Sitting With Snoxy In A Dark Room Full Of Spiders

As some of you may have heard, Californian Post-Metal legends Neurosis have announced the title and release date for their upcoming studio album. This record will be their tenth studio album and will follow up 2007’s Given To The Rising. For those anxious to know, the new record will be titled Honor Found In Decay. The album will be released through the band’s own label Neurot Recordings in Germany October 26th in the UK October 29th and in North America on October 30th.

This release is important to me for a few reasons. Don’t care? Too bad, I will continue to explain regardless. Ever since I discovered Neurosis back in late 2010 (I’m a young fan of the band, but a devout one nonetheless), I have been obsessed. At first, their music was alienating. I didn’t fully start developing my musical tastes until that year. Earlier in the year I was addicted to bands like Slipknot and System of a Down as they were introducing me to heavier music (beforehand I listened to mainly Classic Rock and Punk music, as well as some Alternative Rock). As my tastes rapidly grew over the year (with a big thanks to Last.fm), I discovered a little band named ISIS. Intrigued by them, I checked out their music on Youtube and heard their song Holy Tears, and straight away I downloaded all their music.

I didn’t like any of their other stuff.

Keep in mind that the heaviest band I listened to at that point in time was Slipknot and I was having a hard time adjusting to harsh vocals. I left ISIS to sit on the back burner for a couple of months while I discovered more music and developed my tastes, which brought my love to Opeth, a band I heard on the radio back in 2007 and fell in love. The song was Porcelain Heart, and as you may expect, I didn’t like any of their other stuff either. I eventually grew a liking for Opeth as I was fond of Mikael Åkerfeldt’s singing voice. As I developed a tolerance and eventually a liking for growls and harsh vocals, I went back to ISIS. And things were very different this time. Before when I tried their work, I heard nothing but dissonance and ugly vocals, but this time around I heard what was to become one of the most important bands in my life.

That’s when I discovered my Post-Metal obsession.

Through ISIS I discovered bands like Cult of Luna, Rosetta, Mouth of the Architect, Old Man Gloom, Zozobra, Callisto, Battle of Mice, Fall of Efrafa and one very special band: Neurosis. I found out that Neurosis had created and pioneered the Post-Metal genre, so of course they were a new essential to me. I put on a random album of theirs (I got all their albums): Given To The Rising. Shit, son. This was some dense stuff. I couldn’t dig it. I couldn’t even appreciate it. I flat out disliked it straight away. But everywhere I saw people praising this band, so I kept giving them chances. I sat down with my headphones on and I listened to Enemy of the Sun four times in a row. I was uncomfortable and totally disliking the whole experience. Yet again, I tried. “Through Silver In Blood is the greatest Post-Metal album of all time,” they said. I tried it. Nothing. I had almost given up, when I decided to give them one more chance. I listened to The Eye of Every Storm. The album ended and I was awestruck. Everything clicked. I listened to TEoES five times that night and fell in love with it. I listened to all their albums and I suddenly saw what everybody else could see. I even dug their first two albums, which were Hardcore/Crust Punk (though I would have been more partial to those albums to begin with, as I grew up on Punk).
If you stayed through this and read my rambling, then we come to this point: Neurosis are (apart from Bad Religion and ISIS) the most important band in my life. I love every one of their albums beyond belief. They’ve been a turning point when I need motivation or inspiration, giving me a feeling of wonder that not many bands have achieved. Two years later and my tastes have evolved exponentially and I’m still learning and finding more music to enjoy. A long stretch from my Slipknot days, I love almost anything now and nothing seems too difficult to get into.

This is an album I have been anticipating for two years and my first experience of waiting for a Neurosis album. Since then I have looked into every possible connected Neurosis project to sink my teeth into. From Steve and Scott’s solo works to the band’s Ambient alter-ego Tribes of Neurot (as well as their artist Josh Graham’s bands Battle of Mice and A Storm of Light). But nothing compares to Neurosis and my deep sense of adoration I hold for them now.

This is my most anticipated album of the year, and I’m sure it will be my album of the year. I may be expecting too much from the band, but who knows. I doubt they could let me down.

But what will it sound like? Ever since Times of Grace, Neurosis have been working on…not softening their sound, but toning down the density of it. They eventually came to The Eye of Every Storm, which was their calmest album yet and saw a large portion of ambient tendencies. Then the brought out Given To The Rising, which was incredibly dense, with thick, sludgy guitars and a heavy sound likened back to their days when they made Through Silver In Blood. We can only wonder what they will do next, but ultimately I hope to hear them expand upon the sound to explored on The Eye of Every Storm and I (fanboy pipe dreams) hope they release an I Can See You, Pt. 2. Unlikely, but that song is perfect from every aspect.

Anyway, this became a lot longer and drawn out than I expected it to. Neurosis. New album. October. Get excited. Get pumped. If you haven’t heard Neurosis, or never got into them, DO IT. Listen to all their albums on repeat until October.

I’m Michael Snoxall. And this is my extremely long and ultimately pointless blog.