I don't know about you, but me, I'm a huge Neurosis fan. For nearly 25 years the Oakland band has invested the visceral sounds of doom metal with spirit-plumbing lyrics and a far more textured, cerebral approach to songwriting than your average metal band. Neurosis songs often stretch past ten minutes, exploring dynamic peaks and valleys and all matter of droning ambience in addition to doom's signature tower-crumbling riffs. Their finest moments (including their most recent album Given to the Rising, reviewed here) attain emotional plateaus reached only by the most capable of bands, metal and non. And accordingly, Neurosis have inspired hordes of imitators within the metal world.
Last week I experienced an extended period of Neurosis-related serendipity. The band's frontman Scott Kelly (the surly gentleman pictured above) signed up for ASCAP membership on Wednesday. On Thursday, I interviewed him about Shrinebuilder, the new metal supergroup that he's in (along with three other ASCAP members: Wino of Saint Vitus/The Obsessed, Al Cisneros of Om/Sleep and Dale Crover of The Melvins), for a feature in Decibel Magazine. On Friday, nothing Scott Kelly-related happened, but I was still pretty stoked about the other two things on Fridy.
It's rare that you get to talk to your heroes. Scott Kelly definitely qualifies as one of mine. Thanks for making my week, Mr. Kelly, and welcome to the ASCAP metal brotherhood.
Check out Scott Kelly's blog.
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