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Neurosis – Through Silver in Blood

Peter Jones Leave a comment

We all know that life can change in a moment.

Sometimes those moments are major events. Other times, they are less so. I’d wager a guess that, at least for people who really love music, there are certain moments, albums, songs, that changed their musical lives as well.

I wouldn’t be overstating it to say that Through Silver in Blood by Neurosis changed my musical life.

Disconnected by Fates Warning, while an all time favorite album of mine, didn’t do much to change how I thought about music. It was still something that was pretty squarely in my wheelhouse. But Through Silver in Blood was something different all together. Discovering Neurosis opened entire new avenues of heavy music for me to explore. And I am grateful to this day that it did.

I’ve talked about heavy music here before (Mammoth Storm, Alruna). I’ve talked about challenging music (Mirror Reaper). Well, here we have both. Through Silver in Blood is dense. It is dark. It is a long album, with long songs. The vocals are uncompromising, with some growls, some screams, some good old hardcore wails.

The guitars build, swell, explode. Neurosis are masters of the fine art of crescendo and denouement. There are quiet moments on this album. Yet the serve to make the heavy moments mean all that much more. This is hardcore music that has been stretched and given room to become something much more, something different. There is some sludge here, there is some punk, and most importantly, we witness, through this and other Neurosis albums, the true birth of post-metal.

The title track starts with industrial noises. Drums then build in slowly and the song adds and adds until it explodes into one of the most punishing tracks I’ve ever heard. It continues to build, flow and wax and wane over the course of its 12 minutes, ending with a pounding drum beat that drives the listener into submission. “Aeon” begins with piano and string, until the bomb drops, almost a full 3 minutes in, with crushing guitars and vocals that could strip the paint right off the wall.

But what makes Neurosis, and Through Silver in Blood, so powerful and effective is their refusal to keep the needle pegged at 11. Dynamics abound, with a scaling back of the songs that prevents it from all feeling like too much. “Locust Star” would be the one exception to this, and even that takes over a full minute to really begin.

I openly admit that Neurosis is one of my favorite bands. Depending on the day, they are either pretty much even with Fates Warning, or possibly just a tad ahead. Through Silver in Blood is my “desert island” album. If I could listen to only one more album for the rest of my life, this would be it. There are enough dynamics, enough amazing music, that this has it all. But it isn’t easy. It isn’t accessible. Not everyone is going to listen to and enjoy this album. Heck, it even took me a while of really sitting down and listening to Neurosis before it clicked for me. But once it did, it clicked hard. And Through Silver in Blood is one of the most important and influential albums that most people have never heard.

Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper

Peter Jones Leave a comment

Doom metal. It is epic, often majestic, heavy in the ponderous sense of the word It tends to be on the slower side, often with powerful, soaring vocals. Birthed in the roots of Black Sabbath, and honed to a real edge with the release of Candlemass’ essential Epica Doomica Metalicus, it is one of my very favorite sub-genres of metal.

And then there is funeral doom.

Funeral doom is a different beast all together. True, it is still rooted in doom metal, and shares many of the same hallmarks. It also borrows from doom/death. It then fuses these elements into one of the most punishing, extreme, esoteric, and inaccessible styles of music out there.

Take Mirror Reaper by Bell Witch. First off, look at that artwork. No, really. Look at it. It is beautiful. But it is also haunting, menacing, and creepy as hell. Then look at the song list. It consists of “Mirror Reaper”, and… well, that’s it. Yes, the album Mirror Reaper has a single song, the track titled “Mirror Reaper”. And then look at the run time for the album. It is 83 minutes and 15 seconds.

Add that all up and, in my experience, there are basically two reactions. On the one hand, I have seen almost revulsion, and instant reaction of “no way!” It is too much, too long, too ponderous. I get that. But on the other hand, it can also lead to fascination.

