TIMES OF GRACE

Neurosis has never been known to make soothing relaxation music, but this time it looks like they intentionally wanted to make it as hard as possible to get into their music. Times of Grace is easily their harshest and rawest album so far. The sound is dirty and almost demo like and what little they used to offer in melody has been stripped down.

They didn't economize on the songwriting though. This slab of angst ridden doom is not less then 66 minutes long and each of the tracks crushes along with thick sludge riffs, intense vocals and unique ambient background arrangements. The tribal percussion that Neurosis used a lot on previous album has all but disappeared. Also the more upbeat tracks are absent, making this into a slow plodding and incredibly dense album.

Because of its hermetic and daunting nature, I prefer to take this album in smaller chunks, usually starting with Belief and continuing with some of the album's strongest cuts like End Of The Harvest and Away. If you would still not be convinced of the huge influence of Neurosis on post-metal bands like Isis and Cult of Luna, then End of The Harvest should sure dissolve any remaining doubts.

On many occasions it has the outlook of a masterpiece, but as a whole it's too tough, difficult and bleak to have much appeal outside of the fanbase. For the occasional bystander I would much recommend Times Of Grace and Souls At Zero. 3.5 stars.