Nan Ding
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Few artists brood as profoundly as David Pajo does. Spiderland, the second and final studio LP released by his first band, Slint, remains an anthemic body of work for angst-ridden Gen Xers and elder millennials 31 years after its release, and his prolific output as Papa M over the past two decades has remained emphatically un-cheery. And Greg Anderson — the guitar god who’s been putting out music at a furious clip under his new moniker, The Lord, but is best known as half of the bedrock drone metal band Sunn O))) — is one of the few instrumentalists with the gravity to match Pajo’s own.
“Nazarite,” the first official product of Anderson and Pajo’s seven-year friendship, is as grim a fusion as one would expect from the duo. Without the aid of percussion, they interlace their formidable guitars, forming a solemn foundation for Pajo’s spoken-word, biblical incantation.
According to Oxford Languages, a Nazarite (var. Nazirite) is “an Israelite consecrated to the service of God, under vows to abstain from alcohol, let the hair grow, and avoid defilement by contact with corpses.” The spirit of these vows is the theoretical backdrop to Pajo’s truncated epic. After reading out Oxford’s exact definition over the tense, ominous guitar arpeggios that open the track, he begins quoting the passages from the book of Numbers outlining the Nazarite’s obligations.
“If someone dies suddenly in the Nazarite’s presence, thus defiling the hair that symbolizes their dedication, they must shave their head on the seventh day, the day of their cleansing,” he monotones. “Then, on the eighth day, they must bring two doves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. The priest is to offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to make atonement for the Nazarite, because they sinned by being in the presence of the dead body. That same day, they are to consecrate their head again. They must rededicate themselves to the Lord.” At this point, Anderson unleashes a pulverizing drone like an animal from its cage. It washes over the track like a cleansing agent, consecrating it before whatever dark deity he and Pajo pray to.
“I’m beyond honored to have been able to collaborate with David Pajo for this ever-evolving output as The Lord,” Anderson said in a press release announcing the single. “Slint remains one of the most important bands ever to me. I composed the music for Nazarite as a love letter to Slint that exemplifies my obsession and devotion. David’s brilliant response to my humble offering is clear proof of his genius.”
“In Tennessee, I played a bit of acoustic guitar on the Goatsnake song ‘Another River To Cross,’” Pajo added, referring to another of Anderson’s projects. “It was then that I realized we had a perfect working dynamic. We seem to be able to push an idea from nothing into solid shape, without much effort or ego. I trust Greg’s ear and musical sense implicitly—he’s fearless.”
Listen to “Nazarite” below.