Review by Rexorcist for Nadja - Trembled (2006)

I'm slowly getting into drone metal, pun intended, and I'm working my way through several Nadja albums as a starter, working my way up from the decent ones to the better ones to get the strongest idea of what's typically considered great drone.  But it's a challenge.  Drone is my LEAST favorite genre, and as a result, drone metal is my least favorite form of metal.  But this isn't to say I haven't enjoyed or seen value in Nadja so far.  After a few of their studio releases, I headed towards their live album, Trembled.

Despite being a drone album, Trembled runs at a brisk forty-five minutes.  Perfect for the beginner, right?  Well, this album is a little too perfect for a beginner, as the album doesn't really deliver any new good to the drone metal scene.  It's a pretty simple piece, giving the listener four soft, ambient tracks that alternate between a doomy-emotional feel and a soft aural melancholic atmosphere, acting as sort of a lullaby for anyone who wants to relax.  The latter is especially present in the album's Swans cover, "No Cure for the Lonely," which ends with a collection of higher sounds and drops to the bottom of the scale with a deeper and slightly more experimental track, "Corrasion."  But once again, the simple drone structure is delivered with just enough good production and emotion not to be a "bad" album.

I don't want to say Trembled was a "disappointment," but out of the few Nadja metal albums I've already checked out, this is the worst.  It offers no incredible melody or sound effects to progress or repeat like the original 2003 version of Touched, and it doesn't have a surprising level of emotion and experimentation like Truth Becomes Death.  It delivers the basics right to the core with only a little bit of style.