Occupational Neurosis

Neurosis marks 30 years with Fires Within Fires, their 11th album. It's uncharacteristically economical, clocking in at a mere 40 minutes, their shortest since 1992's Souls at Zero. Engineered by Steve Albini (their sixth collaboration in a row), it takes stock of the places Neurosis has been since leaving behind their post-hardcore roots to pioneer the strange world of "post-metal." Opener "Bending Light" commences with a slow, doomy bassline and a guitar vamp that directly references Pink Floyd's "Nile Song" - specifically the Necros' mid-'80s cover - but uncouples itself to wander more jagged atmospheric terrain with sparse, bluesy guitar lines and darkly hued sonic effects from keyboardist Noah Landis…

Neurosis built their reputation on - to put it one way - long-winded compositions, making their albums a challenging listening experience for even the most dedicated fans. And their fifth album, Through Silver in Blood, doesn't buck the trend, diving headlong into the group's entirely unique experiments in ambient, progressive death metal with the mesmerizing 12-minute title track. With the exception of two minute-long interludes, much of the remaining material follows this blueprint, with abnormally long tracks like "Aeon" and "Purify" gradually building from simple melodies into trance-inducing epics. Conversely, other songs take an unbearably long time to develop, crawling toward their climaxes so slowly (see "Strength of Fates") - or toward no climax at all (see the tortured screaming of "Enclosure in Flame") - that one's attention span is severely tested. It is therefore of little wonder that Neurosis' appeal remains so selective.

For 27 years, the members of Neurosis have demonstrated what metal can be and what it can aspire to: transcendent, cathartic, graceful, innovative. Like the best films, Neurosis' albums are thoughtful and sometimes sublime escapes, navigating pain and salvation through Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly's words, as well as a dense atmosphere of distortion and noise. In the past decade, more deliberately paced and folkloric passages have made their way into Neurosis' sound, too.Honor Found in Decay is the 10th album from the band, which was once based in the Bay Area and is now scattered across the U.S. The new record finds inventive ways to sound heavy: Elements will be familiar to fans of the band's last album (2007's Given to the Rising), but here the scope is blown wide open. The effect is akin to grasping the enormousness of the endless prairie in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, and "At the Well" captures it perfectly

After ten years and five albums of groundbreaking progressive death metal, Neurosis have managed to carve a highly original niche for themselves… coming off somewhat like a Tool for extremists. Yeah, you heard right. But while this Oakland bunch deserve great kudos for such unwavering commitment to their vision, they seem fated to remain confined to well-kept secret status for remaining so stubbornly inaccessible. 1999's Times of Grace adds another chapter to this ongoing dilemma by delving ever deeper into the group's hypnotic semi-industrial dirge. But whereas previous efforts tended to suffer from erratic songwriting and uneven pacing, many tracks taking painfully long to build towards their crescendos, this album offers the most seamless continuity of any album in the band's challenging discography…