Released in tandem, Scott
Kelly's The Wake and
Steve Von Till's The Grave Is A Grim Horse—new solo albums from Neurosis' two
frontmen—feature the grizzled howls of a couple of gravelly avant-metal
vets playing folk music. They've both dabbled in the quiet stuff before, and
it's almost depressing how little new ground they break with these new efforts—especially
Kelly's The Wake,
an album so stiff and stringy, it might as well be roadkill. With an unsure
voice and the starkest of chords, Kelly hammers out a brittle impersonation of
Michael Gira, drained dry of the master's gallows humor and sense of
grotesquerie as transcendence.
Gira—or more
specifically, his Angels Of Light—also casts a deep shadow over Von
Till's Grave.
But where The Wake is mostly flat, Grave has peaks and craters: Fleshed out with
cello, organ, violin, and pedal steel, Von Till's acoustic grumbling is far
lusher and more engaging. Again, it isn't the slightest departure from what
he's done on previous solo albums; it's just done better, with hints of
everyone from Tindersticks to Mark Lanegan creeping into the mix. Thankfully,
Neurosis is still going strong as ever—although it might almost be a good
thing if Kelly and Von Till were forced to focus more gravity and soul on their
vanity projects.