Neurosis : "An Undying Love For a Burning World"

 

With the official start of World War 3 underway today, how could Neurosis not reconvene to drop a new album? Aaron Turner is replacing Scott Kelly. It's pretty seamless considering this. There is a hint of rock n' roll, but both Isis and Sumac are heavily influenced by Neurosis, so it seems like a natural fit and flows very organically. It's back to the dissonant sludge heaviness with an angular crunch moving the riffs. "First Red Rays" is very dark and ominous; at times, it feels as if they are looking back toward "Souls at Zero."  A low growl prevades, leading you into the desolate sonic space. 

They come on strong and don't simmer in a great deal of atmosphere until "Blind", this one moves with the kind of bong-laden apocalyptic sludge groove you expect from them, with and empahsis on the bong more than the aggression of when they were once crust punks. It veers off into more surreal places dynamically. Exeuted differently here to some extent, it is familiar enough to sit firmly in their wheelhouse.  Some what post-rock by definition, and certainly bearing some influence of Swans, yet firmly their own sound. 

There is more of a post-punk feel stirring from inside the density of "Seething and Scattered". There is a great deal of vocal trade-off that Turner blends well. They expand and recoil as a Neurosis song should. "Untethered" is sonically expansive without being overtly heavy. There is an organic, jammy feel to this. "In the Waiting Hours" is alot to take in but delivers what you want form a Neurosis song as it is pummelling when it needs to be but still takes you on a journey."The last song finds the arrangement sprawling out until it dissolves into ambiance. It winds its way around into dark folk sitting against a noisy undercoating. Things get trippy ten minutes into this. They wander off into a more tribal drone. I will give this one a 10 as I think it opens a new chapter that holds up well against their legacy, even in the absence of Kelly. 

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Guiltless : "Teeth to Sky"

This band's EP earned an 8.5, as it sounded almost too much like Neurosis. I love Neurosis, but I also own all those albums already. Featuring members of Intronaut and A Storm of Light, they are established sludge veterans. The challenge here is going to be able to do something aside from paying tribute to Neurosis. Those elements are present, but the guitars are doing more to add a layer of atmosphere that shows you more of who they are. The throaty howl of the vocals might be the most limiting element of what they are doing. Even Neurosis uses varied vocal approaches. By the second song, this is starting to cast a more uniform haze over the songs. It is a little heavier and crunching, but that is not enough of a dynamic shift to maintain for the album.

Some people will become enamored by the heavy guitar tone they captured here. They write angular riffs that are weighty. But a song is a story and every story needs to go somewhere. "Our Serpent in Circle" finds the vocals shift. It is a bellow, that comes closer to singing. The song itself slows to a doomier pace. This works better, while there is more brooding in the title track, the atmosphere does put things in a more Neurosis-like place. "Lone Blue Vale' trudges down a similar dark path as the previous songs with the painful howl of the vocals. 

The drummer remains impressive on this album, but they need to get away from this guitar tone for the sake of writing songs is it takes things back to the same place all too often. The last song has a chance to break from what they have been doing though it is almost too little too late. There is a little more ebb and flow and almost has an industrial feel, though plods along with a purpose more like doom. I will give this one an 8.5, as well, so they perform at a very consistent level and it sounds less like Neurosis than the previous album but churns with a predictable fury.Ironically released on Neurot Recordings, so it's Neurosis approved.  

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Great Falls : "Objects Without Pain"

 

This Seattle-based band gets weird. They go from minimalist slowcore to explosive noise rock. The vocals are yelled in a tortured manner that implies he is losing his mind. The guitars are certainly dense enough when they decide to be to warrant sludge comparisons, though they hit you from a more angular direction. The only drawback is that the nine-minute opener covers a wide range of sonics but is not always cohesive in terms of arrangements.  "Trap Feeding" is chaos. A collision of sometimes powerful chugged riffs that have gone askew in their rebellion for song structure. 

By the time we get to "Born As an Argument," we are now in more hardcore territory as it is clear that is where the vocals are coming from, and the bashing has the recklessness of punk. The drumming is the most impressive element here. "Old Worlds Worn Thin" returns to a darker more deliberate menace, that owes more to sludge than punk. The caterwauling howl of the vocals opens the doors to less structure or direction. "Spill into the Aisle" is more hammering and yelling, it's the other furious sonic shade that really makes their sound. The gnarly bass tone that starts off driving things is pretty effective. 

