Neurosis
Given To The Rising

My cousin calls me and says; "I have the latest Neuroris album, what are you doing tonight?" Needless to say, thirty minutes later I'm at his house, ten more and we are at the cemetery, where else? I put the CD in the player, I'm almost scared and I don't know if the beers will be enough but then... Here they are! The wait is finally over.

Steve Von Till and company, the furious madmen on the rise. Album number eleven for them and they, their thing, they know how to do it well. Blast! The beginning is one of the most brutal. The first tracks seem made for the nostalgic. In the shadow of dark crosses, with a noisy wind, they make my heart tremble. as always. The voice immediately attacks, recalling examples of the shining recent past, the keyboards tear you apart with those endless notes and the guitars annihilate. "Given To The Rising" is a masterpiece worthy of their name. At minute 6.30 of the same, I die. Damned be their crescendos, so slow that they sneak under your skin little by little, transforming your thoughts and shaping them to their notes. And when "Fear And Sickness" makes its entrance, I think it's the end, and when I think it's only the second track, I think it's just the beginning.

To define them as post-hardcore is limiting, simply: they hurt.

I tell you that this album includes among its sounds a reminiscence called Isis. It seems indeed that the children have infected the parents. Blending with Tribe of Neurot-style post-rock, how can you blame them after the previous deliriums of Harvestman, Isis, Red Sparowes? It was in the air, and in the air was also the dilation of "At The End Of The Road", in its own way, better to say in their way; Ambient. Infinitesimal variations in a precise and cadenced metric but don't worry gentlemen, the Neurosis are still them. Even when they switch to a subspecies of Drone, of short duration but that gives you a bit of respite, just enough to continue the suffering. Even when they indulge in drum loops that recall more post-rock than their bloody and violent beginnings, even while they leave you breathless, in those moments of endless silence, where you await their stab while staying in your car, watching the dark. The nihilistic trail continues until the last track, "Origin" asks me to cry, Harvestman returns to influence (Von Till knows something about it); a diseased folk, a placid sequence of notes, a keyboard, almost like the sound of bagpipes, chases your thoughts. Where do you think you're escaping? stay until the end, you can't escape. No, I was not mistaken, the Neurosis are back, more mature and aware, shaping every sound, making it theirs. My cousin says to me: "Shall we go back?". "Just one last moment..."

Note from the official website:

The new Neurosis album, entitled "Given To The Rising", will be released worldwide on Neurot Recordings in May 2007.