NEUROSIS

Did you feel the shifts? The shift in the tempo, the shift in the style or the shift in the vision of the punk-turned-doom act Neurosis?

Was the eerie Wicker Man-inspired album art a strong enough indication of the change? Or did we have to wait until we heard the content within?

The content within, I must state, is terrifying. Sludge and hellish distortion crush the ears like a trash compactor; the songs are longer, the compositions more complex, and seemingly inching toward the progressive or avant-garde;

"To Crawl Under One's Skin" sets a grim tone, its creepy intro sample a sinister indicator of the following horrors; and what follows? A brilliant mixture of post-metal, doom metal, post-hardcore, and sludge metal with enough menace in its tone to make a seasoned metal fan buckle.

Did you feel the shifts? Did you experience the sea change? Listen to the way the acoustic and electric guitars of the title track bicker and contrast with one another; a cold, tenuous relationship forming a dreary masterpiece of atmosphere as the bizarrely paced piano chromatics seal the deal.

Once in a while, the speed picks up and yet the tension never truly dissipates. The two chords that encompass most of "Flight" rely on instrumental textures and tortured vocals until the acoustic guitar beckons us back to the void.

The content within, I must admit, never ceases to be draining. The further you delve into it, the more it takes from you. Some quiet moments occur, such as the acoustic intro to "Stripped," but it never feels like a respite. The heavy moments plow through like a sledgehammer to the skull and the reflective moments are woeful and depressing.

But that's also the beauty.

Souls at Zero is something of an entrancing horror; much like Requiem for a Dream or Eternal Darkness; the vivid hell it portrays is intoxicating. And just one listen to outro "Empty," with its uneasy acoustic melodies and melancholic electric leads, and you'll feel both gutted and wanting to brave the whole journey again.

Do you feel the shifts? Did you hear the rise of a remarkable force towering over you? Have you heard the utterly disgusting majesty of 90s metal in its prime?

With Souls at Zero, you'll feel it.

While the guitar continues the monstrosity of punk riffing, the bass takes on a more active role with not only supplemental support but unique grooves that create distinct counterpoints to the main guitar driven rhythms. Likewise with the drum rolls of Roeder as he takes liberties to give a more jazzed up heavy metal approach to the percussion side of things instead of lazily adhering to the traditional punk approach. The track "Tomorrow's Reality" actually sounds more like the doomed sludge metal that the band would become famous for rather than the punk world they were quickly leaving behind. Although it has a rather punk feel in timbres, tones and tenaciousness, it has a nonchalant sludge effect in tempo and cranks up a diverse rotation of chord changes and a more quickened punk section that has a rather alternative metal approach in the bass and drums even bringing a little funk to the table.

"Common Inconsistencies" debuts their unique atmospheric style in the intro that takes feedback and effects and dips into a hardcore world of surrealism before getting cold feet and retreating back to the Fugazi style post-hardcore comfort zone. While the vocals on THE WORD AS LAW are very much in the angry shouted anarchy side of things, i can actually hear where Sikth got inspired by the short but unsweet "Insensitivity" which contains the blueprints for the frenetic vocal style that Sikth would make a career out of proving that NEUROSIS inspired in many ways even at this stage. The final track "Blisters" is perhaps the only thing close to the progressive experimental metal they would perfect in the future. This track is performed in mid tempo, has a steady flow but has some progressive time signatures although it also feels like a proto-impression of the post-metal they would have a hand in developing. Despite being somewhat unique, it is a little too jittery for what they're grasping for.

THE WORD AS LAW has come out in two significant forms. Firstly in its LP version that contains the eight original tracks but the 1991 CD release added a whole seven extra tracks that included four re-recorded tracks from "Pain Of Mind" which placed them in the more interesting transitional phase of the band's career and fit in with this album quite well. It also includes three extra tracks, one being a cover of Joy Division's "Day Of The Lords" and another sneak peek into their lesser known side project Tribes Of Neurot with a hidden untitled seventh track that features over ten minutes of ambient guitar feedback and multi-dimensional freakiness. Personally i think the edition with the bonus tracks is definitely the version to seek out. These tracks are in many ways better than the album itself but THE WORD AS LAW shows a significant improvement over the debut even if it pales in comparison to the awesomeness that follows. starting with the phenomenal "Souls At Zero."

3.5 rounded down

Stylistically the material on "Fires Within Fires" features very few surprises if you're already familiar with the band's atmospheric sludge/post metal style. It's slow, doomy, and organic music featuring both deep register clean male vocals and harder edged hardcore shouting vocals. The song structures are adventurous and you never really know where a song is going before you reach the end and look back at an intriguing compositional structure. The whole thing is packed in an organic sounding production courtesy of Steve Albini. The sound production takes the meaning of organic maybe a bit too far though, as this sometimes sound like it was recorded live in someone's garage. I know some people love a stripped down and raw sound production like that, and under the right circumstances a sound production like that can work wonders. Here though I think it takes the power out of the music and even the most heavy and punchy parts of the album, lack energy and conviction.

To my ears Neurosis also seem to have lost a bit of their creative spirit on "Fires Within Fires"...and don't get me wrong here, because as mentioned above this is still very adventurous music, but it's like they've made this album before a few times, and I'd like to think of them as innovators who take chances and who challenge their audience. We don't really get much of that here. "Fires Within Fires" is Neurosis playing it completely safe and since they've also tuned down on their more aggressive side, the album does become a bit tedious if you're not in the right mood. However it still speaks volumes of their general qualities that one of Neurosis lesser albums still deserves a 3.5 star (70%) rating, and I'm probably just being a bit hard on them, but that's only because I expect so much from them considering their impressive back catalogue.

