NEUROSIS RETURNS!
The last album released by Bay Area’s sludge lords, Neurosis was in 2004. The legendary band is finishing up a brand new album and releasing some special gifts to mark their 20th anniversary of recording and playing together.
The new album, due may 22nd 2007, is called, Given to the Rising and is being touted as their best work yet. There is one track available now for download :
Neurosis-WaterIsNotEnough.mp3
Neurot Recordings labels the band as “Bay Area’s legendary masters of behemoth, psychedelic operatic guitar girth” and describes the new album, recorded by the also-legendary engineer, Steve Albini, “some of the band’s most raw and immediate material to date, but it is also more complexly orchestrated and richly thickened with psych-damaged overtones.”
I received a press release today with further descriptions of the sounds embodied and animated on the new album - descriptions that made me drool with anticipation! So, naturally, i couldn’t wait to share them with you…
Once again recording with revered engineer and longtime friend Steve Albini (as the band has for five previous albums,The Eye of Every Storm in 2004, A Sun That Never Sets in 2001, Sovereign in 2000 and Times of Grace in 1999), Given To The Rising bears the band’s signature crushing heft and cathartic force. However, it also finds Neurosis delving into increasingly psychedelic effects and twisted, inventive song structures. Much of the dramatic lull of recent works is forgone in favor of full-on attack. While it’s reflective of the band’s signature aggressive pummeling, Given To The Rising is not just an exercise in Wagnerian thunder. Neurosis instead takes an exploration into psychoactive prog-rock and eviscerating symphonic thud that moves well beyond anything that might fit snugly within a particular genre. It’s as though the band has taken cues from such psych-noise predecessors as Hawkwind, Faust, Skullflower and Chrome, merged those elements with the sickening frequency assault of Throbbing Gristle and then submerged them within Neurosis’ saturated sonic strata.
“We stand encircled by wing and fire” growls vocalist/guitarist Scott Kelly, opening the album and its title track, the band’s heels already dug deep in the dirt, blasting forth in all directions at once. It’s as though we join the battle already in progress, and by all means we have — Neurosis has fought hard to maintain its sovereignty not just in the music business, but as a boundlessly creative entity consisting of Kelly, guitarist/vocalist Steve Von Till, bassist/vocalist Dave Edwardson, drummer Jason Roeder, keyboardist Noah Landis and visuals manipulator Josh Graham. The band brought keyboards to heavy punk. It brought experimental noise to metal. It merged antique droning folk with Black Flag’s desperation. All the while, forging onward toward new means to explore the infinite realms of catharsis and self-transformation, while myriad bands simply follow in its wake. Consistent with this new, darker and evermore powerful sound is Graham’s stunning album artwork depicting antique Eastern European statues and symbols interwoven to create a landscape of strength and survival.
The guitars grunt and groan like sinister beasts on “Fear and Sickness”, propelled by Roeder’s clever rhythmic shifts delivered by thunderous, rollicking tom beats that lunge into half-time thumping kick drum and snare blasts. “To The Wind” opens with a deceptively delicate, albeit forlorn melody unlike anything we’ve come to expect of the band, which is abruptly choked off at the 2-minute mark by one of the most brutally sudden shifts of mood and tempo. A slight, barely audible growl hints at the change to come, but when a wall of chiming bent-notes and drop-tuned sludge guitars, paired with a stomping beat erupt over the melody, it’s truly monolithic in impact. Edwardson slings heavy low-end distortion over the top with howling bent notes adding powerful harmonic overtones. But, perhaps the highlight of the song comes during a brief respite, when Kelly lets out an astounding 29-second-long throat-curdling scream at the song’s climax. Von Till’s rasping whisper sounds downright haunting over the rhythmic churn and Landis’ syrupy tones on “Hidden Faces” prove ample evidence to the band’s latest evolutionary step. “Through eyes of the wheel I will see you coming,” Von Till howls, the band erupting in consensus.
i fully admit, dropping the names Hawkwind and Faust in relation to Neurosis will get me to pull my wallet out….
Given To Rising TRACKLIST
01. Given to the Rising
02. Fear and Sickness
03. To the Wind
04. At the End of the Road
05. Shadow
06. Hidden Faces
07. Water is Not Enough (MP3)
08. Distill (Watching the Swarm)
09. Nine
10. Origin
You can also look forward to a “promotional video featuring brand new live footage and in-depth interviews conducted during Neurosis’ breakneck 6-day recording session with engineer Steve Albini.”
I will post info on that as soon as it is available.
Also, I am in the process of securing an interview with the band. If you have any questions that you would like to ask, please comment or mail them to me. I would be happy to ask anything insightful, inventive, and/or intelligent. I am going to steer clear of regular industry questions. Thanks!
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