“The end is endless and washing over me,” Kelly sings in the LP’s slow-building opening cut “Bending Light.” Elsewhere, on “Broken Ground” – a metal dirge whose main guitar riff writhes uncomfortably throughout the nearly nine-minute track – Von Till sings, “Trouble sleeps where dead men stare.” They’re the sort of existential proclamations only a nihilist like Sartre might find uplifting, and Neurosis will be bringing those messages with them on the road at some rare gigs this month and next on the West Coast. Their 11th and latest release, this year’s Fires Within Fires, showcases the best aspects of the Neurosis experience: downtuned Sabbath-influenced riffs, pounding tribal drumming, fleeting moments of elegance and caustic vocals recounting personal apocalypses. The band’s own Steve Von Till, who has played guitar and howled on Neurosis LPs since 1989, has his own poetic description, specifically for the band’s breakthrough 1996 album, Through Silver in Blood: “a fucking railroad through hell.” “They’re dudes who were into metal and crusty shit who followed their muse and invented a kind of corroded and raging psychedelic hard rock with apocalyptic moments where they pry open the door to madness and stare it down,” offers Shellac frontman and frequent Neurosis audio engineer Steve Albini.

“Dawn in the black forest,” offers Jarboe. “It’s sort of like a Windham Hill record meets Swans or Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed,” Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil says. Yet for these achievements, it can be difficult to describe their unique mix of metal, punk, sludge and avant-garde experiments. They’ve curated their own Beyond the Pale festival and formed their own label. They’ve put out 12 albums, including one with former Swans singer Jarboe. Neurosis have been a band for more than 30 years.

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