Warthur A compelling album on which Neurosis set out the boundaries of what would later become known as post-metal, fusing their doomy sludge metal riffs and slow, oozing song structures with sonic techniques more reminiscent of post-rock bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor! or A Silver Mt. Zion - especially when it comes to the use of sampling on the album, which ranges from selecting thematically appropriate quotes to accompany the music to creating soundscapes more reminiscent of ambient industrial music to embellish the background. An impressive example of how a metal band can take on substantial non-metal influences and, if anything, end up even heavier for it.

Phonebook Eater 10/10

“Through Silver In Blood” can easily be defined as the greatest Sludge Metal album ever released.

I’ve thought of Neurosis as a band of the critics, not of the public. This band seems to be praised to death by the first, but they tend to be overlooked by the latter, or simply not as appreciated. People who like any type of metal that is experimental in any way are pretty young, that weren’t around or were not aware of liking it back in 1996, so a lot of people listen to “Through Silver In Blood” only after discovering that they love the genre, so when they listen to this, they might think that there’s nothing new to it. But, in 1996, this was revolutionary, and today we find it a lot less so because of its major influence. Thus it’s historical importance for some might precede the music itself. But doing so would be a huge mistake.

Not everybody is comfortable with the existence of a genre such as “post-metal” ( I must admit I’m one of these), and rather define this as Sludge Metal, or even more precisely Atmospheric Sludge Metal. Lately I’ve seen this term use in a way that maybe wasn’t what I was expecting: bands like Blindead or Ghost Brigade, to name two, have a lot of cleanness to their sound and of course a lot of repetition. As far as Neurosis is concerned, Atmospheric Sludge Metal is everything but clean. As a matter of fact, this album is one of the most face-melting, ground shaking records ever recorded. The heavy, loud parts are full of layers, including some reverb, which very successfully make the sound huge. The tribal drums give a pretty effective apocalyptic feel too. “Through Silver In Blood” has a lot of differences from their previous efforts, it is a lot more progressive and mature in its nature, and the most well done yet. Only a few elements, like the vocal style, persist, but even these have changed a bit, it almost feels like it plays a second role to the music. But things are so much different now, it almost feels like this is a completely new band from the one that recorded “Enemy of The Sun” only three years earlier. The progressiveness in Neurosis’s masterpiece is highlighted with a genius use of sampling, unusual instrumentation (piano, bagpipes), strange metallic sounds and loops here and there, some nice, atmospheric moods that usually start a piece. From these moments, most of the times there is a phenomenon for which Neurosis is especially famous for: building, and climax. These songs start very slow, and have a beautiful crescendo that culminates with some of the most mind-blowing sound textures you’ll ever hear, to then ease down a little bit, and perhaps start another build up. A pattern that isn’t always respected (thank God), since each song is unique in its own way.

Listening to “Silver In Blood” can almost be considered a visceral experience, its like finding yourself in the middle of the ocean in the dark of night, the water is at first calm but it slowly starts to be more agitated, until a huge seaquake creates these enormous waves that go right at you, and your struggling to survive on your little raft. When you listen to this, everything around you seems to be melting, or that maybe an earthquake is taking place. There are many ways, as you can see, to describe this monster. The structure of the album is consistent, and the flow of the songs is just perfect.

The opening title track is a fantastic example of Neurosis new style, because of the layered sound, the samples, and the build-up. “Purify” is another long, perfect track, that has many parts, but all of them are majestically connected, the use of sampled loops here is perfect, and the surprising bagpipes at the end of the song give an unexpected touch of beauty. “Aeon” is another flawless Neurosis track, sounding, a bit different from the other two songs but still amazing. “Enclosure In Flame” is a very unusual way to finish an album; for ten minutes you listen carefully, thinking that the song will explode, but, even if it gets really close to doing so, there never really is a complete build up. “Strength Of Fates” has probably the most astonishing build up ever; from almost unperceivable sounds they arrive to a massive wall of sound, that kicks in at around seven minutes, and goes on for the remaining two minutes. The shorter songs are amazing as well; “Locust Star” has become a classic song for Sludge Metal”, and “Eye”, even though underrated, blows me away every time with its massively thick sound. Even the two interludes, that are basically puzzles of samples, are very well done, and their job perfectly.