There is much more in common with hardcore than other styles of heavy music aside from the fact the producer dialed in the guitars to give them more of a sludge sound. The melodic middle section of "Ceilings Inch Closer" , counterbalances the more aggressive manner in which the song starts off.  "the Straveling" proves the most overt way might not be the best, as it is a more varied blend of hardcore that is more original than the bulk of the album. The last song might be more metallic, but hearing how the vocals control the narrative the feral yelling sets the mood. I will round this album up to an 8 as they capture some convincing sounds while not being complacent wit the direction the scene is going. Out on Nuerot Records 

Tension Span : " The Future Died Yesterday"

Here is how punk should be done. Bleak and grim. It is brought to you by Noah Landis of Neurosis and members of Asunder and Dystopia. The songs deal with the impending apocalypse the world is heading toward. Dark and tense as post punk, but it has the middle finger pointed at the sky as punk should. " the Crate Song" is as aggressive as Black Flag with burning chug infusing the guitars. "Filaments" is the first song where they back off of the aggressive and allow more the kind of atmosphere that would make this post-punk. Post-punk has always been one of the under currents that influenced Neurosis, so this should not be a surprise, but it fits into the cross roads where early punk came from and lines of sub-genres we define music now by where not yet common place. This just grooves. 

They snap back with angrier punk snarl on "Ventilator". One of the great things about this album is that its song focused. They do not rely on the sheer raw power of speed or sonic rowdiness to just have a temper tantrum. They have purposeful lyrics that you can make out and the message comes across pretty clear. They take a crack at Christianity on "Covered In His Blood" that uses samples in a very Negativeland manner.  "Problem People' carries a great deal of melody in its mid-tempo clang. The phrasing of the lyrics feels more like Dead Kennedys, though the music carries a more ambient drone. When the bass line steps up into the mix, it does feel more post-punk to some extent on "Trepidation". There is an almost death rock creepiness to it. Matt Parrillo from Dystopia / Kicker handles the bass on this album, and I am impressed by his tone. 

So far, the only time they get more focused on sound than song is the instrumental " I Have to Smile" which sounds cool, but pretty much just drones on the one theme. They take a more straight forward punk attack, with perhaps a more aggressive attitude. They lock back into a darker post-punk tension on "I Can't Stop the Process", another one that works off a drone more than using vocals, yet the samples [provide enough of a narrative. They split the difference between the two vibes on the last song. There is no question this album is a 10 as this is what punk should be. It comes out on Neurot Records September 30th

9.9

CHRCH : "Light Will Consume Us All"

Twenty minute opening songs tend to piss me off. This one could have had the first 5 minutes shaved off as it takes that long for them to break out of the drone and get down to business. This waste of time is a shame because the Sacramento trio has their sound dialed in for their 2nd full length. The female vocals have a crusty touch to them. Riff wise They play off the same theme. The vocals become a nastier scowl the more this song builds. At the 13 minute mark it ebbs back down for her to lightly sing over. This part drags on for longer than need be as well and could have shaved another 3 minutes off this song. That would have made this a more compelling 12 minute song. The guitar solos are well done, but also get a little on the jammy side.

They throw some pretty weighty sludge on you with "Portals". In fact it reminds me a little of King Woman. The difference being the vocals here sound really good over the guitar. This band creates cool sounds where King Woman writes cool songs. The hypnotic elements are easy to get lost in. To the point you can't tell where you are at in the song. They cross the line from sludge to doom on the last song "Aether". If you don't know how that is done, the answer is ...adding a more mournful or morose interval. Adding a darker or more sinister tone can work to like Black Sabbath did when they added the tri-tone. Though Black Sabbath was never just a doom band. It's done hear and it almost become more of a funeral doom due to how lethargic and dramatic things get. The vocals become a more faint layer. The guitar is beautiful on this song, though I wish the vocals contributed more to the meat of the song. Midway into the song the screamed vocals work pretty well. They come even more to the forefront for a black metal tinged part when things speed way up.

The last song pretty much tipped the balance for this album, so I am giving it an 8. These kids have a ton of potential and they are almost to that King Woman or Pall Bearer level, the songs just need a little more fine tuning and less drone off a riff type of thing, that I am not singling these guys out for as it often comes with the genre, I think they can exceed expectations so I am not going to just lump them in with the hundreds of other sludge bands in my in-box.

