Neurosis A Free Written Impression of a Sludge Metal Song During a Concert

 




An introverted Neurosis bears down into the sludge of the
sound of a black sun rising through an event horizon of madness

 

 

A beautiful creature dazzles the eyes of a child. She smiles into the eyes of the creature and takes a gadget from a jewel-adorned hand. The creature smiles as he draws a crooked knife from an oiled leather sheaf. She delights in the gadget and runs around the room spinning. The creature approaches. She does note anything amiss. This creature is her friend. Her father. Her mother. Her brother. Her sister. Her lover.

The creature laughs and gently strokes the girl’s curly blond hair. She giggles and squeals as the creature draws the wicked knife across her throat. Her silky buttery flesh parts like a plow cutting furrows in a well-tended patch of soil.

Her green laughing eyes turn to stone as her blood beads up on the blade, she gives up her last breath without a whimper. The gadget clatters to the ground untarnished.

This piece was composed on my (now dead and buried) Pantech_C530 Slate telephone during a Neurosis concert at Neumos on December 30, 2010. As you can see I was standing very close to the stage. This was the second time I'd seen them. I was introduced to them when I saw Heaven & Hell (formerly Black Sabbath) play at WaMu Theater in August 8th, 2009. This show was a treat, because I got to see Ronnie James Dio perform before he passed away on May 16th, 2010. Ronnie James Dio's influence in Black Sabbath marks the beginning of modern metal. Black Sabbath with Ozzy was a heavy blues band and where most all the songs were about anti-war-ism and intoxicants; whereas Dio's influence injected fantasy illustrations into the narrative of the music form. Modern metal to me is the reincarnation of classical music and Ronnie James Dio was one individual among many who breathed this into the genre.

I wrote three impressions that night. One during the Wolves in the Throne Rooms' melodic black ambient metal set and two during Neurosis' sludge post metal set. The third band to play that evening was a Seattle band called Black Breath whose scorching sound is similar to Judas Priest ablaze. The above impression is my least favorite of the three I composed that night, but they all represent the meaning of metal to me.