The Word as Law

Before they started releasing perplexing, monolithic slabs of punk/metal/ambient noise, Neurosis were a left of field hardcore band. While their debut album, Pain of Mind was a fairly straight ahead hardcore/thrash album, this album shows Neurosis stretching out a bit more, though this album is still very primitive compared to Souls at Zero.

One of the things most people will be surprised at is how damn loud the bass is. It's a great showcase for Dave Edwardson- a lot of the bass lines are really damn good, and there's a few particularly hard bits, like in Obsequious Obsolesence. Still, it would be good if the guitars were up a bit more. Otherwise though, the rest of the band haven't really achieved the brilliance they would get later. There's very little of the awesome tribal drumming we all know and love, the guitars don't really pack any punch, especcially when compared to, say, Raze the Stray from Enemy of the Sun, and while the vocalists are indeed passionate, with the exception of Dave's low growl, they sound quite screechy and immature.

Still, there are some good songs here. Pain of Mind is full of energy, The Choice has some decent lyrics and is real entertaining, and Tomorrow's Reality has a lot of great basslines and some interesting riffs, along with some effective tempo changes. It is a shame though, as whenever Neurosis get a bit interesting in this album, like Pollution and Common Inconsistencies, it doesn't take too long before they're going straight back into the shouty, hardcore punk stuff. There's also a tendency to lose focus, like in Pollution, To What End?, and.. almost every track. Oh well.

Basically, I didn't really like this album that much. The bass playing is excellent, and there is some interesting guitar riffs to be found here and there, but for the most part, this is the sound of a band that had a good idea of what they wanted to do, but completely stuffed up the execution. Still, I don't mind, because they did execute perfectly in what, the next 6 or so albums? Nonetheless, this release is for Neurosis completists only.