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Neurosis - Biography


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1989-

1987

Biography

Since their mid-eighties beginnings, and despite a catalog that boasts some of the most moving sounds in visceral heavy music, NEUROSIS have always strived to incorporate light and balance as well as aggression and venom. Over the course of NEUROSIS' audio and visual evolution, their unique sound has placed greater demands and offered increased rewards to all who've embraced it. NEUROSIS (Steve Von Till (vocals / guitar), Dave Edwardson (bass / vocals), Jason Roeder (drums), Noah Landis (keyboards) and Scott Kelly (guitar / vocals)) have continuously evolved, growing stronger and more complete, to become the formidable collective that they are today.

After the release of 1987's Pain of Mind, NEUROSIS began to experiment with music of varied textures, and in 1990 released The Word As Law. San Francisco's legendary Alternative Tentacles label worked with the band during the formation and release of their next two albums,1992's critically-acclaimed Souls At Zero, and 1993's tribal-laden Enemy Of The Sun, which showed the band incorporating rhythmic / percussive enhancement to their already established arsenal. Integrating visual psychedelia via the use of film and slide projections, NEUROSIS allowed the audience glimpses into their collective artistic psyche, providing a strobing collage of confusion, symbols and archetypes designed to leave the audience emotionally attached and mentally drained.

1996 brought the immensely vast recording Through Silver In Blood. Furthering their expansive scope, NEUROSIS joined forces with Relapse Records / Release Entertainment for the release of the album. Release Entertainment had
previously released Silver Blood Transmission, the soundscape-laden, experimental debut from NEUROSIS' expansion
project Tribes of Neurot. The band followed the release of Through Silver In Blood by lending their talents to the innaugural OZZFEST tour, canvasing the U.S. with the legendary BLACK SABBATH.

The 1999 release of the emotionally dark and rhythmically diverse Times of Grace marked the band's initial foray towards blending musical tranquillity into their trademark intensity. Immediately following Times of Grace's release,
NEUROSIS / Tribes of Neurot, issued Grace, a full album's worth of experimentation and soundscapes that acted as the
perfect compliment to Times Of Grace. As the two albums were played congruently, they were aligned in dynamics and instrumentation, enhancing the listening experience and each other simultaneously. The Times of Grace / Grace pairing was an ambitious experiment more aligned with THE FLAMING LIPS' Zaireeka than the efforts of most heavy music / metal acts. Following the end of touring for Times of Grace the band returned home to construct new material, and developed their label - Neurot Recordings. In 2000, they self-released Sovereign an EP featuring multi-media content and material from the Times of Grace sessions.

In summer, 2001 the band unveiled A Sun That Never Sets, a record that incapsulated every dynamic inherent in NEUROSIS. While no less intense than earlier albums A Sun That Never Sets offers moments of more contemplative
melancholy clean(er) vocals, showing the maturation of a band providing much-needed relevance and progression to modern music. The album was heralded immediately upon its release; Boston's Weekly Dig and noted out-rock tome Outburn called the record a "masterpiece", while noted rock periodical Alternative Press referred to it as "brilliant". Plans were immediately set in motion to comprise a DVD version of the album, something that would unite both the visual and audio facets of the band's art as one congruent whole.

As the A Sun... DVD entered production, NEUROSIS delved into their next artistic advancement; the formation and presentation of "Beyond The Pale", a four day music festival dedicated to the spirit of sound. The first installment of this
annual gathering took place August 16th-19th, 2001 in San Francisco's Great American Music Hall. "Beyond The Pale" brought together a diverse group of original, innovative and independent musicians and bands hand-picked by the members of NEUROSIS (including Michael Gira (Angels of Light/Swans), Amber Asylum, Shellac, Isis, Thrones, Zeni Geva, Shellac, Tarentel, Zoviet France, TRIBES OF NEUROT, solo performances from Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly and NEUROSIS
themselves), with the band delivering emotionally-charged versions of material from A Sun That Never Sets.

After fifteen years of undeniably accomplished fusion between sonically divergent music and methodically hypnotic visuals, A Sun That Never Sets - the DVD unites the energy of the band's music with their focused lyrical concepts, bringing the entire NEUROSIS experience to life in a way that has not been seen before now. With six pieces directed and produced by NEUROSIS' visual artist Josh Graham, A Sun That Never Sets also features directorial contributions from other renowned filmmakers and video artists including Chad Rullman. The A Sun That Never Sets DVD is a groundbreaking advancement in the world of independent music, including world-class videos for every song from the widely acclaimed album of the same name.

In 2004, Neurosis unleashed The Eye of Every Storm, their most mature and assured effort to date, as well as issueing a series of "official" bootlegs through their Neurot imprint and a startling collaboration with Swans diva Jarboe.

(Source: http://shop.relapse.com/artist/artist.aspx?ArtistID=10072)