Nahja Mora - Final Realization Of Failure

Metaphorically Speaking:

You live in the city and you stroll through the business district and the sounds of cars blasting music, sirens wailing and people doing what people do on crowded busy streets can create intense moments and other times just seem as natural as daily life in a city should be. As you continue to walk and leave the city for the burbs, life seems to slow down a bit. You notice the smaller things, the flapping of a linnet's wings, the crow's caw, the barking dog and so on. The cacophony that dwells within the city life yields to more serene and less intense state of being. Before going home you take unexpected left turn down a walking trail through a wooded area. It is here where you feel a true inner peace. The gentle breeze shakes the leaves, each step complimented with a gaze that reveals something quite beautiful to behold. This inner peace dissipates as you end your journey back in the concrete wastelands of the city. 

The Realization:

Nahja Mora on the surface is a heavy aggressive industrial outfit. For those willing to dig a little deeper beyond that veneer will see an artist capable of demonstrating a certain intrinsic need to develop the perfect track through a nurturing and a highly creative mindset. Nahja Mora capitalizes on the duality of harsh abrasive sound and slower more methodical experimental pieces. Ancillary sounds such as a strum of a dulcimer, insertion of flute, guitar, tabla and organ samples are isolated and then manipulated and blended into the track surgically breathing more life into the music with more than enough sonic sustenance to keep the beast moving forward.

Failure?:

Nahja Mora return with another mighty statement of well-crafted intricate designs that reveal the fabrics of Josef Saint's idiosyncratic manifestations of both predictable and unpredictable sound sculpting. "Canine" and "There's No Such Thing As A Getaway" stand out as my current favorites. "Canine" ironically or not has a healthy vibe of Skinny Puppy undercurrents infiltrating the mix. "Canine" builds slowly into a forceful electro-industrial dirge. The vocal styles interchange from harsh to more restrained giving the track a very diverse feel and great lead into the album. "There Is No Such Thing As A Getaway" reminds of me of the way "The Very Last Of Summer" made me feel when I first heard it off The Trees See More (2015) album. It was that serene place on that long walk where your thoughts became more clear or conversely more diluted. The music is very deliberate with a plethora backing sounds boosting the whole. "Rabbit" is an upbeat instrumental, probably the most straight-forward approach on this album. From beginning to end the pace stays consistent, the sound doesn't venture to far into other regions of sound, where on the other hand, "Shit Collective" attempts and succeeds to virtually splatter your senses to hell and back with varying vocal styles and heavy experimental industrial backdrops. "Black Eye", perhaps the title and lyrics speak volumes on a terrible situation that no one should ever have to endure. The design of the music captures this situation with several transitions taking the listener into this dark subject matter telling the story in two ways. One with the music and the other with words. "Atramentous" like "Canine' channels the inner Skinny Puppy within, with powerful waves of self-reflection set to an all out surge of musical expression with some mayhem mixed in for good measure . Towards the end of "Atramentous" the mayhem fades to a more melodic nature while still retaining the the overall hostile feel.

Themes:

From reading the lyrics included with the release, some tracks are straight-forward while others are open to interpretation. I get the feeling with Final Realization Of Failure,  it's much more on a personal level than previous releases. That's my interpretation. Whether it's angst, contempt or something else, there are crossroads and intersections where everything meets and passes leaving a wake of settled and unsettled emotions bottled up and released through an outlet tailored with an onslaught of sounds and words.

Conclusion:

The hours, days and weeks of cogitation, Nahja Mora unlock the next chapter in the band's story. It's a solid story worthy of many reads and ultimately there is no failure here. 










Apr 09 2019