After South by Southwest, Marissa Nadler told me it was time to go metal. Playing a mostly rock Kemado Records party in a New Orleans-style club on Austin's Sixth Street, Nadler had only made it through fragments of four songs when she walked off stage exasperated, refusing to play after sound engineers said they couldn't give her more reverb. In that room that night, Nadler needed to be louder or the audience needed to be different.

But her metal confession isn't as reactionary as it seems: Nadler's an intense fan of drone-based heavy music who mentioned "listening to Earth really soft while doing my Excel spread sheets" to Brandon Stosuy on Stereogum. She has been tossing around ideas for a metal band with several somewhat famous friends for a while now. Hinting at that direction on "Conjuring Spirit Worlds", the first track from the download-only bonus EP included with Kemado's stateside release of Songs III: Bird on the Water (all four tracks are streaming below), Nadler sounds remarkably ready for the change. This isn't metal per se, but it is a lighter Swans moment, Helena Espvall's strident, snarling cello lines tempered by Nadler's voice as it ascends like smoke rings burning off the relationship she's lamenting.

The steely gaze of "Conjuring Spirit Worlds" provides evidence for something else: Nadler continues to develop as a multi-instrumentalist and arranger. The harmonies of "Daisy & Violet" are some of the most complex and perfect of her career, and her first piano recording, "Honey Bear", works with that same root note-based lilt she’s made so familiar on the guitar. Here, it carries a playful, newfound naiveté. That is, it conveys immense sadness while inviting you to sway, ever so slightly. Excepting the overdressed "Cortez the Killer" cover at EP's end, Nadler is still only getting better.

[Download information included with Songs III: Bird on the Water; out now on Kemado]