Neurosis

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• Genre: Doom Metal
• Hometown: Oakland

About

Neurosis has explored a lot of territory since their formation in the mid-'80s. Like pilgrims returning from travels far past the other side, their words and sounds are those of people who have seen too much. Their words delve into mythology and archetypes that might describe some baroque fantasy, but the world they describe is very much our own -- a harsher reality than we are used to confronting in Western Culture. They speak of human existence at its most extreme abjection and beauty. When listening to Neurosis, you are directed head-first into the abyss, facing your most ferocious demons, gloriously illuminated like totems. Though their music has very obvious roots in Metal's guitar density and roaring vocals, they orchestrate their sounds with a complexity few Metal bands can touch. Strings, samplers and keyboards swim through soul-stealing guitars and accumulate as melodic, oftentimes Ambient passages that bridge songs together and create a grounded respite before the next distorted chord falls. Their instruments fall together as a hypnotic pulse following rhythms that border on tribal. You could certainly listen to Neurosis and just rock out, but do you dare to follow their lead into psychic and spiritual risk?

- Marc Kate