The unexpected return of Neurosis this year has come as a welcome surprise for pretty much everyone into heavy music.
For a time, it seemed the band had reached an abrupt and definitive end following the 2022 controversy surrounding former singer/guitarist Scott Kelly, who publicly admitted to abusing his wife and children. In response, his bandmates swiftly condemned his actions, removing him from the lineup and effectively placing Neurosis on indefinite hiatus.
That silence ended March 20 when Neurosis re-emerged without warning, releasing a brand new studio album, An Undying Love For A Burning World. Alongside the drop came the reveal that Aaron Turner – known for his work with SUMAC, Old Man Gloom and Isis – had stepped in to fill Kelly‘s role.
On paper, Turner‘s addition makes near-perfect sense. Throughout the 2000s, the sonic overlap between Neurosis and Isis was so pronounced that the tongue-in-cheek term “Neur-Isis” became shorthand for an entire strain of post-metal.
In a new interview with Bandcamp, guitarist/vocalist Steve Von Till and Turner opened up about the band’s reinvention and how the lineup shift came together. Reflecting on the decision, Von Till explained: “We were thinking about how we could reinvent ourselves with the same energy that we reinvented ourselves with when I first joined, when we went from The Word As Law [1990] to Souls At Zero [1992].
“But we’re no longer young men. What kind of puzzles could we put in front of us to create that level of reinvention when time doesn’t move the same way it used to? It came down to finding the right energy.
“Honestly, the only hesitation about Aaron at first was that it seemed so obvious. And we weren’t convinced that he wasn’t too busy with his own work to just want to drop everything and join our dysfunctional old man band.”
Turner, meanwhile, described his reaction to the invitation as both natural and surreal, given his long-standing ties to the band: “It’s not like Steve and I had never spoken, and he all of a sudden asked me to join. Our paths became interwoven a long time ago.
“Numerous projects of mine released stuff on [Neurosis‘s label] Neurot. I did some artwork for Neurosis. Neurosis took my old band [ISIS] on tour. I don’t know if Steve remembers this, but in the early 2000s, he proposed that I come up to the Bay Area and do some stuff with him and one of the guys from Enablers.
“This is a relationship of community where everybody is doing stuff with each other constantly, and there are always ideas flowing back and forth. In that way, it wasn’t surprising to me. I’d had an open dialogue with Steve for many years. At the same time, it was definitely a what-the-fuck moment for me because this is a band that I had been deeply influenced by in many ways, both musically and ideologically.”
Crucially, the band weren’t simply looking for a replacement. As Von Till put it: “We’ve always been a collective, and we need the energy. As much as people may think they understand what happens behind the scenes in certain bands, Neurosis has always been collaborative. This album being a reinvention, we didn’t want the same old shit.
“We wanted somebody to come up with new ideas and a fresh approach–to make not only the old stuff their own, but to bring new stuff. All ‘Neur-Isis‘ jokes aside, it’s really been what Aaron has done with SUMAC, the really unhinged sonic dynamics and mastery of raw emotion, and his unique approach to guitar, that we felt was really going to click with our energy.”
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