Warthur Souls at Zero finds Neurosis exploring a dizzying variety of different directions to expand their sound in, with the end result being that it's a foundational album of not just sludge metal but also post-metal. The distorted, muzzy guitars and shouted hardcore-influenced vocals of sludge emerge here and there, whilst other musical passages manage to incorporate the classic post-rock sound before many of its proponents even managed to put out an album. I can well see why this album would be startling coming from a band who had previously played in a solidly thrash/hardcore melange up to this point - even after hearing albums like Through Silver In Blood, I find myself taken aback by how varied and how excellent the album is.

The Angry Scotsman With this album Neurosis takes a more standard post metal sound, though you can't knock the band for that, since they invented the sound.

I actually prefer newer Neurosis over old, simply put: atmosphere over aggression (as one person once told me). Of course atmosphere has been a Neurosis staple since '92, they've been belting out lengthy, atmospheric metal long before Isis or even Tool, but on "The Eye of Every Storm" they adopt a more heavy/light interplay style, and is greatly subdued. Their bludgeoning, sludgy guitar dirges are still around, but just much less. Neurosis has no problem utilizing melodic passages, and even minimalism.

Opening track "Burn" and "The Eye of Every Storm" have lengthy movements that are almost solely vocals, the latter being backed up a continuous "wub", psychedelic noises and splashes of guitar.

These two being standout tracks. "Burn" is, again, pretty standard post metal, though so well done. Heavy/light transitions, building to a powerful climax. His gruff, sludge metal vocals are so fitting...he does it in a more "singing" style and over soft, beautiful music it creates such an emotional, tortured feeling. Awesome song.

"The Eye of Every Storm" moves like a storm, gradually rolling in until it reaches a real moving part, before entering a long quiet section. A baritone talking takes the forefront, as mentioned earlier, backed up by various trippy noises. Really let it sink in, what he's saying, the ambiance, everything.

Another brilliant song is "Bridges". A steady, (though very distant) punk drum beat carries on while sparse piano, vocals, and fluttering psychedelic noises take the forefront. Picks up a bit before a schizo journey of drones and borderline silence takes over. Both parts are awesome, though it takes some patience to grasp all the subtlety in the quiet (on casual listen it'll sound like honest silence) before a rockin ending. Atmospheric, post metal to the nth degree.

That's really how to best describe whole album. A lot of quiet, spaced with heavy, (in their classic slow, even droning, nature) tons of little detail. Pretty heavy use of synth, though it's never prominent, just filler...another piece you may not hear at first but adds another dimension.

The vocals are still Neurosis' strained, sludge metal style though even here more subdued. He still lets it soar, but all the time and while I was never a huge fan, I like it much more here. The restraint does well, and of course makes it more powerful when he takes off.

No doubt, like most of the bands work this is a difficult album. Even I struggle a bit with some Neurosis. "The Eye of Every Storm" requires some patience and a fine ear. It's not the best for casual listening, as the long quiet parts would have to be boring, this is best for active listening. To really feel this albums power and absorb all the subtle songwriting it's best to sit down, do nothing, and let the album take you over. I like to put it on early morning after I wake up, sitting there relaxed playing this album, or doing so whenever I have some nice down time.

While it's extremely well done, the album is a tad formulaic and it's difficulty may be a turn off, (though I found it easier to get into then old school, crushing Neurosis). The gods of post metal have done it again, putting out a unique and superb post metal album.

Four Stars

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.

Doomster (Originally written for the Encylopedia Metallum.)

Neurosis are a band whom needs no introduction within the underground metal scene. Having been pumping out music for over 20 years, including stellar albums such as the agressive, apocalyptic monster that was "Through Silver In Blood" (often hailed as the band's magnum opus), the foreboding, folk rock-ish "A Sun That Never Sets" and the unforgettable gigantic slab of noise that was "Enemy of the Sun". Neurosis also go through a process which all bands must go through in their lives - evolution. Sometimes, so called evolution can be disastrous - let's not discuss Metallica, shall we? But for Neurosis, evolution is an important part of the band's sound. They began as a hardcore punk band in the mid to late 80's, knocking out two agressive thrashing punk albums, "Pain of Mind" and "Word as Law". Later on, the band first showed the world their true genious with "Souls at Zero", followed by quite possibly the two most foreboding records you will ever hear - the aforomentioned "Enemy of the Sun" and "Through Silver in Blood". After a three year hiatus following the release of "A Sun That Never Sets", the Californian post-metal pioneers finally rearrived in 2004 with their massive 8th album "The Eye of Every Storm".

To many long time Neurosis fans, this album was a shock. Neurosis had explored their softer sounds on "A Sun That Never Sets", but this album is their most experimental to date, which is saying much for Neurosis. With this album, Neurosis have managed to successfully blend extreme heaviness with soothing ambience and melancholy. The opening track, "Burn", which is rather upbeat (for a Neurosis song, anyway), immediately kicks the listener into submission with tribal drumming, grunge-ish guitar riffs, and the gritty, angsty vocals of frontman Scott Kelly. This continues on for a short while, but then around the 3 minute mark the song finally dies down to be replaced by soft drumming barely playing in the background and some ambient sounds with Scott Kelly continuing to chant in his accented, almost spoken-word vocals, and once again the song kicks your ass, then stops again, and so on and so forth.

