Neurot Recordings – 20 March 2026
Christopher Nosnibor
Unless you’ve been keeping a very close eye, or have been privy to insider information, you could be forgiven for thinking Neurosis were done as a band. And reasonably so. It’s been ten years since their last album, and it’s been almost four years since word emerged that founder and vocalist Scott Kelly had departed the band under a cloud and announced his retirement from music.
Nevertheless, one would have probably expected some kind of hype, a build-up to the first album in a decade by these post-metal colossi. Perhaps they felt a little reluctant under the circumstances of quietly ejecting Kelly in 2019 he admitted abusing his wife and children, keeping quiet on the matter out of respect for privacy from his wife. The fact they expelled him well before the news broke in 2022 sends a clear message on the position of the remaining members, who, after time has passed, have recruited Aaron Turner, formerly of Isis, and then Sumac. I shan’t dwell on how it must feel as a band to discover that one of the people they’ve worked with so closely for so many years is a piece of shit, an abusive lowlife, but will swerve here onto the topic of how Tom Meighan, formerly of Kasabian has been welcomed back to the gig and festival circuit following a conviction for domestic abuse largely on the basis that his abused girlfriend forgave him and went on to marry him. But that’s how it is with abuse. Victims don’t leave, and there comes to be an understanding that it’s in the past and the abuser is somehow rehabilitated and everything is ok now, so the world moves on.
This shouldn’t be the cloud that hangs over Neurosis’ new album, and because of how they’ve dealt with it, it isn’t really a cloud, but something which needs to be addressed by way of context, rather than skipped over or swept under the carpet. Thankfully, Kelly doesn’t get a pass, a career rehabilitation after a break, and with a respectful hiatus and Turner coming into the fold, An Undying Love For A Burning World marks the opening of a new chapter for Neurosis.
The album’s title encapsulates the place in which the band – and, indeed, many of us find ourselves, and the statement from the band on its release expands on this:
“We need this, perhaps more than ever, and we suspect we are not alone. The trials and tribulations in our personal lives and as a band, combined with simply trying to navigate the insanity of our society, with the stress, anxiety, and isolation that come with it can be excruciating. Add to that the existential confusion and sorrow of the climate crisis and the sixth mass extinction.
“It is enough to cause you to completely lose your mind if you can’t find release or catharsis. This strange emotionally charged music has always been our method of trying to survive this and this is what we’ve always been singing about. When you have spent a lifetime engaged with these energies and utilizing this form of expression to purge and purify, it feels detrimental to our well-being to let it sit idle and neglected. This was now or never.”
First, the pandemic. Then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Then Israel’s genocide in Gaza. And now – effectively – World War 3, with gas and oil facilities ablaze, all while the oceans rise and the global climate becomes evermore inhospitable. It’s a battle to simply exist and keep it together at times, because the last few years have felt truly apocalyptic. And STILL people are shitting on one another: displays of racism and misogyny are becoming more rife and more extreme and as much as there’s abundant cause to fear for the imminent elimination of the human species, there’s a strong case in favour of it for the good of the planet.
And so it is that An Undying Love For A Burning World is a difficult album, in that it grapples with these difficult, ugly, and complex issues.
“The dissonance is deafening!” Turner hollers on the brief intro piece, ‘We Are Torn Wide Open’, before blasting into the jarring noise blast of ‘Mirror Deep’. Immediately, this feels like a different Neurosis. They’ve always explored tone and texture, but this feels different: fast, hard, heavy, with a punkier edge to the driving metal blast. This rages, hard. The riffs and jarring, dissonant, and Turner’s vocals bring a different kind of energy. And it’s an energy that’s a vital injection.
Of course, there are still megalithic lumbering riffs: ‘First Red Rays’ brings the first of them, and it’s a crushing trudge, but then suddenly everything explodes. It sounds as if they’re playing for their lives, and purging hard here. Even the expansive instrumental passages are imbued with an emotional heft that’s intangible and fundamentally inarticulable, and while the nine-minute ‘Blind’ offers some atmospheric passages, they’re decimated by raging riffs, and ‘Seething and Scattered’ sure as hell does seethe from its very core.
The last two tracks are both immense, clocking in at ten and seventeen minutes respectively, but far from being meandering plods – and there are quieter, gentler passages which have an exploratory edge – they’re both dynamic explosions brimming with anguish, and riff and rage hard. The final track, ‘Last Light’ begins with a Suicide-like pulsating electronic beat and fizzing electronics before the riff piles in, and takes off with with some expansive space-rock vibes and a nagging hint of shoegaze, and it’s as majestic as it is monstrous.
This is the sound of a band reinvigorated, and, more significantly, grappling with issues, both personal and circumstantial. It’s a band striving to push forward, a band unbeaten but emerging from and processing a trauma. The world is burning: that’s not political or controversial, but it’s difficult to assimilate and contemplate what the future holds. An Undying Love For A Burning World takes the listener down to the darkest depth, but also hints at hope. Right now, hope is all we have, and it’s hard to cling to… but cling, we must. Otherwise, what else is there?
AA
AA
Aural Aggravation 