Souls at Zero

Souls at Zero

Track Listings

1. Frustration

2. Never

3. Look

4. Hardline

5. Lost

6. Checkin' Out

7. Souls at Zero

8. Grey World

9. Not You

10. Crowded Head

11. Welcome to the 90s

12. Mind's Eye

Tracks:

To Crawl Under One's Skin
Souls at Zero
Zero
Flight
Web
Sterile Vison
Chronology for Survival
Stripped
Takeahnase
Empty

Customer Reviews:

Great album, and my person favorite from the group.......2006-08-11

This was the first album where neurosis left behind their punk/hardcore origins and moved into the hard rock/metal/trance type music. Here they slowed down many of the melodies/tempos, blended it with areas of fast/loud punk inspired vocals, and a new sound for the rest of their next few albums are born. Songs like "To crawl under one's skin", "souls at zero", and "Sterile Vision" also start adding in samples and violins, where before neurosis hadn't even crossed this path.
Overall, there are not weak points in this album for me. That is why this is in my top 10 albums to have if stuck on a desert island, if not the number one album. Souls at Zero was the fist track I ever heard from this band in 1991, and it blew me away. I hope you will be amazed by this album as much as I still am. A must have for a neurosis fan.

Look Mom, Im Evolving!.......2003-11-20

Souls At Zero(I've lagged to review this) was a big turning point to Neurosis, they began to leave behind the proto punk/thrash and bring a true visualization to thier music. A long time fan of Neurosis can easily tell you that Neurosis are something to experience and not simply to listen to and this experience isn't for everyone. In Sous At Zero you hear Neurosis at thier most "rock" style they had done, still though they began to use samples and learing effects to channel something much more cerebral and more vivid as an all over entity.
This all starts with "To Crawl Under Ones Skin" simply a masterpiece of a song that straight off lets you know you're in for something completely off the rocker. Then the album loses a few more degrees into its cold feel into "Souls At Zero" and you can see now that this style of music has not been done aside a lose interpretation (heavy metal/rock) perhaps.
Neurosis are my favorite band in the world along side Faith No More, Tool and Isis, so you can see my reviews as biased yes... but accurate... exact! HAH.

One of my top 10 faves........2002-05-09

I saw this band live twice during their hardcore punk days at Gilman's in the late 80s and again in 99 and they are a great live band. Anyhow maybe if they were not classified as a metal band in music stores they would get a better reception. They are more "expermental/industrial/gothic" than death metal or "hardcore" Agnostic Front and Bad Brains are hardcore!

A Transformative Experience..........2002-01-30

Granted, the journey that Souls At Zero beckons is not for everyone -- nonetheless for those that are open to feeling it's power, passion, and utter depths -- this recording is a blessing of emotional experience. I consider this CD a classic, and that it is very original, intense, and has the ability to make the listener really FEEL. I am a fan of Neurosis old and new, and this one is special indeed. It is before they found their new sound, but after their origins. Consider this release somewhere in the middle... I'm about to be 30 years old, and I haven't listened to Neurosis in about 6 years, and just the memory of Souls At Zero is bringing me back... In short, if you are, or could be into dark, heavy, contemplative, beautiful, deep, and sometimes desolate music. Give it a try. After a few listens, I don't think you will be disappointed.

Not the Best, Not the Worst.......2001-08-09

First of all, I am completely familiar with Neurosis. I own all albums from this one to Sun that Never Sets. While Neurosis is far from my favorite band(I pull their CD's out for an occasional listen), I find myself captivated by the atmosphere they create. Yes, they can be very boring and they are overly repetitive. But they are extremely original. While I prefer my music with more speed and aggression(Immortal, At the Gates ) or acoustics(Opeth) or melodicism (Diabolical Masquerade, Dissection), I do enjoy their combination of quiet somber licks combined with apocalyptic drumming. While I prefer Enemy of the Sun or Through Silver in Blood, I do pull this one out every once in a while.