Deaf Kids : "Configuração Do Lamento"

So these guys from Brazil got signed by Neurot Records on the merits of a Cvlt Nation article. While I write for Cvlt Nation we do not always see eye to eye on certain qualities of music, though it could be that they typically approach things from more of a punk perspective while I grew up listening to metal so , things like punk production value don't fly with me most of the time. Here that is a factor along with songwriting. I know it's vulgar to ask someone making music to write actual songs no matter what angle they are working their novelty. I had to listen to this album twice to figure out what was going on. They open with a percussive ditty that has a more industrial feel to it falling somewhere between Ministry and Devo. But it never turns into an actual song. Then comes a barrage of drumming. I have never been one to hang out in drum circles so it's not all that impressive of an interlude though might work as part of an actual song. There is more of that confrontational industrial punk on the 3rd  song which is the first song that sound like real song. That doesn't mean it progresses beyond the initial attack though the attack they make is strong enough to pretty much stand on it's own.

This is followed up with a noise center punk drum beat and shouting under the pretense of being a song that never really gets out from under the noise in a way that really allows it to become one. After this you reminded that you don't have to have any talent or musical ability to be hyped. They prove this by wasting two minutes and forty seconds of everyone's time with just noise and not a single note of music. While the production has been rough for the bulk of what I guess we are trying to call an album here, it gets worse at their next attempt at a song which devolves into noise. Sepultura came out of Brazil so we have heard some actual music there, though for industrial post-punk, it is not something in their genetic make up. They allow some monkeys to beat on pots nad pans that were left out in the rain and then have the audacity to title it like its a song.

We are back to a somewhat more conventional attempt to make music with the last song, though song is still being used as a very loose term here. There is a drum beat, and vocals buried under a blanket of noise with a guitar riff that sounds like it is being played by someone who is still trying to learn how to hold a pick. Overall this is a new low for even punk. I will round this down to a 3. That is minutes of my life I will never get back and if performance art is worth that to you I suppose that is your business , though I think their name refers to the audience that would really get what they do.

Ufomammut : "8"

Bongs across the world must be aflame so the trend of super psyche filled doom continues this time coming from Italy. I just hit publish on the new Monolord album, when I started listening to this and these guys are even further out in the cosmos. Where Monolord hits you with fuzzed out density, these guys have the Sabbath core of doom obscured by clouds of tripping haze. The vocals feel more Pink Floyd like to me than carrying any kind of an Ozzy influence. With each song they take you further into the depths of their warped rabbit hole. By the second song it's clear the drummer is a fucking champ. They establish more tension on "Warsheep". These are not catchy songs that grab your ear with their infectious allure. Instead they are immensely interesting and captivating in a more cerebral fashion.  They do lock into some more conventional doom like riffs here and there, but the organic melting of ear movement into another has a life of its own.

"Zodiac" carries over the rumble from the previous song. They vocals are more shouted. Two minutes into this song they launch into a cool progressive groove. So this is not for doom purists , but I think even they can find plenty to love about this album. Normally I might be bitching about songs going over the 9 minute mark, but these guys know how to fill every minute. This album begins to work more in movements, much like how "Zodiac" progressed out of the song before it the same could be said of "Fatum". The heavilly effected vocals do kind follow a Ozzy like cadence in how they bounce of the thicker pounding laid under them. Heading into the three minute mark it's so heavy it is sick. Once again the groove of the preceding it given a twist into something new this time it's "Prismaze". There is more of a palm muted tension that reminds me a little of Tool, but on more drugs. "Core" is a more punishing explosion than anything they have offered up so far on this album.

The first solid Sabbath thumbprint is not until "Wombdemonium". This is one of the album's more straight forward moments. At only three minutes they still manage to do better than most of the sprawling merchants of 13 minute doom. I think the dark groove to "Psyrcle" is more compelling . There is a weird hint of a female vocal sampled in and the lead vocals have more of a chanted quality to them. I was not expecting the tempo shift midway into the song.I'll give this album a 9.5 it's an excellent blend of surreal and heavy and another step forward for this band who is clearly not afraid to be different and I commend them for it.

Neurosis : " Fires Within"

One of the most important things I had to adjust in my expectations of this album was thinking that while they are certainly the pioneers of sludge metal, Neurosis is no longer really a metal band. They do eventually get heavy once the vocals kick in on "Bending Light" which opens the albums. They spend the first half of the song wandering around a dark and trippy landscape. These are sounds that please my ears, but it's not "Souls at Zero" or "Through Sliver and Blood". So if that is what you want then there is some acceptance that needs to take place as a listener. I think the direction they are headed on this album is truer to who they are as a band than the more Pink Floydian journey of "Honor Found in Decay".

