In case you don’t want to read to the end, here’s a spoiler — the mighty Neurosis have returned at last, with what could be the best album of the year, and an improvement to my wardrobe.
I don’t want to get too deep into the history on this one, because you probably already know it, but in case you’ve been off-planet for the last few years, here’s the skinny — Neurosis have had Something Of A Time of late.
Basically Scott Kelly turned out to be a massive piece of shit, the rest of the band handled it with wonderful integrity (quietly firing him but not saying anything until the victims had gone public because they knew it wasn’t their story to tell, saying they wished “to honour the family’s wish not to let their experience become gossip in a music magazine” — which is, I guess, just basic human decency, but which still stands out as a great act of kindness in a time when the bar has been set so low) and essentially closed down the band, and my ability to wear my favourite Neurosis shirt, or indeed listen to their music at all, without terrible associations.
Then this year they surprised everyone by reactivating the band with the help of Aaron Turner (of Isis and Sumac) and coming back just as strong, if not stronger than before. Which seems only fitting, really.
To me, Neurosis are the sound of adversity, of apocalypse. You don’t listen to Neurosis as much as survive them, and you come out a better person at the other end. (This does not, of course, mean you don’t enjoy them at the same time, because if you DON’T enjoy that monumental wash of sound and those killer riffs then I honestly don’t know what to tell you). And it’s hard not to draw parallels between their recent career and that reading of their music.
So when An Undying Love For A Burning World dropped, it was an incredible surprise, but one that gave rise to the usual uncertainty of a band returning from hiatus — what it they’re shit now?
Fortunately, they aren’t. As I said up top, this could be my favourite album of the year (and 2026 has Laibach, Wolves In The Throne Room and Green Lung pumping out certified bangers, to mention but three of many). Beginning with “We Are Torn Wide Open”, a cheerful (and short) little ditty about why we suffer which not only sets the scene nicely for what is to follow, but finally provides an answer to the question Napalm Death posed nearly forty years ago.
This swiftly leads us into “Mirror Deep”, which is reminiscent of nothing so much as Filth Pig-era Ministry with its angular riffing, but descends/ascends into more familiar Neurosis territory as it progresses. Which is to say — crushing riffs with periods of uneasy calm. Turner fits perfectly — yes, it IS a bit different, but it’s different in the way any band that pushes boundaries should aim for with a new album. And it still FEELS the same.
I think my favourite track at the moment (this is, of course, always subject to change, and next time I put it on it’ll probably be another one) is “Blind”, which I’d go so far as to recommend if someone needed a suggestion for a track to answer the question “what do Neurosis sound like?”
As ever, it’s not just the volume and riffs that are big, it’s the space they occupy. They’re a lot like (yes) Swans in this respect, to the point where even though you’d never mistake the two bands for one another, it makes perfect sense that there was once a time they discussed touring with Michael Gira as his band (and, of course, DID famously make incredible music with Jarboe).
They both make extreme music that evokes transcendence of one kind or another rather than just transgression for its own sake, and they both make music that strips your soul and lets it rebuild itself better. And they both came from simpler roots (Swans from noise rock and Neurosis from crust punk, to be VERY reductive about the whole thing).
But the main difference with Neurosis is that they are unashamedly METAL, albeit metal with an almost Godspeed You! Black Emperor level of cinematic range. Obviously Noah Landis’s keyboards are a major contributor to this epic sense of scale, but the dynamics and adventurousness of the rest of the band’s more traditional elements are also exceptional.
And this can be seen nowhere better than on album closer “Last Light”, a near-seventeen-minute epic that throws everything at the wall (and it ALL sticks) including a brief lightening of the mood that nods heavily towards Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine. And which illustrates the other side of Neurosis — as the title would suggest, it’s not all harsh bleakness, though most of the music would suggest that.
As Chuck Tingle would say, “love is real”, and love shines through even the harshest parts of the album — the love that drives us on through Hell because somehow it’ll all be worth coming out the other side. All of which, of course, is just a very wordy way of saying it rocks. It rocks fucking HARD.
And the best part? Not only can I once more wear my favourite Neurosis shirt without shame, I can wear it with pride.
-Justin Farrington-
