As Heavy as it Gets: Neurosis - Cabaret Metro

While Tony Iommi rang in the era of heavy metal over 40 years ago with the very simple yet terrifying and exhilarating opening chords to the song "Black Sabbath"it's evolution has been anything but simple.  In fact, the genre has been constantly reinventing itself from day one.  Remove the unfortunate commoditization of hair metal in the 80's from the equation,  it has been proven over and over again that heavy metal has become a musical melting pot.  From Motorhead's toxic mix of Eddie Cochran and the Dammed to the incorporation of progressive rock into Black Metal, it's been proven that this genre has no problems with experimentation.  While this doesn't always translate into gargantuan album sales, it's influence is widespread and helps assure the viability of the genre.

A classic case of this grand experimentation was on display at the Metro where, doom metal pioneers Neurosis played to a packed house touring behind their latest record "Honor Found In Decay".   As with the other dates on this relatively brief tour, the Bay Area legends have reached into each city's own musical base for opening acts and for the date in Chicago, picked local metal bands The Atlas Moth and Bloodiest.  The result was a four hour extravaganza chock full of 10 minute plus musical workouts and virtually no stage banter and leaving the capacity crowd drained but wanting more.  

Taking it's cues from everything from the Deftones to Isis to Jesu, The Atlas Moth mixes atmospheric, electronic backgrounds with a super heavy three guitar attack overlaid with a traditional Black Metal approach of both harmonic and gutteral style vocals.   They only played 5 songs during their 35 minute set but it was pretty tight and impressive set.  

Led by Chicago indie rock legend Bruce Lamont (Yakuza, Led Zeppelin II), Bloodiest features a number of local players.  While definitely more of an experimental act compared to the other bands on the bill, Bloodiest does incorporate a number of metal elements to the mix.  I'm not sure if they didn't they get to sound check but the mix during their set was really bad (Lamont's vocals were impossible to hear).  Finally by the 10 minute closer "Dead Inside" they seemed to resolve their issues which allowed them at least salvage some of the performance. 

With over an hour of pretty intense opening acts (and some minor sound issues) leading to this moment, the tension was at fever pitch in advance of Neurosis.  Having written about them a couple of times this year, I'll spare you the details again but they are one of my favorite bands around and this was my first time seeing them.  After a brief break where the boys in the band actually helped set up their rigs and then the madness started.  

Starting with "Distill" from 2007's "Given to the Rising", it was obvious that while this band has been together for nearly 30 years, the intensity is still present with an abundance to spare.  Co-leaders Scott Kelly and Steve Van Till looked like they were about to explode at any given moment.   Given this intensity, I was very curious to see how the more varied approach that the band took on their new album translate to the stage.  Their second song, the 11:00 plus "My Heart For Deliverance" erased all concerns.  As the song moved into the more melodic, airer middle section,  Neurosis was able to sink back into the mix and let keyboardist/sampler Noah Landis take over yet suddenly go full throttle for the epic conclusion.  

In fact,  the new songs served as the highlight of the night.  "At The Well" with Van Till's folksy, Western movie style eventually exploded into a, dare I say it, epic rock song that became so intense at the end that Scott Kelly accidentally banged his head into the microphone and cut his forehead.  Kelly's primal scream at the end of "We All Rage In Gold" will stick in my memory banks for some time.  Drummer Jason Roeder's Bonzo-like approach of being both heavy and nimble at the same time gives these tracks an added level of intensity.    

When the vast majority of the songs clock out at 10 minutes and there are 10 albums to work choose from, choosing a setlist can prove a bit tricky.  This set was definitely focused on their new material with three songs off of 2007's "Given To The Rising" in addition to the new tracks.  When they did go back to older material it was served as a very effective counterpoint to their newer material.  "Times of Grace" with it's three headed lead vocal assault from Kelly, Van Till, and bassist Dave Edwardson brought the intensity level up exponentially.  The set closing "Through Silver and Blood" was nearly 15 minutes of pure chaos.  Starting with a tribal drum duet between Van Till and Roeder, the song picked up a fury that I've only seen Slayer accomplish live with Kelly repeatedly hitting his head off of his microphone.  At the end, after another tribal drum solo with Kelly joining in this time,  the band left the stage in a wall of violent feedback.

While there was very little conversation during any of the sets, the focus here was definitely on the music and what could be done with what has always been perceived as a very limited genre.  This set at Metro showed multiple generations of metal bands showing that nothing is off limits with the king of experimental metal bands showing that they aren't ready to stop soon.  Here's a clip of their epic closing track - "Through Silver and Blood".  Happy New Year