| Through Silver in Blood | 
 enlarge | Artist: Neurosis
Label: Relapse
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $11.64
You Save: $5.34 (31%)
Buy New/Used from $10.79
Avg. Customer Rating:   (40 reviews)
Sales Rank: 62304
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 766938
UPC: 781676693825
EAN: 7816766938258
ASIN: B00000112Q
Release Date: April 30, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Through Silver in Blood | | • | Rehumanize | | • | Eye | | • | Purify | | • | Locust Star | | • | Strength of Fates | | • | Become the Ocean | | • | Aeon | | • | Enclosure in Flame |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
The bizarre metal act's albums 'Souls At Zero' (1992) and 'Enemy Of The Sun' (1993) digitally remastered. Both are pressed on full color picture discs & with previously unreleased bonus tracks: 'Souls' adds demo versions of 'Soul' & 'Zero', plus 'Cleanse III' (Live In London); 'Enemy' adds 'Takeahnase' (Demo Version) and 'Cleanse II' (Live In Oberhausen). 23 tracks total. Laminated double gatefold slipcase with a 12 page lyric booklet. 1997 Iron City release.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
A thorough dose of musicianship; fantastic music concepts. December 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
First, a disclaimer. My review title might be a little misleading. By musicianship I do not declare this album to be an effort in technical extravagance. No, not by any stretch is this an album of consumate shredding at all. If you get your thrills in metal music from dynamic guitar play then perhaps this album, and this band, is not for you. Neurosis strive for a minimalist control over their sound.
But, on the matter of the music itself, Neurosis are amazing at what they do. They create a doom that's uniquely their own. They have an utterly sweeping and brutally convincing musical technique.
The opening song is a true example of everything Neurosis does with their style, imo. Don't get me wrong there. Neurosis does not repeat themselves, not even within a particular album. But, "Through Silver in Blood," as a song, is the epitome of what Neurosis is good at. A single riff, monotonously played and delivered throughout a sweeping and grand long song dripping with steel, molten and heavy. It's grinding and punishing. It's deliberately slow paced, as a giant moving through a city at his own pace, his own rhythm, unconcerned in all his power with the scramblings of the small creatures attempting to flee from his sheer potency in effect against such small and insignificant dwellings.
Ok, that may be a little dramatic, but you get the point. Neurosis is the Iron Man of metal music. In fact, Black Sabbath's great "Iron Man" is probably the closest comparison to what Neurosis does that I can get, yet it is still significantly far from the actual style as to be only a shade of the crude grace that is the album Through Silver in Blood.
If you've never heard them before, what I can tell you is that they are a cross between Black Sabbath and Alice in Chains in an obscure way, but without having the popular overtones of either of those bands. If you are looking for a great band with true niche in the metal world, Neurosis is it. Not even Meshuggah is so remotely in their own element as Neurosis is.
As for the album, Through Silver in Blood, itself. It is sweeping and dynamic, but minimal. There's no effort to solo the listener gracefully. No, the whole point is to be as doomy and grinding as possible, and this album achieves that wonderfully. This album is the very definition of "heavy metal." Through Silver in Blood is like eating steak, while most metal bands are more like fried chicken. This is a nice large piece of ribeye cooked just right. Savor the flavor of the music. Chew slowly. It's good stuff.
If you are stuck in a vein of loving bands like Metallica to the exclusion of accepting something quite a bit more experimental then you probably won't be able to accept bent convention enough to like this album, which in my opinion is a real shame. That's because the music here is so much richer and more significant than anything a band like Metallica has ever done, or will ever do.
My favorite song here is "Purify," with a nice meandering piece of riff that builds an elaborate tension throughout the song.
Trust me when I tell you that the 30 second sound bytes provided by amazon.com will not give you much indication of the effect of this music. While they will give you a feel for Neurosis' basic sound on this album, they will not translate to a real idea of what the band has done here. If you must hear what's happening before you buy it I recommend that you look up someone who has experience with this band and find out what their view of the album is. I doubt there are many who've listened to this album and not thoroughly enjoyed it.
The most complete Neurosis album since Souls at Zero September 4, 2008
I have been a fan of Neurosis for years, but I wouldn't say a "die-hard" fan. I totally loved Souls at Zero, but most of their other work up until this was hit and miss for me. I liked a few songs off of Enemy of the Sun.
When I first heard this gem I was genuinely blown away. I could almost call it the "Sgt. Peppers album for tribal metal" or "post metal" or whatever other label people come up with for them.
I will warn the avid metal enthusiast that this album is not a straight, riff after riff thrash piece...Neurosis pulls out all the stops here, from heavy guitars, to organs, multiple drum sets, bagpipes, the list goes on. Scott Kelly doesn't disappoint with screeching vocals that are not unlike a specter screaming with its larynx torn out.