Average customer rating:

Best Neurosis album
The thinking man's music

Souls at Zero
Neurosis
Manufacturer: Alternative Tentacle
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Punk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Alternative Metal | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

A Sun That Never Sets
Times of Grace
Stoner Witch

ASIN: B000000F8M
Release Date: 1994-04-18

Tracks:

To Crawl Under One's Skin
Souls At Zero
Zero
Flight
The Web
Sterile Vision
A Chronology For Survival
Stripped
Takeahnase
Empty

Customer Reviews:

Best Neurosis album.......2004-07-11

This was the album that ruled my world for at least a few months when I was around 18 and just graduating high school. This was so hard and raw, that it just always made me feel emotion. None of their later albums even come close to the energy that Souls at Zero generates. Pain of Mind is probably the next best. I wish the band had made a couple of more albums along the same lines as SAZ, but I guess they wanted to "mature" or whatever. I don't care if the new stuff is more musical. It just doesn't have as much feeling and honesty.

The thinking man's music.......1998-11-26

This may just be neurosis' greatest album to date. Obviously, though, if you're not famiular with them you may not be expecting their well thought out intros and skip right past them. Don't, they only contribute more to the setting this album portrays.

Average customer rating:

Six-T-Six
Souls at Zero
Manufacturer: Energy Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

A Taste for the Perverse
Souls at Zero
3-D
Climbin' the Walls

ASIN: B000008N96
Release Date: 1994-09-06

Tracks:

Don't Ask
Underneath
Flies
Hardline [Demo 92]
I Against I
When the Shit Hits the Fan

Average customer rating:

Souls At Zero - 'A Taste For The Preverse' (Energy)

A Taste for the Perverse
Souls at Zero
Manufacturer: Energy Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Six-T-Six
Souls at Zero
3-D
Climbin' the Walls
Cuatro

ASIN: B000008PAS
Release Date: 1995-05-09

Tracks:

Undecided
Strip
Cold
Taken Apart
My Fault?
Thrown Down
Inside A Scream
Needles
Me Myself I
Know More
Human Distortion

Customer Reviews:

Souls At Zero - 'A Taste For The Preverse' (Energy).......2005-07-16

Armed with their new drummer(for this CD anyway)Jamie Miller,Souls At Zero have returned with this here second effort to bash your senses silly.From the opener "Undecided",the heavy duty "Taken Apart","Thrown Down","Human Distortion" and "Needles",this ensemble provides living proof they mean business.Not all metalheads will even like this CD,but if you're open to experiencing lesser known artists like these guys and willing to take a chance,you might actually get something out of this disc.

Average customer rating:

Beautiful Brutality
Dense, Chaotic Proto-Post Modern Metal Opus
One Breathtaking Audio Adventure
Music to move mountains...
Catastrophic violence in musical form

Souls At Zero/Enemy Of The Sun
Neurosis
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Punk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Alternative Metal | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Hard Rock & Metal | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Times of Grace
A Sun That Never Sets
Enemy of the Sun
Given to the Rising
The Eye of Every Storm

ASIN: B000024Y1O
Release Date: 2000-07-04

Album Description

The bizarre metal act's albums 'Souls At Zero' (1992) and 'Enemy Of The Sun' (1993) digitally remastered. Both are pressed on full color picture discs & with previously unreleased bonus tracks: 'Souls' adds demo versions of 'Soul' & 'Zero', plus 'Cleanse III' (Live In London); 'Enemy' adds 'Takeahnase' (Demo Version) and 'Cleanse II' (Live In Oberhausen). 23 tracks total. Laminated double gatefold slipcase with a 12 page lyric booklet. 1997 Iron City release.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful Brutality.......2007-06-08

Metal conjures up a lot of stereotypes, though different stereotypes based on who you ask. For the modern mainstream listener, it conjures up the angsty, simplistic down-tuned hard rock bands. For others, it can be the high-tempo, overly rhythmic double-bass pedal frenzy that's great for mosh pits and head-banging. Metal also invokes great melody and an over-abundance of guitar solos with long lineages of well-known shredders.

