Neurosis: From The Hill – new video

 

 

NEUROSIS, who have just recently parted ways with their visual artist of the last twelve years, Josh Graham, and who are about to begin the process of reinventing their live presentation without visual projections that have been part of their live shows over the last twenty years, have also just released a video for the track ‘From The Hill’, taken from NEUROSIS' 2001's album ‘A Sun That Never Sets’ and directed by Josh Graham. ‘A Sun That Never Sets’ is available via Relapse Records.

In related news, in October 2012, NEUROSIS unbound their tenth album, ‘Honor Found In Decay’, via the band's own label Neurot Recordings. Stream the album's opening track ‘We All Rage In Gold’, courtesy VICE Magazine's music channel, below and listen to ‘At The Well’ here (NPR). Since NEUROSIS don’t just record songs but rather forge them, they’ve turned to revered engineer Steve Albini to capture their monolithic sound at Electrical Audio studios in Chicago. The seven tracks were then mastered by John Golden at Golden Mastering in Ventura, California. Since aesthetics have until recently been paramount for NEUROSIS, they, namely Steve Von Till, Scott Kelly, Noah Landis, Jason Roeder and Dave Edwardson, once again sought out Josh Graham to brilliantly evoke NEUROSIS' musical vision. Take an intense look into the new opus, created by Josh Graham and Kenneth Thomas, below. Buy the prodigious album (as well as the rest of NEUROSIS stuff) here (Neurot Recordings):

“The music on ‘Honor Found In Decay’ is both torturous and transcendent,” [wrote an introduction to the album J. Bennett] “It is the ongoing exposition of a vast internal dialogue that seems to carry the weight of eons. With the right kind of ears and eyes, it can seem like the trials and tribulations of mankind are being channeled through five individuals: Steve Von Till, Scott Kelly, Noah Landis, Jason Roeder and Dave Edwardson. And yet? They will be the first ones to tell you that they are just regular people trying to make sense of the world around them. Aided by Josh Graham, their resident visual guru, they transmit their interpretations through multiple sensory planes. The degree to which NEUROSIS allow them to step out of their everyday lives is the distance between one and zero, the distance between thinking and doing, the distance between this minute and the one that may or may not follow. Which is to say: NEUROSIS take them outside of themselves and brings them closer to themselves. Simultaneously.”

“… all NEUROSIS appear willing to divulge about their tenth studio full-length's titular theme is that, as all things in life inevitably decay, one can only try to face the inevitable with honor - in their case, through the language of music, naturally. So let those who hath understanding reckon the deeper meanings behind this particular song cycle, and while they’re at it, why not figure out the secret behind the band's surprisingly fruitful relationship with engineer Steve Albini, which is going on five albums now. … In sum, if there is in fact honor to be found in the planet's unstoppable decay, then NEUROSIS are just the band to soundtrack it, and nothing here indicates they won’t continue to rank among progressive music's leading explorers, well beyond those temporal musical fashions discussed earlier,” [dwelled on those temporal musical fashions less that you might suspect him to Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic – more here]

 

Formed in Oakland, California in 1985, NEUROSIS put forth their first album in 1987; ‘Pain Of Mind’ reportedly contained “short bursts of hate and attitude” as described by Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic (more here). Their transitional album from hardcore to avant-garde metal followed in 1990 (‘The World As Law’) and 1992's ‘Souls At Zero’ “drew on everything from goth rock drama and medieval folk stylings to a tribal stomp and dub pace to epic howls to the universe”, as put by Ned Raggett, AllMusic (more here). NEUROSIS' “masterpiece of on-the-edge, high-volume rampage that resists easy genre classification” (more here), ‘Enemy Of The Sun’, came next in 1993. Their critically acclaimed 1996's ‘Through Silver In Blood’ was their first for Relapse Records; ‘Times Of Grace’ followed in 1999 and their seventh album, ‘A Sun That Never Sets’, came next in 2001. Blending industrial, heavy metal and alternative rock, 2004's album ‘The Eye Of Every Storm’ was described by AllMusic's Jason MacNeil as “calmness surrounded by gorgeous yet brooding moments” (more here), and, released through their own label Neurot Recordings, ‘Given To The Rising’ appeared in 2007:

“This is a one hell of an album, better than anyone had any right to expect, and one of the high moments in a career filled with them. NEUROSIS have no need of caricatures or “more evil than thou” posturing. They are in a league of their own, and from the sounds of ‘Given To The Rising’, will remain there for some time,” [praised the record Thom Jurek, AllMusic – more here]

NEUROSIS features: Scott Kelly – guitar and vocals, Steve Von Till – guitar and vocals (filters and textures), Dave Edwardson – bass and synthesizer (space), Noah Landis – organ, piano and samples (atmospheres), Jason Roeder – drums