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| comment | | "parent_author":"",<br>"parent_permlink":"music",<br>"author":"steemswede",<br>"permlink":"music-review-fires-within-fires-2016-by-neurosis",<br>"title":"[MUSIC REVIEW Fires Within Fires (2016) by Neurosis",<br>"body":"<html>\n<p>After 31 years and 12 studio albums,<br> the Oakland quintet Neurosis released their latest album \"Fires Within Fires\" in September this year. The post-sludge scene that they practically created,<br> is today crowded with new bands,<br> but Neurosis remains at its own elite level as one of metal music's great innovators. This is the sixth album with the legendary Steve Albini as producer and everything sounds a little more dark and a little more profound than before.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/i.imgsafe.org\/3b8e67a04c.jpg\" width=\"815\" height=\"467\"\/><\/p>\n<p>During its 31 years the band has undergone a radical transformation,<br> slowly but surely. It happened in such a slow pace over the eleven previous albums that it's almost not noticeable until you set an old album against a newer one. And \"Fires Within Fires\" perhaps takes the biggest leap so far,<br> because this is an album that can't be traced to another Neurosis release. It's darker,<br> more introspective and heavier in an emotional way. But it's also their rawest and most visceral album in a long time.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Albini,<br> now almost counted as a member of the band,<br> has created a sound that almost makes it feel like Neurosis is playing in your living room in front of you. The band has also given up the slow transition; nowadays it's quiet \/ LOUD \/ quiet. And while the riffs have a stoner type of groove that is terribly attractive,<br> the guitars also have a sharpness that cuts through everything. The riff in the final ten-minute epic tune \"Reach\" is alone worth the whole album.<\/p>\n<p>With only five songs and 40 minutes (which makes it the bands shortest album) Neurosis has created one of their absolute best albums in a long time. It's dark,<br> haunting,<br> beautiful,<br> heavy and rough in a way that only Neurosis is able to pull off. If I had to describe the album in just two words it would have to be: violent meditation. The riffs and the drums feels physically tangible - it's as if they are chewing into your skin - and it's as close to physical matter that sound can come. And in between there are calmer and more harmonic instrumental soundscapes that lulls you into a deceptive peace. Guitars that sound like rumbling motorcycles conjure up demonic acid trips,<br> while the feedback effects from the amplifiers howl like moving containers on a cargo ship. As thunderous as it's hypnotic.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/i.imgsafe.org\/3b9e1825d3.jpg\" width=\"815\" height=\"542\"\/><\/p>\n<p>In the calmer passages they sometimes appear like a hybrid between Mogwai,<br> S\u00f3lstafir and Sonic Youth. Scott Kelly's rough voice sounds like a collapsing stone quarry,<br> and the small sighs marking the end of each phrase emphasize the weight of the band's sound. It's as if it hurts to perform this music. It's like a diabolical seance where they are about to give rise to something frightening and unknown out of a Lovecraft story.<\/p>\n<p>The harmonies in \"A Shadow Memory\" are of pain and suffering,<br> and in the exaggerated flanger effects lurks a curious catharsis: it's a song that manages to be both rhythmic and unbridled. The album's highlight is \"Fire Is the End Lesson\" that masterfully builds up into one of the heaviest riffs that the band has ever composed.<\/p>\n<p>There's almost a sort of kinship between this album and two other very dark albums that came out in 2016; <a href=\"https:\/\/steemit.com\/music\/@steemswede\/music-review\"><strong>\"The Glowing Man\"<\/strong><\/a> by Swans and Nick Cave's heartbreaking <a href=\"https:\/\/steemit.com\/music\/@steemswede\/music-review-nick-cave-and-the-bad-seeds-skeleton-tree\"><strong>\"Skeleton Tree.\"<\/strong><\/a> Three cousins that will provide you with angst enough for a lifetime. A profound listening experience.<\/p>\n<h2><img src=\"https:\/\/i.imgsafe.org\/3fb6279c8a.png\" width=\"36\" height=\"35\"\/> <a href=\"https:\/\/steemit.com\/@steemswede\">@SteemSwede<\/a><\/h2>\n<h3>Album preview:<\/h3>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FqQt8oWBN2k<\/p>\n<\/html>",<br>"json_metadata":" \"tags\":[\"music\",<br>\"metal\",<br>\"minnowsunite\",<br>\"review\" ,<br>\"image\":[\"https:\/\/i.imgsafe.org\/3b8e67a04c.jpg\",<br>\"https:\/\/i.imgsafe.org\/3b9e1825d3.jpg\",<br>\"https:\/\/i.imgsafe.org\/3fb6279c8a.png\",<br>\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/FqQt8oWBN2k\/0.jpg\" ,<br>\"links\":[\"https:\/\/steemit.com\/music\/@steemswede\/music-review\",<br>\"https:\/\/steemit.com\/music\/@steemswede\/music-review-nick-cave-and-the-bad-seeds-skeleton-tree\",<br>\"https:\/\/steemit.com\/@steemswede\",<br>\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FqQt8oWBN2k\" ,<br>\"app\":\"steemit\/0.1\",<br>\"format\":\"html\" " | | vote | "voter":"steemswede",
"author":"steemswede",
"permlink":"music-review-fires-within-fires-2016-by-neurosis",
"weight":10000 |
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