Neurosis

To many young heavy music fans today, Neurosis probably seem irrelevant. To them the word Neurosis is a name adorning a well-worn t-shirt their older brother used to sport years ago; some past-it band that certainly hold no relevance to today’s scene. It’s not surprising really. It’s been five long years since they were sending jaws dropping with their earth-shattering sonic and visual performance (with Voivod and Today Is The Day), a tour that’s now officially recognised as ‘legendary’ by the metal fraternity. In that time heavy music has taken on exciting, inventive new twists with the likes of Isis, Mastodon and Dillinger, but it’s arguable that if it wasn’t for Neurosis none of these bands would exist in their current form (TITD drummer Brann Dailor even formed Mastodon after that tour). Put simply, they were a band that merged beauty, passion and vitriol in a way that was just awe-inspiring, sending ripples throughout the scene that are still being felt today.

So when they announced a series of special 2 ½ hour shows, featuring Jarboe of Swans, earlier this year with just one European show in London, the collective heart of Europe’s heavy music scene began pounding, hard! A glance round the room tonight sees members of Charger, Disfear and Beecher lurking in the shadows, while a cursory glance at the guestlist sees no less than 300 writers and photographers from just about every corner of the globe, from Finland’s Inferno Magazine through to the less-pronounceable titles. All are here for this one band, Neurosis.

So at 19:30 the lights quietly dim, the silhouettes of the instruments on the Forum stage melting slowly into the darkness. A purple haze warmly emerges while a trembling hum drones in the shadows. Guitar strings pluck behind a growling rumble, echoing in the distance and becoming more unsettling as baron drones persist behind the morphosising purple / cream haze for nigh on an hour. Still the band are nowhere to be seen, hiding, one presumes, behind the darkness waiting for the right moment. The distant noises start to become clearer, bulking riffs heaving over the horizon together with distant screams. The lights dim once more and tribal drumming patters to a crescendo before also dampening down. Each time, we as a gathering, an underground cult even, of noise obsessives hold our breath, building our hopes up for their grand entrance, only to be left deflated as piercing screeches fade back into the speakers, from deafening volumes to modest squeaks yet again.

If this is a ploy by the band to raise expectations to fever pitch then it’s not working too well because after about 3 rounds of drinks we’re all starting to get a bit impatient. Finally after an hour and a half the band walk casually onstage and a projector shines a white spotlight on the circular backdrop, turning into a flickering mess as frontman Steve Von Til triggers a few solitary notes against the monotonous drone.

And so, for the next 2 ½ hours Neurosis exemplify why there are the kings of progressive heavy music. With a set that traverses the entire spectrum of their sound, from the ugly, lumbering might of older ‘Through Silver In Blood’ material to the majestic splendour of later Tribes of Neurot recordings the whole experience is a melange of beauty and devastation, an emotive battlefield in which Neurosis are your guiding light.

By mid-set Jarboe appears standing centre-stage, a revealing black number clinging to her slender frame. Gazing a neurotic wide-eyed stare back at the crowd she resonates a deep, wallowing vibrato, shimmering with the voice of a gothic cherub’s mother against earthy distortion and misty percussion. It’s a touch that creates a highly venerate feel, hallowed in an eerie medieval way; Neurosis’ industrial clamour almost making them sound like some Finnish industrial goth band against her tones. But thankfully such notions are dispelled as soon as Steve Von Til’s corrugated strumming comes to prominence, creating a shivering cold expanse for her mystical murmurs.

Then after half an hour she leaves the stage and Neurosis take things to the next level, drilling deep into their explosive, heart-wrenching past and recreating the torched anguish of ‘A Sun That Never Sets’ with soul-rippling grace. It's an exhilerating experience few would dare to replicate, but after 13 years crafting epic noise-scapes, for these Bay Area titans such a decimating set just seems a perfect, logical conclusion.