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1.  Prayer
2.  An Offering
3.  Flood
4.  Sovereign
5.  Misgiven

Total playing time:  42:02

Release Date: September 20, 2011
Label:  Neurot Recordings

Neurosis - Sovereign EP

Reviewer: Chris

October 27, 2011

On the more moody, down-tempo side of the musical globe sits Neurosis, a band with nothing in the way of pretention and everything in the realm of relevance and talent. This is a band not everyone is going to understand, but some of the few will find this treasure trove of four tracks (plus a bonus song) a consistent friend. Originally released in 2000, Sovereign is a not-so-casual step into the din of tribal-sounding metal music tinged with doomy elemental shading.

While it’s not a fair assessment to call this band too cerebral for most, it is very accurate to say that Neurosis appeals to a psychic connection within the cranium that is open to both interpretative music and deep, conscious engagement. It is definitely not a band to be undersold or taken lightly.

“Prayer” starts off slow and brooding, like an ill-eased body stiffened and awaiting a causal jolt to the system as Scott Kelly poetically incites discord in your brain with indecipherable quickness. The track is a bass-heavy entry into the depths of inner disharmony and applies all of the typical horrors and befuddlements afforded to a person’s frame of being while in this state. “An Offering” steps up the hard doom feel as the guitars shatter any stillness with a thundering blast of D-chord hell while the vocals moan and growl under the inexplicable dirge made viable by a band of weighty musicians that pull out all stops. “Flood” is my personal favorite on the EP because it houses four solid minutes of music that, like its title, washes away the acceptable tranquility and forces a catharsis much needed if not immediately recognized. It’s an instrumental cleansing that is one of my favorite Neurosis tracks. It’s a reasoned, volatile issuance in every true sense of the word. The title track is yet another road block in the way to peaceful servitude; the chaotic elements of this EP are not going to just allow you to rest on your laurels. It’s nearly 14-minutes of stewing in your own resistance, which by now must be a lethargic and welcomed mess. When the yell kicks in, you’re all but drained of any strength you might muster to forge on ahead by yourself. At this point Neurosis is a welcome and trusted friend to get you past the turmoil going on inside that you can’t identify or ignore. This EP will drain you in the best possible way and you’ll be going back for more when necessity demands it. The bonus track in Misgiven” was once a Japan-only bonus track that is a seven-minute bass-drenched foray into the strange and hypnotic with digitalized noises and high-pitched ringing amidst subtle drumming. It isn’t really annoying, but it seems an odd placement at the end of an otherwise phenomenal recording. It’s nothing terrible, yet I think the EP stood fine as a pieced collective without this track; it doesn’t ruin the CD at all, but it doesn’t seem to fit either. Aside from this, this EP reissue is well worth picking up if you’re new to the band and want to be enlightened in ways innumerable and immeasurable.   
 
Each track on Sovereign offers something in the way of tumultuousness and tangibility, building the right amount of suspenseful wonderment and issuing a fair amount of internal trepidation when trying vainly to figure out where the music might be leading. Thinking in this fashion will get you nowhere; it’s best to let Neurosis lead by musical example and just be grateful for the road less taken.