### Neurosis: A sun that never sets

#### 05/09/08 || The Duff

Ah, Neurosis. The greatest band on the planet? Close. Possibly even true. Tits; your face; custard cream. Their first four (not including the two nobody knows about) albums are musical milestones, incredibly influential, and so with their ever-continuing evolution, they bring us “A Sun That Never Sets”, their most introspective, dark release yet. This album is rich, more dense than most discs you’ll hear, yet Neurosis have really calmed down from their harsher beginnings, giving an album as light as Isis but far more sinister, with the regular, trademark heavy pendulum-riffs swinging by every once in a while so as not to disappoint fans of the “Through Silver in Blood”-era. You want proof of just how gloomy the Neurosis perspective on life (remember, the same thing that gave us lube, double-ended dildos and exhibitionist lesbians) is, check out their video for Crawl Back In.

The follow-up to this disc is by far the simplest effort from this over-talented five-piece, and so it can at times be overshadowed by the rest of the band’s discography, but given that it is slightly more optimistic than everything else the band has ever released means that it more often than not is rated as my favourite Neurosis effort. If there was an album that succeeded in weaving a similar, pensive atmosphere as that experienced on “The Eye of Every Penis” (score…), then “A Sun That Never Sets” would be it, but the band has insisted on having the album replete with their vicious, jarring nature – this makes both albums complement each other very successfully, the sparseness of each album very close to being identical yet both sharply contrasted in terms of delivery.

One thing I figure this album’s successor needed was more than eight tracks, as with any Neurosis album, and on “A Sun That Never Sets”, you’ll understand why those three extra “atmospheric” tracks belong – they are integral parts to the album’s continuity, something that these Californians exhibit with great care and craftsmanship. The album slowly lifts off, and although a number of moods swing on by throughout to either cockslap the listener in the rosebuds or lull him/her into a trance, one gets the impression that “A Sun That Never Sets” plays within an arc of sonic landscapes, slowly lifting off with the trippy introduction “Erode” and gradually settling down with the striking “Stones from the sky” (displaying the album’s most moving vocal-performance and grandiose musicianship) before suddenly switching out and allowing you to take reference of who you are, what year it is and why your hand is thrust in your pants.

Whoever does the vocals (I will never fucken know), is at his most feral yet, in part due to the guitars never being driven to the extremes of earlier outputs, allowing a very raw, unsettling experience to permeate throughout the minor, resonant chords/riffs (the ones that are more than variations of “heave-ho/BAM MOTHERFUCKER!”) that strike a different kind of interior sort of heavy, something that weighs deep and leaves you elevated but at the same time pretty down, out and feeling shit outta luck.

I believe all Neurosis efforts to be essential, but some are avoidable if they aren’t your fave band to drown your sorrows in when wanting something bleaker than cancer – I would urge you purchase this over the monstrous “Times of Grace”, making it second only to “Through Silver in Blood”; true, I dig sludge/post-doom-rock/metal-noisecore (really don’t care anymore) a little too much, but these guys are masters of sound alone, and branding this album anything other than pure, dark and twisted genius with all the subtleties of life thrown in just to fuck with you some more would be plain fucken wrong of me.

10 soundtracks to self-destruction out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2001
- Label: Relapse Records
- Website: www.neurosis.com
- Band
- Scott Kelly: vocals, guitars
- Steve Von Till: vocals, guitars
- Jason Roeder: drums
- Dave Edwardson: bass
- Jason Roeder: drums
- Josh Graham: visual stuff

- Tracklist
- 01. Erode
- 02. The tide
- 03. From the hill
- 04. A sun that never sets
- 05. Falling unkown
- 06. From where its roots run
- 07. Crawl back in
- 08. Watchfire
- 09. Resound
- 10. Stones from the sky