But the descriptions "slow" and "atmospheric" are almost alien to the Metal genre, and perhaps that's why Neurosis was so awkward and difficult to listen to at first. Sure, Through Silver In Blood packs with it the same loudness and distortion that are mainstays of Metal, but it strays so far from the main selling points of Metal. Namely, it doesn't have those high-tempo blastbeats and mindblowingly technical solos. In 1996, this album was indeed progressive, but not "Progressive" - that is to say it is far from the genre-alchemy of Prog-rock/Prog-metal and Rush clones like Dream Theater.

Neurosis is genuinely Metal in the sense that their music is bleak, brutal and apocalyptic, but their focus strayed from the formulaic "let's make it as fast and technical as possible" approach. Rather, Through Silver In Blood has a more textured, almost soundtrack feel to it, and this is due to Neurosis using droning repetition and tempering their songs with an element with a seemingly forgotten element of music - quietness. The often used analogy for Neurosis is that their music "oozes" or seeps forth from the speakers/headphones, but I don't think this quite does them justice. Songs build up from and break down to slower-paced, quiet sections, but there are also several moments where the music genuinely erupts into chaotic torrents of tribal drums, guitars, samples, and synths. I almost want to say that Through Silver In Blood would make a great horror-movie soundtrack - with the softer moments lulling one into a false sense of security, and then with either an explosion (this is especially true of the track "Strength of Fates") or slow buildup the listener finds oneself in a Silent Hill-esque world of gritty, distorted sound.

The backbones of the album are the epics "Purify" and "Aeon" that along with the title track and "Enclosure In Flame" all exceed the 10-minute mark a piece. "Aeon" is especially a masterpiece: starting with a simple piano melody, the song builds up with distorted guitars and tribal rhythm as Neurosis's three vocalists growl and scream off one another, and then breaks down to another quiet interlude which eventually is shattered by an outburst of distortion, which then slowly builds up to an almost "uplifting" section, and eventually ending with the piano returning with accompanying violins. Shorter tracks, such as "Eye" and "Locust Star" which both clock under six minutes, are much more direct in their approach. The interstitial tracks "Rehumanize" and "Become The Ocean" are short, sample-heavy tracks that advance the album's themes of war, apocalypse and spirituality. To me, the only tracks that detract from the value of the album are the bookends - "Through Silver in Blood" which is a bit too repetitive until the last minute or so, and "Enclosure In Flame" which really just seems to meander just a bit too much.

Dense, Chaotic Proto-Post Modern Metal Opus.......2007-06-01

I had heard of Neurosis for years, but had never really gotten around to checking them out. After reading a number of different articles in which bands that I enjoy listed them as an influence, I decided to check them out, and after a few spins I am definately hooked.

Neurosis' "Through Silver In Blood" is an immensly heavy, trance-inducing, and chaotic roller-coaster ride through walls of static, distorted, thickly layered guitars, bizarre samples and spoken-word weirdness, and occasional tranquility. I can definately hear the influence Neurosis must have had for many of the "post-metal" bands gaining listeners these days, such as Isis, Pelican, and even "drone" bands such as Sunn))Lyrically intriguing, dense, nihilistic and chaotic yet oddly serene on occasion, Neurosis write lengthy, epic and churning odes to mankind's folly. I can't wait to pick up a few more albums. Highly recommended.

One Breathtaking Audio Adventure.......2007-05-03

"Through Silver In Blood" is one of those albums that is meant to create an atmosphere that you can easily get lost too. This album is a showcase of blending in ambience, sludge, tribal, and progressive music all into one. Crushing riffs and perfectly blended vocals by Scott Kelly and Scott Von Till make this album an essential. Excellently crafted musicmanship is also a big role in this album, as it is nowhere close to being predictable. There is nothing that can match up to this brilliance, and many bands have looked up to this album as well (examples: Isis, Mastodon, Pig Destroyer).

