ENEMY OF THE SUN

NEUROSIS has become one of my favorite bands of all time. What I love about them is their ability to give every album its own personality and sound while keeping the basic doomy sludge metal sound that they are known for. On their 4th album ENEMY OF THE SUN they continue the post metal sludge that they invented on their previous album 'Souls At Zero' but they created a more atmospheric piece this time around relying heavily on introductory samples of different source material like news clips, ambient electronica or ethnic music. The result of all this is a more experimental sounding album that sounds a little less harsh than the previous and future releases.

The first track sounds like something that could be on the first Black Sabbath album as it is clearly more doom metal than sludge but after the first couple of tracks they start introducing more bizarre soundscapes to the mix and at times some of the ambient more trippy parts remind me of Krautrock. Although I love this album from beginning to end it is not as perfectly executed as 'Souls At Zero' mostly because of the fact that some of the ambient and tribal drumming outros outstay their welcome. Just when you think it feels like it should be ending it continues and keeps going. Although that keeps this from being another masterpiece it still is an excellent album that shouldn't be overlooked simply because it falls between two of their more popular releases.