Neurosis
Review of "A Sun Never Sets".
http://www.canehdian.com/non/artists/n/neurosis/sunneversets.html |
Neurosis
Official site includes sound files, biography, tour dates, discography, and merchandise.
http://www.neurosis.com |
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Times of Grace (Audio CD),11 May, 1999
List price $16.98
the majesty of Neurosis / 5
from the twisting atavistic forge that was Enemy of the Sun, into Through Silver in Blood's agonized sheets of punishing rain, Neurosis emerges here as a column of breath, a thing fully collected within itself, under its own power, and holding sway over all - Times of Grace is the point of mastery: eloquent yet terse, at once heavy-handed and delicate, a smooth river-hewn missile of stone from a band that still rages as if it were surging up from the molten belly of the Earth -
most striking among the features of this offering is the guitar sound: a boiling acid-scorched roar by comparison to the cold, metallic tone of its predecessors - and in stride, a soundscape more lurid, impassioned and organic prevails here: bass becomes a diaphanous swoon, drums are dense and thundering, while piano, bagpipes, brass and cello sweeten and glorify this perfect mix - gone are the spoken-word samples, industrial-noise strobes, and flashy stereo-pans; a few digital sound effects are still present, and moody synthesizer lines do color a few of these tracks, but at no point do these subtle enhancements descend into anything that could be construed as psychedelia - what's more, the Neurosis here recorded shows us moments of cool reflection, while further expanding upon the themes of tense brooding and taut vigilance touched upon with their previous efforts - but make no mistake, the bulk of this work is a hammering, riff-driven juggernaut, and when rising to its full capacity for throat-throttling power, Times of Grace is a tidal wave: swelling, looming, crushing, and inescapably immersive, the way music should be -
their previous effort, Through Silver in Blood, though an immense and staggering experience for the listener, was such a brutal definitive statement, I assumed that any album to follow in its wake would seem wan and fallen by comparison - Times of Grace required of me several listens before I discovered that my assumption was wrong - my first few impressions of this work tempted me to believe that I was hearing an all-too-efficient song dispenser, a carefully camouflaged Neurosis-replicating machine - the whole package just felt too smooth and neat, the new soundscape foreign, and the brief instrumental interlude tracks seemed disconnected with the main compositions - the tracks didn't bleed into each other, here; the adjoining and shifting backdrops of noise-wash, the collages of samples, were all but entirely absent - gone also was the honorable practice of opening the album with the slow, patient and ominous buildup that drove both of their previous albums' lead tracks -
Times of Grace opens with a short, pulsating and resonant intro which quickly fades into silence, and the next track, "The Doorway," lunges immediately for the throat and does not loosen its grip until seven minutes later, when it shifts tempo and then also fades out, but slowly - in this space, between the fadeout of "The Doorway" and the opening throb of "Under the Surface," is where I began to suspect that perhaps this recording was underlaid with a more intelligent design: "Under the Surface" breaks the silence by resuming precisely the same rhythm that had just faded out form the previous track - the two songs are connected - like a moment of sleep that, in the dreamer's mind, unfolds into a lengthy drama, an artery, half-real and half-imagined, yet pulsating with life, is buried in the silence between these two songs - this connectivity continues where the opening tempo and introductory riff of "The Last You'll Know" resonates the final moments of the preceding "Under the Surface," and the abrupt echoic loop that closes, "The Last You'll Know" signals the tone and tempo shift of opening bars of "Belief" - after witnessing this subtly threaded sequence, the two brief instrumental interludes that bookend "End of the Harvest" no longer sound disjointed, as they are key navigational aids, guiding the listener into and out of that leviathan of a song, and opening a calm space in which the simply gorgeous "Away" can take place - and from out of the driving and punishing title track that follows, the closing instrumental dirge provides the only logical path -
I suppose the case could be made that the members of Neurosis are not the most technically proficient or dexterous musicians - Neurosis may even come across as banal to those who require a more complex and mathematical, or sweetly melodic and harmonic element in the music with which they choose to surround themselves - however, the question of technical prowess is irrelevant, here - this music is obviously not ensconced in cerebral standards; it derives from and appeals to a place more instinctive and ancient, a place deeper in the mind than the intellect - among ensembles that matured from the mainstay rock-combo format of bass, drums, guitar and vocals, and still lay down their fundamental sound as such, none create music as impassioned and captivating as Neurosis - with Times of Grace they have not only plunged into new territory, but they have revised, according to a new, deeper aesthetic, the strongest elements of their previous works - the result is a lurid, confrontational and profound masterpiece -
Song "The Last You’ll Know"
he is the last we'll know ú mercy for you
he is the last you'll know
all revealed in our solace ú see three eyes
all our crimes trial waits everyone
the presence of old eyes is here
grant me the pure heart ú we've lived through
in times of light fire is water
breath and reach to home
all answer, transcendence ú all present
to guide us through terminus and feed us to light
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