Reviving old elements while continuing to move forward
Neurosis are an easy band to be a fan of. Throughout their 20-year career they have released album after album of high quality music. Their discography has covered a lot of ground--two albums of Discharge/Black Flag/Amebix influenced metallic hardcore, their mid period artsy sludge metal (which has now been crafted into an entire subgenre by Isis, Pelican, Mastodon, Minsk, Rwake, etc), and finally their latest material, which replaced titanic metal riffs with equally vast and bleak guitar work. They’ve proved that whenever they release an album, it will be just as good as any of their previous efforts and different enough as to not be repetitive.
Given to the Rising was promised by the band to be “71+ minutes of brutality and heaviness combined with all the interior space and wind-swept isolation of the more recent albums." They deliver this right away, starting the album off with a riff more destructive than anything heard on their previous two albums. Despite bringing back the primal and aggressive side of their music, Neurosis have not come full circle back to Times of Grace. Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till have not begun screaming again, but instead stick to the menacing whispers and pained ‘singing’ (their vocal chords are so damaged that any melody they muster from them is beaten and raped into sounding like a husky grunt or moan). The beautiful soundscapes of The Eye of Every Storm are used in contrast to the band’s rediscovered brutality. After the volcanic climax of “Fear And Sickness” crumbles to a halt, the delicate guitars of “To The Wind” appear like the first plants growing from the ruins of a catastrophe.
Given to the Rising sees Neurosis pushing their sound forward while still possessing the same depressive, cathartic, and primal atmosphere that has been a continuous thread throughout their albums. Its only flaw is that “At The End Of The Road” and “Hidden Faces” end before their ideas feel fully developed, leaving the middle of the album somewhat unfulfilling. Summary: 71+ minutes of Neurosis doing their thing just as well a they ever have. Fans of any of their previous six albums definitely won’t be disappointed, but if you haven’t liked any of their previous efforts they’re unlikely to win you over now.
| Reviewer: Jeff Mcquiggan Added: June 12th 2007 |
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