Left to wander in folks minds for the last decade but only technically interrupted for about half that time the now returned Oakland, California-borne atmospheric sludge/post-metal quintet NEUROSIS greet us with new alliance on this twelfth full-length album. A surprise-dropped exorcism given to both sentimental and bleak expression ‘An Undying Love for a Burning World‘ represents a broad alteration of the band’s trajectory which may very well feel uncanny beyond the backwards-looking, forward-thinking vision they’d left us stalling with years ago. Without the level of disturbance available to the band since 2016 I do not think anything as bold as this’d been possible otherwise, only through self-examination and necessary reconfiguration could their psychedelic post-metallic pulse be as transformed-yet-signature as it is now.

Per their unique and entirely original evolution from late 80’s arthouse hardcore punk band ’til psychedelic sludge metal visionary Neurosis had such a vastly influential multi-generational run in the span of their first eight full-length efforts that they’re often accused of reinventing and “legitimizing” a sub-genre that’d never meant to be anything in particular. They’re rightfully infamous for expanding sludge’s cinematic boundaries unto atmospheric sludge (unto post-metal) in the 90’s/early 2000’s having additionally trained a generation and a half of musicians on the potential for psychedelia, dissonance, neofolk, noise and experimentation (+ transformative live experience) beyond the bubble of whatever metal was doing at the time. Today their corpus and collective psyche are changed, fundamentally absorbed into key collaborative junction, yet their ears haven’t yanked away from steadfastly soil-rooted ethos.

For the sake of meeting the band where they are now rather than pining for the legacy that’d so thoroughly inspired me for over three decades… there’ll be no grand restatement of their discography, no extended personal divulgence through anecdotes from me beyond the suggestion that I was dumbfounded by the band in the 90’s (initially via ‘Through Silver in Blood‘ ca. 1996) where they’d completely changed how I’d approached and appreciated music. The clandestine spirit of the band truly inspired me to think and act differently throughout my young adult life, to not only live a life more thoroughly examined (and inclusive of nature) but to seek authenticity and meaning in musical expression. Go and get lost in all of it if you haven’t.

Neur-isis cogency. — Can we consider new guitarist/co-vocalist Aaron Turner (Sumac, Old Man Gloom) a superfan or a contemporary? A bit of both b/w the ratio depending on the decade. As has been noted into oblivion, Neurosis offered paradigm shift attributable to his own work in Isis, which’d been equally foundational to post-metal’s expansion, though his own unique voice has been thoroughly established and reconfigured through countless cycles since 2010. You’ll hear some of it on ‘An Undying Love for a Burning World‘ as the band’ve clearly welcomed him into their ranks as co-author and not simply a stand-in for Scott Kelly. Jangling post-rock warble, ethereal keys, watery effects-soaked sustain and a clean-sung outro all bring drift to the pivotal “First Red Rays” the piece to introduce this fusion of minds most clearly as they turn the page beyond the fan-stoking, feedback hurling ‘Eye of Every Storm‘-worthy opener “Mirror Deep”. The deeper we get into this work the louder Turner‘s hand (and voice) gets but this is the first taste of what begins to characterize this new album as something different.

“Blind” might assuage the looming threat of a less “heavy” Neurosis sinking in mind, the loud-quiet-loud dynamism and their remodeling of tonal juxtaposition into curious waves is yet there. If you’re an old head who’d fallen off of sludge, post-metal etc. beyond 2005 you’ll find a wandering, sentimental dreariness in the refrains on this song and most others (esp. “Last Light”) which strangely… modernizes the band’s sound, erases the dark oaken gloom of olde with something else. Notes on style set aside the major interest here is how the lyrics “Blind” present line up with the movement of the song itself, what they convey in the general trek illustrated; The general thesis laid out within opener/intro “We Are Torn Wide Open” is echoed in each piece here, not the point of a concept album so much as a coherent lyrical theme. The harmonic-pinging and (later) electro-chilled ’til noise rock (see: “Untethered”) hammered dirge through “Seething and Scattered” further exudes this sense of disconnection from reality, community, and nature while again presenting a believable new-but-old connection for the band. I’d only wanted for more guitar feedback on this album to help better combat the softer-floated edges of their work becoming a bit of a lull.

As a longtime fan I’ll admit to missing the ruddy, earth-smudged slurring dread of their ’96-’04 era, particularly the Albini-fied recordings and the space created but to be fair ‘An Undying Love for a Burning World‘ hasn’t received any sort of unpalatable gloss from engineer Scott Evans (who’d also mixed the album, mastering via Matthew J Barnhart) but rather an unnerving level of clarity you’ll also find in the two engineers resumes (re: Great Falls, Pelican, Sumac). This is particularly important as we reach the grand finale, the final half hour of the experience where Neurosis exaggerates and expounds the post-metal seeker within, even more than their 2007 and 2012 records already had. I’d found “In the Waiting Hours” to be a particularly uncanny jam to start, an apocalyptic send-off that’d hardly felt doomed at all but when paired with “Last Light” it’d generally made some sense. The closing song is no less contentious in my mind as a post-hardcore inflected piece which flushes sweetly into the abyss, catching a ‘tribal’ beat and a robotic scourge amidst wailing soul’d vocals on the curvaceous spiral down.

For a band that’d thrilled back in the day for their fearsome, darkly surrealistic yet imaginative sound Neurosis ultimately leave us with a bizarrely enchanting and meditative endpoint. Their efforts to stave the overflow of ideas are championable here though it is a curious way to close out a record that’d presented itself as a stomach full of knots. Though there are a few more threads I’d felt worth exploring here beyond indie rock expression at this point I am grateful their work hasn’t resorted to room temp nostalgia upon return like so many others. ‘An Undying Love for a Burning World‘ is far from the most challenging or boldly experimental record from the band to date but rather the -first- from a new configuration, a sizable feat which shouldn’t prove difficult to swallow for their already cracked-wide open minded fandom. A high recommendation.

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