Neurosis - Honor Found In Decay

Neurosis have an formidable back catalogue - from the hardcore teenage angst of 1987's Pain of Mind to the monolithic post-metal of Given to the Rising, it's hard to pick a weak album in their entire discography. Honor Found in Decay continues this tradition.

The record opens with We All Rage in Gold, with a verse structure as simple as you can imagine for Neurosis, but nonetheless effective. Ending with a crushing riff, twisted keyboard playing and Scott Kelly's iconic throaty roar, there's no doubt this is classic Neurosis.This, in the words of Kelly "sets the table" for what is to come.

Even more impressive are the following two tracks - they are unmistakeably "classic Neurosis" but hardly feel like the band is treading water. It's hard to think of a moment in another Neurosis song as air-guitary as the outro to At The Well - graceful and melodic guitar lines on top of a thudding, spiralling rhythm. One thing which was missing since Times of Grace (with the exception of Hidden Faces on 2007's Given to the Rising, and one or two moments on A Sun That Never Sets) was (for want of a better word) the duets between Scott and Steve - the return on At The Well in particular is glorious, adding another dimension to the impeccable music. This is best exhibited in the outro - Kelly chanting "In a shadow world" whilst Von Till preaches "The paths become clear; the road's true; oaths have been sworn; the temporal spiral away; among the teeth of time". Undoubtedly one of the finest moments in extreme music of 2012.

Many people have lauded the performance of Jason Roeder on this record, which is perfectly justifiable, but for me his drumming performances are no better on this record than any of the previous ones - that's to say, he has always been outstanding, making a mockery of so called "tech drummers", using the same set-up as that when he was fourteen years old. Listen to the outro of Purify now. The awesome rhythms heard in At The Well and All is Found...In Time are typical of his, it would be foolish to throw the word "tribal" in since it has been so overused that it's lost all of it's meaning, but needless to say it's some of the best drumming you'll hear.

The same goes for Noah Landis - his work in Neurosis records has always perfectly complemented the music. His tones give an edge to the music; the peculiar sounding woodwind instrument in the closing stages of My Heart for Deliverance evokes what can only be described as "the Neurosis emotion" - something so brilliant and otherworldly that one finds it hard to describe in terms of being happy or sad - maybe transcendental would do. Bleed the Pigs features some particularly caustic and unnerving sounds. Best listened to in a darkened room with a quality hi fi system.

The music world being the bloodthirsty unforgiving place that it means questions of comparison will always arise, many people focusing on the fact that it's simply not as good as the mid-late 90's heavy hitters such as Through Silver in Blood and Times of Grace. In all fairness this cannot be disputed - those records are on their own plateau of greatness - but I believe Honor Found in Decay, for the most part, is the best music that we could expect from Neurosis - they haven't let themselves down. Yes, I do think Casting of the Ages  does drag on a bit, and Raise the Dawn fails to match Origin, I Can See You and Stones From the Sky in terms of rounding off the album in an epic way, but the good by far outweighs any negative aspects. Here's hoping it's not another five years before the next opus.