LOCUST STAR

Locust Star is a split EP release by US, California post metal/ experimental metal act Neurosis and their ambient/ experimental alter ego Tribes of Neurot. It´s actually a very long EP as the playing time is 47:08 minutes. So there´s lots of quantity for your hard earned money ( and your not so hard earned too) but the quality is so and so IMO.

The four Neurosis songs that begins the EP are all taken from one of my favorite albums from the band Through Silver in Blood (1996). The three first are Locust Star, Eye and Aeon in edited versions ( shorter than the originals from Through Silver in Blood) and the last Neurosis song is Aeon in its 11:47 minute entirety. The last three songs on the EP are Tribes of Neurot tracks. Wolf Lava is taken from Silver Blood Transmission (1995) which is the debut album by Tribes of Neurot. The last two Tribes of Neurot songs Sustenance and Crawl Inside are previously unreleased.

As I mentioned it´s so and so with the quality of this release and that´s mostly due to the fact that I loathe edited versions of songs. Why oh why edit something that´s perfect as it is. I don´t exactly see this kind of music being played on commercial radio stations anyway but whatever the reason it´s a bad one IMO. So to me the three first tracks are rather superfluous and when I already got Through Silver in Blood I don´t really need the full-length version of Aeon again. The three Tribes of Neurot tracks are simply not to my taste. The dark ambient and experimental sounds just drag on for way too long IMO. An aquired taste for sure. I will give Locust Star a 2 star rating though and that´s solely because the post metal of Neurosis is of high quality. Quite frankly the idea to release this EP is not good IMO and I would rather have been without it. Those who enjoy the ambient/ experimental Tribes of Neurot style might get something more out of this than I do. There are after all two unreleased songs from that band on the EP.