There is a more post-rock feel to the beginning of " A Shadow Memory". Perhaps it doesn't find them coming down like the ten ton hammer they once hit us with, but it's still good music. I don't have to dig to far to find what it is about this album that is working for me. It's darker. For me I'll take dark in place of metal heavy on most days of the week. Darkness is it's own heaviness. Depression can be more crushing of an emotion  than hate. It's not contrived just marked by a somber grimness even when they start rocking out toward the end of  "A Shadow Memory".  There is a more monolithic lumber that might not trample you like their earlier work, but is effective on "Fire is the End Lesson". It is rough around the edges in manner that is almost more grunge tinged than sludgey. It is different than anything I can recall the band doing in the more up-beat manner of it's tempo. It does evolve into the kind of heaviness that we remember them for.

There is a kraut rock like swelling of sound to the opening of "Broken Ground". Scott Kelly goes into his Tom Waits influenced croon. It does eventually build up into a heavier place, though I don't think it's done quite as effectively as it was on the previous song and by now we all know the soft to loud formula.The rock riff they lock into in cool stoner rock jam, but they have just proved to us on the first two songs they can do more than dial it in. But their dialing it in is better than the best most of the younger bands riding their apron strings can accomplish.

They close with the ten minute "Reach". Their use of sung vocals works much better here. This is more of a dark western inflected rock song. On a heaviness scale it leans more toward Screaming Trees. Musical things are more on the surreal and minimal side allowing the vocals to carry most of the weight.When it begins to drift off into a more atmospheric place it retains the virtue of doing this in a darker manner. A thick angular bass line helps to build it up in a heavier direction, that you had to expect. I'll round this one up to a 9 for now and see how it sits with me . If you are of the belief that this band can do no wrong, then that blind devotion will inspire you to round it up.

The Body & Full of Hell "One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache"

The Body just loves doing these albums with other artists. This one is more experimental and interesting than the collaboration with Kreig. The annoying squawked vocals from the Body are still present. The first song is more noise than music though there is a little metal tossed in. The second song is less metal, but more coherent in it's incoherence. The electronic elements are more center stage to the point of making this album sound like a re-mix. There is more of an industrial feel to their cover of Leonard Cohen's " The Butcher". It like the following descends more into clunking and pounding noise.Perhaps if it wasn't for the annoying vocal that the Body contributes I would think of it as a more organic version of what Author & Punisher does. It almost goes with out saying that this is a cover in the loosest sense of the term as it has nothing in common with the original version. It is more inspired by perhaps, but even there its hard to hear any Leon Cohen in this craziness, so maybe the joke is they are butchering the Butcher.

"Himmel Und Holle" sounds like they are throwing there instruments down a spiral staircase, but the industrial beating they give on "Bottled Um" is more to my liking as it might drone on the one riff, but it has more musical merit. They swell this one into a fairly expansive sound. You can hear more of Full of Hell on the raging "the Little Death". A lot here is contingent on what you expect from song writing and music in general. I think the album's strength lies in the places where they touch upon the place that has come about in the past few years where sludge and industrial meet. More often than not these songs drone on the one theme, adding intensity or sonic abrasion to it rather than composing a song that goes some where.  I'll give this one  a 5.5, if you love the Body and have a higher threshold for their tormented chicken noises then you can round it up a point. I think Full of Hell holds back a little here in order to play nice with others.


This is being released March 26th on Neurot Recordings

Corrections House : "Know How to Carry a Whip"

While it was an enjoyable listen , I was not blown away by their first album, however Their second album gets off to a much more industrial start. I of course  upon  my initial listen like this more than the first album since its darker. Even the samples that begin bubbling up from behind the jagged guitar sound like they could have been on a 90s Neurosis album."Super Glued Tooth" keeps the industrial pound and grim guitar , this time spoken word vocals about some kind of bleak Gummo like white trash life runs underneath it with sung vocals where a chorus might be.  The spoken vocals become more punk like in their exclamation. This builds up momentum as the beat quickens. "White Man's Gonna Lose" finds the beat much dancier than some thing you would expect attached to one of the members of Eyehategod. If you ever wanted to know what it might sound like for Neurosis to collide with Ministry then " Hopeless Moronic" is your answer and it's an answer I'm a fan of .

There is more of a Death In June thing going on for " Visions Divide". The sax that comes in at the end is fore shadowing of some of the narcotic murkiness to come. Things go back to a heavier more apocalyptic tone for "The Hall of Cost" where the vocals sound  like a preacher is losing his mind . There is a ebm mixed vibe to the dark sax drenched "When Push Comes to the Shank". It's very "Dark Side of the Spoon " era Ministry. This song makes it clear the first album could have used more of Bruce Lamont's Morrison like vocals . Hopefully goth kids will catch wind of this album or they are going to be missing out. At the five minute mark its clear they are just jamming this one out for the sake of drone, though there is a pretty cool build before the seven minute mark.