This album is an essential for your collection whenever you want to experience crushing music with an ambient touch to it. I highly recommend this album, along with the rest of their works from 1992 to onward (starting with Souls at Zero, and the albums before that were hardcore punk styled, which I also recommend).

Music to move mountains..........2007-04-14

Ever watch a film that showcases destruction on a massive scale and follows it up with scenes of weeping agony and retrospective? Say, a nuclear detonation with a mushroom cloud that slowly reaches for the heavens and the post-apocalyptic lifestyle that ensues? Or a meteor impact which produces a shockwave that slowly creeps out across the landscape and the consequent images of wrecked countryside? Maybe even a fire that sweeps across an expansive forest and the miles of charred earth that result? Perhaps a war that takes a catastrophic toll on two nations?

Well, on this here slab of post-hardcore sludge metal, Neurosis paint evolving pictures of gradual devastation that would easily go hand in hand with such events.

Right from the introductory seconds of the album - which feature odd industrial sounds, tribal drums, and a menacing guitar progression that ripples with volume and distortion - you sort of get that feeling you'd get if you were to wake up in the morning, walk out into your front lawn, look up into the distance, and watch in horrified disbelief as the sky itself cowers under an encroaching shadow that is slowly spreading across the atmosphere. Before you can figure out what the hell is going on, your ears are shattered by a desperate roar - "THROUGH SILVER IN BLOOOOOOOD!!!" - marking the transition from a purely suggestive sense of dread to something far more immediate. Guitars swell, still subdued as they crawl along, gathering strength much like a tornado that sweeps across the countryside, gradually becoming bigger and stronger; the bass, slightly distorted, shakes the very ground you stand on; the drums continue to pound out relentless tribal rhythms; Scott Kelly's pained yells fill your head, backed by the guttural intonations of Steve Von Till. Soon, the storm reaches its peak. The earth begins to split before you, the bleak sky begins to rain fire, and the skyline in the distance slowly begins to crumble to the ground. With several bowel-shaking bass slides, the same guitar riff that was but a shadow in the corner of your mind six minutes earlier explodes into a roaring, indiscriminate wall of sludgy ruin. The drums transform from a hypnotic pulsing to a creeping, pounding onslaught reminiscent of a wrecking ball methodically crushing its victims into dust. The next thing you know, you're on the ground. Your vision is blurred, your head throbbing. Sitting yourself upright, you look off into the distance. The storm is slowly retreating, and you are finally made aware of the utter desolation around you. The tallest buildings have been laid flat across the now barren landscape, the oceans themselves have been set aflame, and ash falls from a sky that sunlight no longer seems to touch. As the drums resume their primal throbbing and the guitars send shockwaves of undulating distortion across the diminishing soundscape, you notice other people around you. They are cold, empty... mothers clutch their children as their lost eyes sweep over a homeland that has been turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland in the course of twelve minutes. As a final show of power, the music briefly reverts to the opening motif of rolling tribal rhythms punctuated by industrial noise before finally dropping out for good.

...and that was only the first song.

"Rehumanize" is a brief, slightly disturbing, yet oddly compelling track that contains twisted samples of various people talking about subject matter that is spiritual and strangely chaotic on top of a cerebral collage of mechanical sound. "Purify" is an immense moment of music that moves from a melancholy arrangement of gently ringing guitars and orchestral elements throughout the introduction, to a lengthy evolution of sheer intensity wrapped in trademark tom-heavy drumming and slithering, sludgy guitars... and on to the striking closing sequence that features rolling drum patterns and atmospheric bursts of distortion placed against uplifting and highly melodious bagpipes. Yes, bagpipes. "Aeon" starts with gentle pianos and subtle snare rolls in its first half, only to ascend into a monolithic scene of uncompromising tragedy in a second half that's as powerful and emotionally moving as it is destructive and militaristic. The remainder of the album shares a similar sense of crushing intensity and swirling dynamics.

Through Silver in Blood is immense. It is an absolutely triumphant soundtrack to the apocalypse and the subsequent rebirth of the world anew.