I literally have no complaints about “Through Silver In Blood”. This is easily my favorite Sludge Metal record ever, and one of my favorite album of all time. If you’re into metal in general, this album is absolutely essential.

bonnek Through Silver In Blood brings the best of all things Neurosis had been experimenting with. Tribal beats start pounding and building up with layers of electronic sounds and guitars, at 3 minutes, a heavy bass groove gets this monster rolling and it doesn't let down anymore. As in most sludge-core-whatever bands, the vocals might be the hardest bit to get into. Neurosis has the advantage of featuring two skilled shouters, one with those typical dry hard core shouts and another with a deeper growling style. Luckily none of them does any clean singing, an attempt at accessibility that would have greatly diminished the impact of this album.

Neurosis are masters at dynamics. Their sound is very rich in texture, as they employ lots of sampling and sound effects. It ties them to the bands they got their inspiration from. Most obviously that is Swans of course, whose trademark is all over the place here, particularly on the hardest hitting tracks like Eye, Purify or Locust Star. Another ground-breaking industrial band that comes to mind is Foetus. The closing Enclosure in Flame has some traits of them.

Neurosis add brutal doses of doom metal to that industrial sound, as if things weren’t dense enough yet. No, easy digestible music is not Neurosis’ trade. Luckily there’s some room to breathe left and right, as in the opening minute of Purify.

Neurosis were one of the biggest creative forces of the 90’s, blending very diverse influences into a steaming melting pot that would spew a whole generation of copy-cats. Some of those produced excellent albums as well but none ever matched the fire and inspiration of this masterpiece. Approach with utmost care, this may hurt your ears and crush everything inbetween to pulp.

The Angry Scotsman Even with the alternative metal scene in full blossom during the mid 90's, this album stands out from the rest.

Featuring lengthy songs, with slow building structures, an emphasis on atmosphere over musical skill, lots of strange noises coming from guitar, (as well as keyboard!) and highly atypical metal drumming, this album invented the genre of post-metal.

Everything mentioned has gone on to become a bit of a staple, and while the sound was shaped and cemented into what we know today by Isis' "Oceanic" this is the album that started it all. Indeed, Aaron Turner of Isis cited Neurosis as an influence and coincidence he formed Isis the year after this albums release?

The title track starts with an industrial intro and some pounding drums. The gentle sounds of bass and guitar are introduced as another guitar starts fading in. If you are looking for speed or crunchy riffs look elsewhere. Droning riffs plod along for some time as the drumming grows more powerful, leading to a more riffy section with the continuous tribal drumming pummeling along and some strained vocals coming in. They sound a bit like the sludge metal mold.

The twin droning guitar attack drones on and on as everything does with it, leading with a loud summit filled with strange and scratchy noises, then one long outro.

A short interlude gives you a break from what just happened. The same basic notions continue on for the whole album, though the songs do all sound a bit different, even though are similar in style.

Purify is an especially long song with a somewhat peak and valley feel, while Aeon is epic in its own way. Both featuring very gradual crescendo's to a powerful climax. Really the entire songs are designed as a buildup.

The finale, Enclosure in Blood, has the most difficult scale of them all building up to a loud, powerful finale that is not much "more" than the rest of the song. The vocals are as emotional as they are dirty.

This may sound like much, and it is. Upon first listen, I had to turn this album off. I never heard something so boring, and overall unpleasant. This is one of the more challenging metal albums out there, but give it time.

This album is without doubt a challenge, and dirty. No clean vocals here, just a harsh tortured yelling. While there is some nuanced songwriting, (and quite nice) there's not much and no classic ambient sections. This is a heavy, sludgy monolith of an album.

The vocals are not too good, and the songs can be quite much to digest. This is a boom or bust album. Even as it grew on me it can be a bit much in its dirty grandiosity. VERY difficult album but also very good if you can handle it.

Three and a Half Stars