Then someones drugs kick in. "I Was Never Good at Meth" , is an incredible title, but the reality of the song is some spoken word ranting and simmering noise. The album closes with "Burn the Witness" . It takes the first two minutes of this seven minute song to get things brewing, then it seethes as very dark Neurosis murmur. The beat comes in an its basically more industrial Neurosis, which is not a bad thing. I'll round this up to a 9, and see how it grows on me. A vast improvement from the first album and I want to hear them dig further into the darkness on the next one. This comes out October 23rd.

Dark Buddha Rising : "Inversum"

My hunger for doom is the only thing that kept me from balking in the face of  an album comprised of two twenty minute songs. Songs over ten minutes are becoming my pet peeve in metal...unless it is done right so lets see if they can rise to the challenge of having that going against them. This is the band's fifth album and the first for Neurot Records so we can only hope that it means they feel the need to prove themselves.  They drone on for eight minutes until it begins to turn into a real song once the chanted vocals come in. To their credit the guitar sound is more organic than your average low tuned thunk powered by  vintage amps. Right before the ten minute mark the song begins to take more of a Sabbath like lurch. The vocals are effected and distanced in the mix at this point and they are running  the song off of an ominous drone. The once smoky riff begins to take more solid form as it locks in with the drums. Its a cool dark groove, nothing mind blowing. Some of the vocals layering is also pretty cool,  with the more tormented vocal sitting atop the chant. The song gain steam in the last few minutes and picks up the pace as the more anguished vocals come to the forefront.

The second song "Exo" lingers in the atmosphere for the first two and a half minutes, which is fine since they have another twenty two minutes to kill. Drums begin to set the tone with a minimal tribal pound. The guitar follows with a slow strum. It sounds like throat singing and a didgeridoo set up the arrival of the ominous pounding that drones you deaf. Ten minutes left and it feels like they really haven't gotten started yet. Some one is ranting over it for a few minutes, but nothing that would yet make this a song. Around the sixteen minute mark real singing begins to intone it's chant. They move into a heavier pound, but this change is really a matter of accents. Things build up  and speed up almost twenty minutes in making me think this could have easily been a six minute song at most.


To the band's credit this album does set some rather bleak post- apocalyptic tone that I like, and the album is well recorded and performed for what they are going for. I think the long winded nature would be better served streamlined and still get the point across, though I believe they accomplished what they set out to create here so you can't fault them for that. What that is that they created really is a one time listen for me since I quit smoking pot, but if you are looking for some music to light up the bong to then this would be recommended. I'll give it a 6. This album drops September 25th, check out one of the songs below.

Ufomammut: "Ecate"

This is the Italian doom trio's seventh album since forming in 1999. They play a thick stony brand of doom somewhere between Yob and Zoroaster. The ten minute opener is almost an instrumental as the vocals are thrown way behind the guitars , then the faint whispering of vocals enters in the songs final three minutes. They find some interesting sounds and seem to be off to a pretty good start here. The riffs are pretty basic and droning, their signature move seems to be distracting you from this fact by swirling some sonic surrealism around your ears. They raise the rumble on the bellowing trudge of "Plouton". The build momentum until they have sped past the boundaries of doom and are in more sludge country, which truth be told is what this felt like from the get go.

"Chaosecret" breaks down into a lingering crawl with samples dripping off of it's monolithic lumber. slow boiling the vocals take their place in the back of your hallucinating mind. One again their formula proves to be build things up in the final three minutes and lead you on for the first seven. The vocals almost industrial like. Distant and distorted the fall between being shouted through a machine and sung. "Temple" finds the band dragging the thick slabs of fuzzed out distortion through the post- apocalyptic landscape they seem to be wandering in. The song hits a groove that it speeds up and plays around with, but five minutes into it I found myself drifting away from the song. They do add some accents and punches in the  final three minutes but at that point it feels like too little to late. Though I do like the industrial feeling of the production.

"Revelation" is just a spacey interlude that sets you up for the tense and winding riff of "Daemons". This tight palm muted affair has a similar attack that Tool or Kyuss might employ. the more the song progresses I an hear that it's "Opiate" era Tool I am referring to most likely "Piece of Me". It might be the most conventional song on the album , but it is also the most infectious and you can't help but bang your head to it a little.I am a little split on this as I am torn between lack of originality and sound so I'll leave it up to you as to which is more important. If originality is the most important factor then around this down to a 7.5, if the overall sound is and you don't care where you might have heard it before then give it an 8.