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With this album, the transition of the Californian group begins from the strongly hardcore sounds of their beginnings and the contaminations of "Enemy Of The Sun" to a powerful and transforming sonic magma that contemplates various influences, breaking the boundaries of "genres" and creating an absolutely unique, desperate style.
Noah Landis' keyboards and effects become more prominent, especially in the introductions of the tracks (End Of The Harvest), creating soundscapes of apparent peace before the shredded guitars and the three voices of Steve Von Till, Aaron North, and Scott Kelly plunge everything back into the relentless apocalypse.
The masterpiece track of the work is "Under The Surface", a percussive crescendo ride, an arcane ritual tinged with the fire of Von Till's voice: undoubtedly their flagship live piece, engaging Kelly inexorably on the timpani for the eight-plus minutes of the track.
"The Last You'll Know" is built on a few very slow and devastating chords, repeated obsessively under a mantra of furious screams, then finding a strange form of peace in the distorted and disturbing effects of Landis' keyboard... A few moments of respite and the chords progress towards the final "Big Crunch": screams, ferocity, massacred and hyper-violent notes.
"Descent" is a proud and incisive track where a bagpipe accompanies Jason Roeder's drums, amidst heart-wrenching sample raids, like the march of an army of the dead, voices of the dead returning from past defeats.
"Away" glimpses the further future evolutions of the group: a "song" in the classic sense of the term, which would not look out of place in the respective solo albums of Von Till and Scott Kelly; but again the quiet desperation is just a whisper before the liberating roar, which seals the possibility of joy in another world.
A transitional album, full of pathos, pain, and humanity. "Grace", album by Tribes Of Neurot, or the same Neurosis in electronic and experimental garb, if listened to simultaneously with this "Times Of Grace" creates an absolutely original and unsettling third work. Another step towards the unveiling of what is darkest and unconfessable hidden in the human soul. A must-have.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 The Doorway (07:35)
to burrow my way through death and flesh
all beasts i let out ú ill buried untold
to lock my cage ú unleash the fallen
fear eyes contain light in my soul
feral snakes collide burn in my skull
freeing the circles ú that night i saw a burial train
all thieves i bludgeon
from ice i burn breathe astral plane
greyed eye enclosed ú seer east is gone
from now on, farther on
i'm nailed to the crossroads searching for the piece of me
that wasn't mine, blood dripping from my hands
my end has seen the figure of my lightkeeper
standing in the doorway
03 Under the Surface (08:37)
behind a burning red fog
the great mind swims in confusion
its blood ferments in anger
honor and wisdom will cower
your river's flow is damned all to hell
drifting in a current to stagnate
encircle the vision of rust
your river's flow is damned all to hell
strong hearts soar through blindness
tearing the fog, tearing the eyes to clarity
to a place where truth is seen
your shell is hollow, so am i
the rest will follow, so will i
04 The Last You'll Know (09:14)
he is the last we'll know mercy for you
he is the last you'll know
all revealed in our solace see three eyes
all our crimes trial waits everyone
the presence of old eyes is here
grant me the pure heart we've lived through
in times of light fire is water
breath and reach to home
all answer, transcendence all present
to guide us through terminus and feed us to light
05 Belief (05:55)
trying to stand clear of the scent of the dogs
in a sweat until i ú wave of extinction scatter seed
all that is growing clear energy
within our vision hover wasps
air and glower fill our veins
heavy mining under the fall
figures forming stretching on
07 End of the Harvest (07:28)
like the walls of your stare, you will fall (within you)
succumb to the new and give way
old fields will fail (memory)
yielding crops of rock ad dust
a book lies open, its pages crumble at your touch
words breed lies (writhe)
wind feeds fire unseen
have you ever tasted the soil (destiny)
and felt your own death in your veins
shield your eyes from the moon (found them all)
as it mocks your wretched self
with fire in your heart the truth lies clear
words breed lies (writhe)
wind feeds fire unseen
bend your thoughts, unveil your soul
now drink, revive, reach, scrape and bind
09 Away (09:35)
cease this long, long rest
wake and risk a foul weakness to live
when it all comes down
watch the smoke and bury the past again
sit and think what will come
raise your fears and cast them all away
10 Times of Grace (07:22)
the presence unfound comes to me now
endure, see this knowledge denied out of mind
to deny until i say feed us alive
sight as i speak inside us born
cherished and driven
the secrets of stars hide within the grey
this grey will fade, so will the stars cease to shine
fear realized come as shape feed desolate
cull the snake, cull path to god
make us see, wrath to survive
darkness looms, the moons have stricken
showing all, constant revision
all structures collapse, mysteries unfold
borne from the skies in these times of grace
prey device immersion feed us alive
sight as i speak inside us born
cherished and driven
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Other reviews
By MORPHEO 33
"This masterpiece exudes intensity and the sensation of impending apocalypse."
"Neurosis fall into that league of legendary bands that will remain etched in our minds forever."