I also spent alot of time on Kelly's vocals - compared to other Neurosis albums, where he sung in an ear shattering, throat rupturing hardcore-esque and wholly honest scream, he does alot of beautiful gritty clean singing on this album. Neurosis fans need not worry, though - Scott still gives off the occasional scream once in a while, but besides this, he will likely still be able to please the most avid TSIB fans with his honest and captivating clean-style. The title-track, "The Eye Of Every Storm", is the pinnacle of the album. It's the title-track and longest song (11:58) for a good reason. There is much experimentation on this song, and is one of the softer of the 8 songs. The first line Kelly musters is the inspiring "A wind carries your scent to those who will find you out". This song has an even more post-rockish sound than some of the other songs on this album, and would not be shunned on an Explosions in the Sky album. Around the 5 minute mark, everything stops dead in it's tracks to be replaced by a deep humming sound, followed by the lone vocals of Kelly, who suddenly barks out at 6:22 - "Now oath breaker sinks low!" The band finally aches back in with their post-rockish sound at the 9 minute mark. The song finally climaxes at the 10:12 mark, and from then on, it becomes some of the greatest post-rock/metal riffing you will ever hear. There is another 11+ minute epic somewhere later on in this album, entitled "Bridges" but I don't think it musters up as much emotion as the aforomentioned title track, though "Bridges" is still a great song in itself.

The title track isn't the only highlight here, though. The closing track, "I Can See You" is a great way to end the album - a thought-provoking, deeply saddening tale of the loss of a loved one. Here Kelly sings to his fullest in all the song's heart wrenching glory. Like many other tracks on this album, it lulls you into a soothing trance within the first few minutes, and then cruelly pushes you down the next, repeating the proccess.

Beauty, passion, emotion, and heart are not usually the things a person looks for in metal music, and would make one question if it is actually metal music in the first place, if it were to be casually described in words. But no - Neurosis is 100% metal, but like any good underground musician refuse to stray into the stereotypes of metal music. Neurosis, despite having changed their sound so much over the years, have always remained a consistent and powerful band who honestly and truly care about their music. While albums like "Through Silver in Blood" and "Enemy Of The Sun" may be the most glorified by other fans of this band, and while they are both great album, they are unparralled compared to the beauty, scale and passion of "The Eye of Every Storm". Personal album highlights: "The Eye of Every Storm", "I Can See You", "A Season In The Sky".

Phonebook Eater 6/10

"Given To The Rising" is the table of contents of Neurosis's career.

Finally we reach to the end to Neurosis’s career so far, “Given To The Rising”, the final chapter of the final trilogy. I had pretty high expectations for this, even though I was noticing it didn’t get such great feedback. I gave it a few spins, and I was unfortunately a little disappointed by it, it did not have the good qualities I expected it to have.

Post Metal is a label I never liked, I always found good alternatives. But with “The Eye Of Every Storm” and even more with this one, this choice is harder to maintain. It’s, sure, the usual Atmospheric Sludge Metal, but it’s hard to not fall also into Post-Rock territory in some of these songs. While in the last couple of albums the band has got much more experimental and open towards Post-Rock textures, “Given To The Rising” is much heavier than those releases, more aggressive, more distorted. It has many beastly moments that are gigantic sounding. The building is much more frequent than in “The Eye Of Every Storm”, which leads to one word; nostalgia. I’m guessing that Neurosis wanted to make with this album the “Through Silver In Blood” of the 00’s, but the result is not at all as good. The experimentation here is brave, the sounds the band uses to fill in the music is very fascinating and cool, and that’s one of the best elements this album has going for. It’s obviously a pretty ambitious album, even more than the previous effort, but everything here feels so tired and forced, it’s like Neurosis are using the same exact formulas they usually use on every album before this.

Maybe this is the time when Neurosis is the past, and the bands that feel influenced by them are the future. It would be kind of nice for this to be their last album, I feel like it’s a sort of summary of everything the band has done: ambience, heavy distortion, raging vocals, repetition, build ups, strange samples, Post-rock, Sludge Metal, Progressive. Imagine the band’s career as a book; the previous albums are chapters, “Given To The Rising” is the table of contents.

But enough of the bad talk: there are many moments here that are truly worth the time, like “Hidden Faces”, great hook and good structure, “Water Is Not Enough”, a heavy, strange song. Good moments are present also in the title track, another heavy song, the more experimental “Distill”, and the final epic “Origin”, eleven towering minutes that are very well put together.

A decent album overall, even though it does lack of a few essential elements such as originality. But it has enjoyable moments that a Neurosis fan like me would gladly listen to.