You almost need to be "in a state of mind" to appreciate the beauty here. It is not to be heard, but listened to and experienced. I also think the album is best heard start to finish, vs. song to song. It allows the listener to really lose themselves in the sound.
Purify is one of my favorite metal songs ever written, with ever-building crescendos to a climactic decline. Other notable tracks are Through Silver and Blood, Aeon and Locust Star.
A must have for any Neurosis fan, or any metal fan looking for the next plateau.
For All Who are Sick of Deathcore August 8, 2008
Sludge Metal, heck yeah! Neurosis is a big influence on bands such as Isis and Mastodon, and you can hear it. But what makes Neurosis different from those bands? A ______load. While Mastodon (don't know much about Isis) is good, Neurosis is a lot more original and refreshing sounding to these ears, especially because this record's sound is pretty shiny to these ears (this stuff so far? I like it!), having not much experience with slower metal (and there is a ton of genres out there that are slower, I know).
Through Silver in Blood is CRUSHING. Huge, sludgy riffs, deep brooding bass, tribal drumming. The dynamics and vocal really do it as well. Songs start out slow, build up with plenty of time to breath, and EXPLODE with riffs, shouts, screams, and surging bass lines. Whether or not Through Silver in Blood is the most crushing album ever is an opinion of choice, but even if it isn't the most crushing album, it won't save the fact it's crushing in general.
And there is no denying that there is at atmosphere. Yes, morons won't be able to see it, but it is. Apocalyptic, Tribal, Mayan civilization doing things, lot's of cool stuff done easily by this music. When listening to the first track, the atmosphere that conjures up the end of the world in the jungle in the moonlight, fire in the sky, easily done. Enclosure in Flames easily lives up to the title. The two tracks pack quite a punch in their five minute run. Strength of Fates is soft for most of it, then explodes like a bomb. The two interludes are great as well, and are worthy as any of the track on here.
And keeping up with the music are the lyrics. They add to the atmosphere and music, and while don't exactly make sense, it works in making the song come to life even more, given the theme of the album. And there are some piano, samples, and other instruments in the mix, to a great effect. Really, just a great job using all of what they got, with hardly any filler within songs.
Don't worry if Through Silver and Blood doesn't quite sound good on the first listen, when I first bought it, despite hearing some of the tracks online, was highly disappointed. But I then learned of it's many traits, it's brooding atmosphere, and acquired some tastes along the way after listening. This one is a essential purchase for metal fans, who want something beyond monotonous blast beats, or speed in general.
9/10
reminiscing May 20, 2008
I was revisiting this gem a few weeks ago and for some reason or another was moved to share my opinion of it with the world...I'm such a narcissist.
If the onslaught of various obnoxious subgenres don't raise any flags (alternative metal, apocalyptic metal, folk metal), let me assure you: Neurosis is not your average "metal" band. Newcomers beware! Truth be told, this is not a band that one just listens to. This is a band whose music (and visual accompaniment) is to be experienced. Do not just try to pop this into your car stereo for a casual listen on your way to the grocery store. You make time for this band.
From the opening seconds of the first track, you know you're in for something different. Tribal drumming lays the groundwork and makes way for the hypnotic guitar riffs and passionate vocals found throughout this
release. Through repetition and structural evolution, they transport the listener to another world. Who needs drugs when there are bands like Neurosis? Sculpting sound with emotional fervor, they paint sonic landscapes with aural brushes. Cavernous drums wed with mountains of low-end distortion and waves of agonizing screams. The music blends seamlessly from brutally heavy to serenely calm and back again. Despite the occasional breath-catching oasis, this remains a truly intense album.
Neurosis have been known to create devastatingly crushing, spiritually influenced records and this is definitely their most aggressive offering. It is with "Through Silver In Blood" that Neurosis push their way to the frontlines as one of the heaviest bands on Earth.
Other notable Neurosis releases: "A Sun That Never Sets", "Given To The Rising"
mindblowing March 5, 2008
"Screamingly sentient, dumbly delirious, only the gods that were can tell. A sickened,sensitive shadow writhing in hands that are not hands, and whirled blindly past ghastly midnights of rotting creation, corpses of dead worlds with sores that were cities, charnel winds that brush the pallid stars and make them flicker low. Beyond the worlds vague ghosts of monstrous things; half-seen columns of unsanctified temples that rest on name less rocks beneath space and reach up to dizzy vacua above the spheres of light and darkness. And through this revolting graveyard of the universe the muffled, maddening beating of drums, and thin, monotonous whine of blasphemous flutes from inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond Time; the detestable pounding and piping whereunto dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic, tenebrous ultimate gods- the blind, voiceless, mindless gargoyles whose soul is Nyarlathotep."
This is some incredible music.
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