A Lot on My Crate

I found this sludge metal album and band through some buzz going around online and on platforms like Rate Your Music putting this at #1 (was #1, now #2 as it was usurped by another music group, more to come hohoho). That site has its problems that I might delve into later, but this album did not disappoint. It’s as desolate and crushing as it wants to and it’s something I can ever want in a sludge metal project. This band from Oakland, California has been around since the 80s and went into a five year hiatus at some point with the cause being that Scott Kelly, one of the founders and lead vocalist admits to abusing his family. So, I think I got on the right time for the hype train, because fuck that guy. I would not have praised and write about this album if this guy was still on. But the band came together again and on this year of 2026 they pick up a new member and ambushes us with An Undying Love for a Burning World that fans were raving and craving for years. It was wholesome hearing their newest member being utterly grateful and was shocked to have been asked as he was influenced from this band for a long time according to their Bandcamp Daily feature. According to the band, the album goes into the disconnect of humanity from nature and yourself. So, with everything that is going in the world, it does feel humanity has been losing its feeble grip on how we should treat ourselves and the world. So, Burning World just seems like a good way to vent and shed off that weight that is despair on how things are going. What do I think of this album though? It has done its job in spades and I am so invested in them. I picked a good time to be a fan. If I’m in my pessimistic, broody mood then this one hour behemoth of an album is my weapon of choice. It has memorable guitar riffs, haunting electronics, and Aaron Turner and Steve Von Till were able to make their voices just sound so painful, ethereal, and most of all, angry. Anger is essential when we’re dealing in this genre. I’m not angry with this release, however.

After raw, harrowing cries of “We are torn wide open!” It gets into the nitty gritty with “Mirror Deep”. We get repeating thrashing guitars, clashing vocals, and even these John Carpenter like synths among this song. The guitars in the middle sound like an alarm going off that is just piercing. This opening song tells us, everything is dying. The nihilism may be dismissed as a crazed belief, but can you fault them for thinking that with everything you see around us? “First Red Rays” starts off with these headbanging Black Sabbath like riffs that are backed by shimmering ambient electronics. Feels like the desolation has reached space and is engulfing the Earth. It’s at this point, I was so grateful for finding this album. The growling vocals tells us of the sky painting a dark canvas that is there is no hope for Earth and the creatures that inhabit it. The slower segments are like a space opera of sorts. I absolutely love love the vocals at the end of this song too. “Blind” sounds like an attempt to contact ghosts at the beginning, and then we get these dragging guitar riffs and vocals that drag along it. It’s like I’m trying to get pulled out of tar, but to no avail. Even though it’s a slower 9 minute number, I did not feel any enjoyment was lost. It was epic from start to finish. The rewinding instrumental at the end was trippy as hell too.

“Seething and Scattered” picks up the pieces and the pace of what it left off from “Blind”. The guitars are as energetic as they are spellbinding. It then it goes into this synthwave, Stranger Things type beat before it crashes into its big climax. “Untethered” is brief, but sounds like the most rock alternative out of all the tracks, which was all right. “In the Waiting Hours” was a patient listen and it was dynamic from its slow start. During the big guitar drop, the guitars almost sound psychedelic in a way. There seems to be no hope for anyone who treads here according to their scriptures, as they say “Cuts light from our path.” And if you think that was insanity, we close out on a 17 minute behemoth of a closer. I got to say, for a long track like this, I was rolling my eyes at first for how much of a slog it might be since that’s how I engage all long tracks, but I underestimated on how engaged I was with every instrumental segment and riff becoming memorable. “Last Light” at the beginning has these raw vocals in the background of these lurking synths. Then it keeps growing and growing as our character has an epiphany that they’ve taken everything for granted and that it’s now too late as things get dire. The instrumental almost becomes a little sobering and inspirational for a bit with its rock flair. But wow, there’s like a ghostly and horrific effect they did that makes it sound like screams of either people or beasts just haunting your ears as the lyrics then chant that “Time is heavy upon our skin”. A great line. It then sounds like a death march that sounds so oddly danceable to me. Getting overstimulated by everything else this death march is like a fugue state to me at this point. But Neurosis closes out saying our time is done and the elements are in charge now with one more metal riff and growling vocals. Of course there are no happy endings in this apocalypse, but when it comes to Man vs. Nature, nature always comes out on top.

The album has few lows. “In the Waiting Hours” although was very interesting, I kind of got a little lost in the sauce with its length and found it to be ok with its yield. “Untethered” was probably the least interesting when it came to instrumentals and vocals if you compare it to how grueling the other tracks were.

So, what can one get out of this album? I guess you can say you take the time of living less for granted? I never got a sense of one should NOT stop loving this burning world. The harrowing listen of the LP makes it seem like everyone’s time is coming. Telling people they have to connect with themselves more is a message that will fall on death ears as they treat the calls like that guy in the cardboard sign in movies, saying “The end is nigh!” It is a nihilistic album, but for some reason it made me even more stalwart on trying to live. Maybe it’s the sick ass riffs, or maybe it’s the sub tone message that we shouldn’t take this lying down. It’s a tall order. So, I can’t guarantee one may feel better after one listen. Maybe another listen might do.

FAVORITE TRACKS: MIRROR DEEP, FIRST RED RAYS, BLIND, SEETHING AND SCATTERED, LAST LIGHT

LEAST FAVORITE: UNTETHERED

You can purchase this album on Bandcamp and their discography is also available for streaming.

https://neurosis.bandcamp.com/album/an-undying-love-for-a-burning-world