Well, this debut is exactly as i expected. It is indeed hardcore punk in the vein of Discharge, Black Flag, Amebix, Die Kreuzen and all the other hardcore punckers who crave speed, distortion and most of all volume. Turn it up to 11 and then take it to 12 it seems. The album was originally released on Alchemy Records in 1987 and then picked up by Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles in 1994 and then finally moved over to the band's own Neurot Recordings in 2000, which is when it was finally re-released with a bonus disc and much easier to track down. While this sounds like a totally different band if you're accustomed to 90s NEUROSIS, it still has the main three members who have been on board for the band's entire run namely Scott Kelly (vocals, guitar), Dave Edwardson (bass) and Jason Roeder (drums).

The music is very much the typical hardcore and crust punk with elements of crossover thrash as heard in bands like Suicidal Tendencies, however even at this stage there are a few elements that hinted at the future path the band would undertake however it would have been impossible at the time to predict they they would blossom into anything of merit. One example is how track 2, "Self-Taught Inflection" has a repetitive slowed down melodic riff as an opener that is a tiny clue to the direction that the band would continue in starting with "Souls At Zero" but after a nice run it ultimately succumbs to the gravitational pull of the hardcore punk and crossover thrash elements that dominate PAIN OF MIND. Tracks like "Reasons To Hide" have mellow almost classic 80s metal intros with arpeggiated guitars but they too soon turn to hardcore punk but retain dual guitar assaults with one guitar grunging it up while the other performs more thrash type riffs but it too strays into punk territory with the rhythmic chugging assault and shouted lyrics.

The album retains its energetic delivery throughout the entire run and at times really does sound like Discharge when at its most pure punk moments but it's those little elements that differentiate them on the few tracks where they include them. As punk rockers they have the sound down pat and the energy level to match. All the punk boxes are checked appropriately and then double checked because that what punk rockers do i assume. Personally i'm glad i'm finally checking this one out but unlike some bands that lose the critics due to being overly experimental and turning out to be something i actually like a lot, PAIN OF MIND is basically a generic retreading of all the early 80s punkdom that came before. Whilst the smattering of unique ideas succeed in giving the band something to build off of for the future, they unfortunately are too few to give the album any true character of its own and ultimately sounds like any old punk band from that era albeit performed exquisitely. Ahh, NEUROSIS you have become one of my favorite experimental metal bands over the years but even you can't make me love this one! Even the bonus disc on the 2000 re- release with live performances and unreleased demos isn't enough to make this one essential by any means, however as a huge fan of the band, it is nice to have this one so very much a hardcore fan's type of album unless you just have to own every punk album ever released. 2.5 rounded down

TIMES OF GRACE delivers much more of a post-rock feel than a sludge assault and although there are still remnants of the frenetic tribal drumming on the "Under The Surface," we get a much calmer and simplified drumming style on this album reminding me more of bands like Isis or Pelican. The intro track "Suspended In Light" is a full-on ambient number and the electronic background soundscapes continue throughout the entire run. The guitars seem to me to sound more like grunge at times. By the time we get to some of the later tracks like "Away" it sounds like the album totally morphed into the post-rock world with little metal at all being heard. The slow recurring clean guitar sounds with the slow hypnotic drumming and mournful violins sound more like A Silver Mt Zion release than the NEUROSIS of yesteryear.

The result of this toning down meant that this album took longer to grow on me than the preceding ones that immediately blow the roof off the house. The rewards are more subtle and require patience. I have only started to warm up to this album lately. It has always been one of my lesser favorites of their outstanding output. One of the things i really love about NEUROSIS has been the frenetic drumming and pummeling sludgery so i had to learn how to appreciate this one on a whole different level. That i have learned how to do but despite warming up to this release i still like it less than most others. NEUROSIS have always been pioneers with their bold experimentation but here they don't seem to really add anything new to these particular sounds, they just mix it up a bit. That is fine and dandy and it really is good for what it is but they spoiled me and i was expecting more. Luckily this was just a rest stop on the musical highway and other than on the EP "Sovereign" they would move on to new musical pastures.

This is a perfectly balanced album that delivers all the right ingredients in the proper proportions. An epic affair if I do say. Although the main instruments include the usual metal suspects such as guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, there is also the occasional appearance of bagpipes, cello and violin. This is a post-metal masterpiece that flows brilliantly from beginning to end. Another one of those albums that rubbed me the right way upon first listen but consistently grows on me more every time I listen to it. Once again NEUROSIS doesn't rest on their laurels. They know exactly how to evolve from one album to the next taking risks by adding new elements but never deviating so far from their core sound as to totally alienate any dedicated followers. With a sound so successful I am thankful that they have chosen to retain a core sound as their template because it is a successful one that deserves a lot of room for exploration.

The first track sounds like something that could be on the first Black Sabbath album as it is clearly more doom metal than sludge but after the first couple of tracks they start introducing more bizarre soundscapes to the mix and at times some of the ambient more trippy parts remind me of Krautrock. Although I love this album from beginning to end it is not as perfectly executed as 'Souls At Zero' mostly because of the fact that some of the ambient and tribal drumming outros outstay their welcome. Just when you think it feels like it should be ending it continues and keeps going. Although that keeps this from being another masterpiece it still is an excellent album that shouldn't be overlooked simply because it falls between two of their more popular releases.