back on emusic: neurot
Returning to eMusic today: the Neurot label, home of all things slow and doomy. I know what a hard sell metal can be, but I feel like the stuff on Neurot has, at its core, very indie rock sensibilities. Case in point: Shrinebuilder is a supergroup featuring Dale from the Melvins, and when I saw them live, they covered Joy Division‘s “24 Hours.”
My roundup of all the Neurot you need after the jump!
Neurosis: The Big Daddys of the label, Neurosis take their place alongside Mastodon and Baroness as the metal bands that seem to consistently get an indie pass. And why not? Neurosis are great: slow-moving, hulking, neck-vein-popping metal, that occasionally slows down for some gleaming, elegiac passages. This band is terrific, and deservedly legendary.
Shrinebuilder, Shrinebuilder: EXCELLENT stonery metal supergroup featuring (as metioned) Dale from the Melvins on drums, Scott Kelly from Neurosis on guitar, Al Cisneros from Sleep on bass and Scott Weinrich from Saint Vitus out front. The results, as you might expect, are monstrous: sludgy riffs, grim vocals and 300-ton drum hits. Really gripping and fantastic, Highly Recommended
Harvestman: aka Neurosis’ Steven Von Till, Harvestman traffics in strange, raga-like guitar instrumentals — ominous and expansive, really good for, uh, “zoning out.”
Made Out of Babies: Furious Brooklyn band fronted by Julie Christmas, not entirely unlike L7, but with a bit more brimstone and ire.
A Storm of Light: Sludgy, post-rocky metal with seriously anthemic tendencies — if you like your anthems to occur at approximately 2 miles an hour. Protracted and potent, stretching notes out foreeevvvverrrr over clawing guitars.
What are your Neurot picks?
you know what’s a hard sell? my hands-down, bar-none favorite record in the Neurot catalog: Oxbow’s An Evil Heat. this band is legendary for being one of the most confrontational and challenging in all of heavy music (a huge, hulking african-american body builder in a speedo whimpering like a baby over droning feedback… then the riff kicks in and he grabs a guy from the audience, get him in a headlock and pulls his pants off… that kinda thing), so much so that sometimes their music maybe doesn’t get quite a fair shake. An Evil Heat is the best thing they’ve ever done; all of their elemets coalesce into something that for all its abstraction is (to my ears) shockingly listenable. the whole record just burns, seething with a sinister sexuality that would make mick jagger turn to the priesthood, running the gamut from abstract noise to math-rock-y melodies to huge, pulverisingly bluesy and HEAVY riffs, and all the while Eugene Robinson is up there being, hands down, one of scariest and most compelling frontmen in rock and roll. it’s one of my top ten records of the decade; if you only listen to one Oxbow record in your life make it this one (and do listen to ALL of it… it’s a journey.)
lastly, let me just say that this is not a metal record at all; and really, the fact that Oxbow gets labeled as metal is a mistake in my opinion. it’s heavy and noisy but in a way that aligns it much closer to the more avant-garde fringes of the indie realm than anything else. and trying to compare it to “anything else” is nearly impossible. highest recommendation.
also, Grails are awesome. check out Grails. also not metal at all.
The two Red Sparowes albums are among my favorite pieces on post-metal.
JRN: You’ve piqued my interest – checking out that Oxbow album asap.