Band:	Neurosis
Album:	Souls At Zero
Style:	Post-hardcore, Atmospheric sludge metal
Release date:	1992
Guest review by:	Desha

01. To Crawl Under One's Skin
02. Souls At Zero
03. Zero
04. Flight
05. The Web
06. Sterile Vision
07. A Chronology For Survival
08. Stripped
09. Takeahnase
10. Empty
11. Souls [demo] [1999 reissue bonus]
12. Zero [demo] [1999 reissue bonus]
13. Cleanse III [Live in London] [1999 reissue bonus]

"It's a storm of lies. A blizzard of lies. A hurricane of lies every day." This statement from one of the samples on the opening track, "To Crawl Under One's Skin", hits so deeply into what we are living today. The nightmare of being completely flooded with information, contradictory "facts" and the idea that everyone just wants the good of all. It's the others who are wrong. It's obvious, isn't it?

Neurosis talks about these themes in the context of faith and worship. True faith, pure and unsullied by the larger structures of power. It's what I think Enemy Of The Sun is all about. There's tons of other messages in their song titles, lyrics and symbolism, but faith is the one I'd like to ignore for now. It means ignoring the intent, but a work of art stands on its own - and Souls At Zero has stood at the center of my headspace for months now.

To be honest with you, I wasn't alive in 1992, nor would this album have resonated with me as it does now, 26 years later, if I had been alive and had listened to it on release, because it seems so current.

This album is apocalyptic like none other. The massive walls of sound of pummeling or shrill riffs emphasized by synths, three vocalists performing everything from cleaner but still desperate singing ("Flight") to the most desperate shrieks (all over the album, but probably most notable in "Sterile Vision"). Acoustic interludes serve as a relief, even if only for a short while. All over, however, the album also retains an incredibly psychedelic sound: The buried and distant vocals, the synths (see the mad pipes on "Flight"), the riffs ("Souls At Zero"/"Zero"), the ever-ritualistic rhythms and melodies, classical instruments and even a choir, everything.

While Neurosis's following albums are perhaps more massive in scale (Through Silver In Blood), scary (Enemy Of The Sun) or introspective (Times Of Grace and their albums after that), the combination in Souls At Zero is unique. Contemplating the end is not only one of these things, but all combined, and the apocalypse also always has a psychedelic edge to it, present here like in no other Neurosis album.

While the idea of circles on "A Chronology For Survival" serves as a slight comfort, we know that ours will come to an end. Maybe it's my German pessimism talking, but Neurosis seem to have agreed in 1992. Or "Takeahnase" makes me believe so at least - beyond the opening sample.

"Thieves called it property"

We've overstayed our welcome. We've been too wasteful for the sake of comfort, others for greed. Who knew that the endless stench of capitalist industry would corrupt our living? The answer is simple: honestly, most of us.

"We tried to tell you, now let us show you. You'll know the way."

We know the way, and it's terrifying, because it's nothing but downhill.