Neurosis isn’t your average metal band. What started out as a run-of-the mill band that crosses post-hardcore punk and thrash metal with boring songwriting became one of the premier avant-garde and progressive metal bands of its time. They challenge song structures with build-ups to earned catharsis. Though this often alienated listeners, it’s for the sake of bold art with integrity.
1991’s “Souls at Zero” was one of the first albums that helped push boundaries for what metal was capable of, using experimental music such as the heavily lauded experimental rock band Swans as a blueprint. Since then, the band has continued to prioritize the audience, earning a release from tension through long passages of rising tension instead of instant gratification. While this discouraged some listeners from appreciating their discography, those who stayed enjoyed the grandiose sludginess that is Neurosis’ music as memorable sonic artistry.
However, the band wasn’t without their hiccups. After 2016’s lackluster “Fires Within Fires”, the band seemed to end with a whimper, as a shell of its former self. Belief in a next album would be squashed by a 2019 statement from Neurosis frontman Scott Kelly stating he abused his wife and children. This led the rest of the band to release a public statement after hearing this news for the first time, condemning Kelly for his harmful behavior. Kelly has since retired from making music.
However, out of nowhere on Friday, March 20, Neurosis returned with “An Undying Love for a Burning World” with a new frontman: guitarist and vocalist Aaron Turner of sludge metal band Sumac and post-metal band Isis fame. This surprised and elated many fans who had lost hope of another album from this seminal metal band.
“We Are Torn Wide Open” is a short and sweet spoken declaration for social change within society that condemns the separation of people presumably due to a wide variety in differences as “the root of all our disease.” Turner continues, “The dissonance is deafening”, talking not only to the physical reinforcement of difference but also the cognitive and psychological ones. This would set the tone for the rest of the album’s dismal, post-apocalyptic lyrics.
“Mirror Deep” demonstrates not only a trademark sludge-filled heaviness they were always capable of but also an interest in electronic soundscapes buried in the mix. This helps emphasize not only the chaos of the sound but perhaps also the changes in the world due to digital technology. There’s an interlude in the middle of the song that seems out of place for a band like this, but it was only a build-up to an explosive second part to a metal onslaught almost resembling a jump scare.
“First Red Rays” juxtaposes beautiful, lush guitar melodies partially enhanced by synths layered in and the usual cutthroat abrasiveness of metal. There’s also a buzzy sound effect that pairs well with the wall of sound present for half of the song. There’s also a guitar solo that’s reminiscent of the grunge band Alice in Chains’ “Jar of Flies” EP which makes this song even more beautiful. To make matters even prettier, the clean vocals from Turner near the end of the song are the cherry on top.
“Blind” starts with an unsettling landscape, blending soft spaceship-like industrial noises with a few guitar notes before it draws back into the expected programming. This also has some of the best vocals on the entire album because of the growled lyrics.
“Seething and Scattered” has some of the most interesting lyrics but probably the most boring sonic layout of the entire album comparatively. It follows the theme of separation and difference, as highlighted in the spoken word intro. With the lyrics “Walls of division / A psychic incision” and “Manufactured separation,” it shows how reinforced this cognizance of what makes us different is by the systems and structures that make up our world.
While “Untethered” has a really pretty ending and “In the Waiting Hours” has some of the most memorable bass playing on the album, “Last Light” blows the last stretch — and the entire album — out of the water. Starting with programmed kick drums and a loud, crunchy synth, you wouldn’t expect this song to be one of Neurosis’ most beautiful compositions in their entire discography. However, sticking true to the prolonged road to catharsis Neurosis is notorious for, it offers the listener a beautiful melodic progression that merges analog and digital sounds. It ultimately sounds like accepting existential defeat in a dilapidating world. It’s a reward not only for listening to the album, but for surviving as long as we did.
Neurosis kept their ethos of challenging songwriting but adapted it for a world all too familiar with technology through incorporating electronic sounds in their music. The result is something that can either stand the test of time or age with us. Either way, it’s beautiful and something worth embracing.