Neurosis have returned without warning. The Oakland post-metal institution has surprise-dropped An Undying Love For A Burning World today via Neurot Recordings — their first new album in ten years, and by all accounts a statement of survival rather than a simple comeback.
The band wasted no words explaining why now. “We need this, perhaps more than ever, and we suspect we are not alone,” they write. “The trials and tribulations in our personal lives and as a band, combined with simply trying to navigate the insanity of our society, with the stress, anxiety, and isolation that come with it, can be excruciating. Add to that the existential confusion and sorrow of the climate crisis and the sixth mass extinction. It is enough to cause you to completely lose your mind if you can’t find release or catharsis.
“This strange, emotionally charged music has always been our method of trying to survive this, and this is what we’ve always been singing about. When you have spent a lifetime engaged with these energies and utilizing this form of expression to purge and purify, it feels detrimental to our well-being to let it sit idle and neglected. This was now or never.”
Joining the band on vocals and guitar is Aaron Turner — the man behind Sumac and ISIS, and a figure whose own artistic history has long run parallel to Neurosis‘s. The band describes his arrival as a natural fit. “He came straight out of the gate, contributing, writing, and presenting ideas. His energy matches ours perfectly. It’s as if he was always meant to be there.”
Turner himself is equally direct about the significance of the pairing. “From the moment I first heard Neurosis over 30 years ago, I felt this was the music my heart and mind had been seeking but not yet heard,” he says. “Now, after many years travelling along various musical paths of my own, the singular sound and spirit embodied by Neurosis continues to speak to the depths of my being. It is an honor and a true pleasure to have been welcomed so warmly into a band that not only shaped my perspective on the limitless possibilities of music but has lived and exemplified the necessity of upholding creative integrity and camaraderie above all else.”
On the question of whether this constitutes a reunion, the band is firm: this is not a reunion. They never broke up.
An Undying Love For A Burning World was recorded by Scott Evans (of Kowloon Walled City, Sumac, and And Great Falls) at Studio Litho in Seattle across three weekends this winter, then mixed in three days at Evans’s Antisleep Audio in Oakland — just six weeks before release.
Neurosis will also make their live return after a seven-year absence, playing Fire In The Mountains festival on the traditional lands of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. The event is organised with the support of Firekeeper Alliance, a non-profit focused on reducing youth suicide in Indian Country. Guitarist Steve Von Till, who serves on the board of Firekeeper Alliance, described last year’s edition as the most profound music event of his life.
“I cannot think of a more appropriate environment for us to return to the stage,” he says. “Last year’s Fire In The Mountains festival was the most profound music event I have ever been a part of. The weekend took on a healing, cathartic, ceremonial nature that is difficult to put into words. Using emotionally heavy music to build community and collectively stare darkness in the eye is something we have always believed in, but using it to directly address the heartbreaking reality of suicide, grief, loss, and trauma is taking it to another level.”
