretty ridiculous, really.

So, overall we have a package with some top quality music but that seems almost like a cashgrab- not that they'd get that much money out of this, I know- but it's quite an unnecessary release. Fanboys should get it, and I guess everyone else can download it.