Review: Neurosis’s Honor Found in Decay

Twenty-five years after the influential sludge- and post-metal band issued its first LP, Neurosis remains as stark and dichotomous as ever with its 10th studio full-length.

Neurosis: Honor Found in Decay (Neurot, 10/30/12)

“At the Well”

Neurosis: “At the Well”

Twenty-five years after the influential sludge- and post-metal band issued its first LP, Neurosis remains as stark and dichotomous as ever with its 10th studio full-length. Again led by guitarists/vocalists Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till, Honor Found in Decay pushes and pulls between anguish and ascension — between darkness and light — sometimes within the same passage.

The band is referring to the album (again produced by Steve Albini) as its “pinnacle studio effort,” and it’s hard to argue. Among the usual soft/loud dynamics is another assortment of sounds, whether effect-coated guitars or keyboard atmospherics, making the songs’ epic durations pass much more quickly.