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Neurosis: Honor found in decay
02/11/12 || jaimeviejo
After listening to this album at least ten times already in the last couple of days, my review was done. It was a simple review talking about the qualities of the band and the record, how it compared to previous ones, and how mysterious the cover was. I obviously talked about more things, but I guess those are the main points that most people want to read in an album analysis. Reviewers sometimes create a buzz in their heads, when listening to some albums, that not necessarily exist in real life; the emotions that run through our bodies when we experience something that we are seriously enjoying are indescribable. So while reading my review again, I couldn’t help but to feel disgusted at the way I approached it. I had written just a bunch of words as if this were another “regular” metal album, but it is not. So, I burned my review down to let it rise again from the ashes.
I’ve been experiencing Neurosis music since somewhere between 1996 and 1999. I’m not sure when, but I remember seeing the Locust Star video at night on the MTV and feeling scared, hypnotized, and curious about the band. Still today, after years of listening and, at times, analyzing the their music, I don’t know where it comes from, but I’m sure it comes from a dark place that we’ve never been to before.
Babylonians, Etruscans, and Romans used the guts of animals to predict future events. Now, if we could dig into the the members of Neurosis we would be transported to a bygone time in front of a pagan ceremony to venerate the ancient gods that look over us from the sky. All this makes sense just looking at the album art: a pile of bones with tribal signs written all over them, ashes of old pictures, candles, darkness, and a pitchfork pointing to the sky, rising. It is a cover that shows how the members of Neurosis are just catalysts of an old ancient force that presents itself in the form of songs.
How the band created and developed this style is still unknown; formed as a hardcore punk band in 1985, after two albums they mutated into this monolithic entity that moves like a caveman in the middle of a wasteland , carrying the Herculean task of going through remains of dead animals and suffering all kinds of weather difficulties to get to his final destination, as if it were a god’s ordeal.
“Honor Found In Decay” is the best album to start digging in the discography of the band. It is a middle point between the experimentation of “The Eye Of Every Storm” and the immediacy of “Times Of Grace” and “Given To The Rising”. The amazing thing is how “simplistic” these songs sound and, at the same time, how many complex emotions they generate. Here we will find all the characteristic elements of the band: the tribal drumming, the wall of sound, the melodic elements, and the classic dual vocals from Kelly and Von Till as bass player Dave Edwardson’s horrifiying screams are nowhere to be heard. Steve Albini produces again and makes the band sound as good as always, this time with the accuracy and the fineness of the old masters. But the star of the album is Noah Landis. His work here is more remarkable than ever. He adds textures, interplays with the instruments, and creates another dimension of sound apart from the song itself. I can say that without his contribution, this album wouldn’t be the beast that it is.
Before, the only complaint that I could have had about Neurosis is that I felt that their music at times dragged for too long in some of their compositions, but in this album, there is absolutely no filler; not a single second of it is waste. I could just describe the verses song after song, the atmospheres, arrangements, etc., but I think you should arrive at this album, knock on the door, enter and experience the beauty of it for yourself, it is an hour of music that has been traveling through space and time since the creation of the universe.
- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: Neurot Recordings
- Website: www.neurosis.com
- Band
- Scott Kelly: vocals, guitars
- Steve Von Till: vocals, guitars
- Dave Edwardson: bass, vocals
- Noah Landis: organ, piano, samples & atmospheres
- Jason Roeder: drums
- Josh Graham: visual artist
- Tracklist
- 01. We All Rage in Gold
- 02. At the Well
- 03. My Heart for Deliverance
- 04. Bleeding the Pigs
- 05. Casting of the Ages
- 06. All is Found… In Time
- 07. Raise the Dawn
