Music Reviews: Neurosis - Times of Grace

One of the bands that had the biggest influence on me, Neurosis were founded in California in the year of 1985 by the guitarist Scott Kelly and bassist Dave Edwardson. Initally, a Crust Punk band (most notably in their "Pain of Mind EP" (1987) and "The Words as Law" (1989)), Neurosis evolved and suffered style changes, which lead to, after the release of "Souls at Zero" (1992), and "Enemy of the Sun" (1993), being credited as the founders of the Post-Metal genre; genre in which, to this day, though their sound has suffered as if metamorphosis from album to album, the band is still inserted in. If it is you can label Neurosis. They can go from Sludge, to Experimental, to Folk Doom, to Post-Metal, within each album, sometimes even within the very songs; examples of this can be found in the songs "Stones From the Sky", "Away", and others. Neurosis are their own music genre, one of the few bands which is completely unique and true to itself, making completely self-centered music - music for themselves - not making a living out of music, all of the band members working full-time jobs. All of the band members have solo/side-projects which are totally worth checking out, such as Red Sparowes and Blood & Time, projects which i'm very into and will definitly review in here one day. They credit influences by bands such as Joy Division, King Crimson, Amebix, Jimi Hendrix, and even the country musician Hank Williams.

Neurosis are formed by Scott Kelly (guitar, vocals), Steve Von Till (guitar, vocals, percussion), Dave Edwardson (bass, synthetizer, keyboard), Noah Landis (keyboard, organ, piano, samples), Jason Roeder (drums), and Josh Graham. Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till write the most part of the lyrics. Josh Graham does not play an instrument in Neurosis, but is instead a visual artist for the band, working on the album covers, videos, and the amazing live visuals, which play a huge part of the apolitic mammoth which is Neurosis when playing live. Though I never saw them live in person (it is one of the bands I cannot die without seeying live), Neurosis is my favorite live act, delivering bone-crushing volumes, yet retaining the clarity of each instrument, and bestowing the shows with so much emotion that it seems that they BECOME the music they're playing, impersonating it. If you catch a chance to see them live, don't think twice. Actually, don't think twice, just jump on the wagon!!

About this particular album - "Times of Grace" was released in 1999, and was immediately acclaimed by many critics, listeners, and musicians as their best work ever, title which, to many (and i'm inclined to agree), it still maintains. Troy Sanders (bass and vocals for the band Mastodon), quotes Times of Grace as his favorite record.
While in "Souls at Zero", "Enemy of the Sun", and "Through Silver in Blood" (1996) the band had created a sound which was extremely full, at times almost "overloaded", "Times of Grace" was recorded with a simpler, more minimalist approach, as if trying to filter the very essence of the music, emotion, and the true tonality of the band's instruments/equipment, which, still mantaining alot of textures and some underlaying samples, made the sound clearer. Steve Albini, who first worked with Neurosis from "Times of Grace" to this day, played an important part of this stripping down of the sound, adding his philosophy, which is making the band sound on record exactly as they do on studio, with no adulteration of the final product, to this newly-found (at the time) "less is more" approach by the band, which they adopted from "Times of Grace" on.
Possibly their heaviest album (still to this day i believe "The Last You'll Know" is probably the heaviest song ever written), and one of the heaviest albums in the history of music (many say the heaviest, but i can't really make a statement about that, it's just a territory which is too vast and even subjective), it also counts with calmer parts, including piano parts (as heard, for example, on the song "Away"), and Scott Kelly (I believe) making his guitar sounding like a Bagpipe, as heard on the amazing closing track "The Road to Sovereignty".
Another important thing to mention, that began to be more noticed from this album on, was the creation of environments and musical ambiences that ascend progressively to more grandious moments. That had happened on "Through Silver in Blood" quite a bit as well, but in this album, to me, those ascendings were much more well thought of and developed and were more effective in the deliverance of those bone-crushing, epic moments the band is know by to be able to achieve like no oterh.
Dave Edwardson's grunty vocals are less proeminent in this record, and from this record on. Also his basslines became in most part less of leading basslines to adopt a more supportive approach, though still letting everyone know "who the Boss is" when listening to his blistering lines and dirty, grindy, tone, as heard on the intro of "Belief".
What also suffered a considerable evolution were - from the mystical, at times quite incoherent lyrics of the previous album "Through Silver in Blood" - becoming more mature and meaningful, though they have been maturing in that area over time, being, to me, their three latest releases "Given to the Rising" (2007), "A Sun That Never Sets" (2001), and "The Eye of Every Storm" (2004) the ones with better lyrics. Yes, i do give much importance to lyrics.

Bottom line, I consider this record essential to any music lover, in particular the fans of heavy music. It opened many doors to me. You will probably hear me saying this from time to time - but this is one of THE albums. Irreprehensible.

My rating of this album - 5.0 / 5.0

Some Neurosis songs:

"The Last You'll Know" (in the album "Times of Grace"):