There’s really not many laughs with [a]Neurosis[/a]. But if you like the sound of the ground collapsing beneath your feet or the anguished wails of a million tortured souls trapped in a post-everything void, then baby, you’ve come to the right place.
Back once again after more than ten years on the grimy noise-rock circuit, you have to respect these San Francisco apocalypse punks’ dedication to total sonic destruction, because with every return visit they somehow become bigger, darker and heavier. Still raging against the world’s ills with more force than ever.
Looking like extras from the set of Deliverance 2, [a]Neurosis[/a] crush all industrial/grind/noise competition with one tattooed fist, mainly because nobody can make guitars sound like big orchestras of exploding tower blocks quite like lead ‘Rosis dudes Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till. Their dual screaming attack combines to terrifying effect on set opener ‘The Doorway’ where we find the two, [I]”nailed to the crossroads, searching for the piece of me that wasn’t mine, blood dripping from my hands”[/I].
It’s grim stuff for sure, but played with such unrelenting passion and drama that it’s hard not to feel infected by their beautiful darkness.
From the tender explosion of ‘Away’ to the surgical brutality of ‘Lost’, [a]Neurosis[/a] make some of the most affecting, 21st-century blues music around today.