That’s what happened to me. I wasn’t familiar with the band prior to the 2017 release of Mirror Reaper, but I was instantly intrigued and decided I had to know more. Context is often king, and in this case that holds very true. Bell Witch is a 2 person band, just bass, drums, and vocals. And after the 2015 release of Four Phantoms, the drummer Adrian Guerra, passed away. The band carried on, with Jesse Shreibman joining bassist Dylan Desmond to continue the band. Mirror Reaper acts as a tribute to their lost brother, and that sense of loss permeates every minute of this epic.

The music is very stripped down. It is ponderously slow, with haunting clean vocals, and low, guttural growls that shake the roots of the earth. The drums plod, slowly building over the course of the song. Often the music builds, slowly, only to be stripped back down to a single, sustained note. The bass alternates between clean and clear, to heavily distorted and grinding.

Yet Bell Witch expertly prevents the music from every becoming too, well, too anything. It could be slower, but it doesn’t. It could get much, much heavier, but it restrains. Just when you think it is going to be too much of the same thing, and become boring, it will switch it up just enough to keep it interesting. For me, that is really what makes this such a fascinating album. It is too much, really, I recognize it is. But it balances all of its excess with such a level of care, concern, and skill that it is a haunting work I find myself drawn back to time and again.

https://youtu.be/10q1ZJyLXFk

Fates Warning – Disconnected

Peter Jones Leave a comment

It’s almost difficult for me to talk about Fates Warning. On the one hand, it is because they are, in my opinion, the single most underrated band in the history of metal. On the other, it is because they are very possibly my favorite band of all time. Depends on the day, but it’s a toss up between Fates and Neurosis.

But why are they my favorite? For two main reasons. Number one, because they write amazing music. And second, because they were such an essential band on my journey of really getting into and appreciating metal on the whole.

I’d heard the name, but it was many years before I actually started listening to them, so I was super late to the game. It was actually right around the release of Disconnected in 2000 that I finally got around to listening to the band. And that was probably the perfect album for me to start listening to them. It may not be their best album, but it probably is my favorite. We’ll leave John Arch’s amazing vocal melodies, and the idea that their 1986 album The Spectre Within really can be considered the birth of progressive metal for another day. But today, let’s just enjoy the mastery that is Disconnected.

There had been some band changes in recent years, but Disconnected was the second band with the same line up as on A Pleasant Shade of Gray. And what we have is a group that really seems to have come together, with a clear understanding of what they want to do and where they were going. Kevin Moore’s work, both on keys, but most importantly in creating an atmosphere are on full display here. And I will continue to argue that Jim Matheos has penned more brilliant songs than just about anyone in the business.

Disconnected really runs the gamut of what Fates Warning can bring to the table. There are atmospheric tracks, like “Disconnected Part 1” and “Part 2”. There are relatively straightforward rockers like “One” and “Pieces of Me”. And then you have the progressive epics. “Something from Nothing” slowly builds over the course of its 11 minutes. But the real star of the show here is “Still Remains”, a 16 minute progressive and emotional epic.

I love the complete lack of fear or need to hurry here. The song slowly builds for minutes before it finally hits its stride into what one would consider a proper song. And then it keeps building and morphing. Throughout all, the performances are stellar, and the emotion is palpable. Disconnected is an album about relationships, about loss, about human connections and how those impact our lives. And “Still Remains” is the ultimate track to convey all of this.

I really can’t find a flaw in this album. The performances are excellent. Jim Matheos, in addition to being an excellent guitarist, also has amazing guitar tone on this album. Immediately recognizable. Ray Alder’s vocals are as fantastic as always, powerful, clear, expressive. Mark Zonder always was one of the more interesting drummers in the business. Even the final track, “Disconnected Part 2”, is a necessary part of this album. It completes the album, really hitting home the sense of loss and sadness that permeates the album.

I love all Fates Warning albums. And they have some truly groundbreaking and essential ones. Disconnected may not be their very best, but I think it will always be my favorite, and is clearly one of my top 10 albums of all time.