Listen and be swept away.

Catastrophic violence in musical form.......2006-05-23

War. Catastrophe. Conflict. - Things that are said to bring out the most true and intense emotions in us. Maelstroms that smash through whatever is in their way, engulfing and consuming everything and everyone into a hellish orgy of violence. All that is left is a demolished landscape, full of survivors who will rise from these ashes, gather new arms and continue the violence. While for a time their may be a sorrowful form of peace and tranquility, but it is ultimately shattered once more.

War is the sound of Neurosis's Through Silver in Blood. Their methods of creating catastrophe are too many and too intricate for me to even break the surface of; they range from blasts of vicious, heavily distorted guitars to flawless orchestral sections to industrial influenced sampling and almost anything else available to these musical masterminds. I will make some attempt to convey the pure heaviness, destruction and genius of this album though.

The opener/title track makes its purpose known early in the album with a 10 minute dirge of tidal wave guitars, tribal rhythms, and brutally screamed vocals. Just as you think the song cannot do anything but explode into an immense sonic fireball; it slowly and painfully trundles to a stop. "Through Silver in Blood" is a perfect introduction to the agonizing hour that will then follow it.

While Neurosis's heavy sections are so good I don't even feel the need to comment on them, what really makes them special are the quiet parts. The disturbing sampling on "Rehumanize"; the minimalist, pained, and emotive vocals on "Strength of Fate"; the hollow, mourning, piano section that forms the main part of the funeral march style introduction to "Aeon"; and the tense rising and falling volume of "Enclosure In Flame" all combine with the vicious heavy sections to create all sorts of emotions and soundscapes. I can't help but thing of some demolished, totally leveled landscape when I hear "Strength of Fate", or the marching of armies when the punishing second half of "Aeon" kicks into gear. On the flipside there is a militaristic triumph about the song "Through Silver in Blood", as though an army is marching to war or Godzilla is just about to complete his march through the sea onto some unsuspecting metropolis.

I think that the each of Neurosis's releases after Through Silver In Bloood are masterpieces in their own way. As a band they are a huge influence on the post-metal thing that is being embraced in the form of Isis, Buried Inside, Pelican and Cult of Luna, but also they are the best at it - none of those bands can match the shear triumph, spirituality and emotional power of Neurosis. Listening to one of their albums is like being hit in the face with a brick wall, a totally overused saying while describing this style of music but suits it perfectly.

Average customer rating:

'A Taste for the Perverse' Kills
Great album, great band, greatly missed
a genuine view into the mid-90's metal scene

A Taste for the Perverse
Souls at Zero
Manufacturer: Concr
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Customer Reviews:

'A Taste for the Perverse' Kills.......2002-05-14

This album rules. The first CD, which is self titled, is one of the most truely angry and heavy albums ever. This record got hurt a little when it was obvisious their record company could care less about them. But Souls at Zero were the real deal. You didn't have to worry about DJs sampling [music] on top of the music or the singer busting out some ridiculous rap in the middle of the song. These guys kept the Perverse album simple, and real heavy. It's a great album. You just don't get any better than tracks like Undecided and Thrown Down. If you can find their first one record don't deny yourself that shining example of true heavy metal.

Great album, great band, greatly missed.......2001-02-17

Actually "A Taste for the Perverse" was their last album, not their first. I recommend looking at used cd stores to find this album and all of their previous works which include: Six-T-Six, Souls at Zero and also (under their original name Wrathchild America) Climbing the Walls and 3-D.

Wrathchild America's 3-D is one of my all-time favorite cds.

a genuine view into the mid-90's metal scene.......2000-07-08

Souls At Zero's first album, a taste for the perverse, is a great album for anyone wanting something heavy without the bogged down and rap influences in today's metal mainstream. Major record labels who looked past this album truly missed out on an oppurtunity to deliver something more authentic to the public and mainstream metal scene. All and all a great album worthy of your time.

Average customer rating:

Souls At Zero (Energy Records).....Awesome Album....

Souls at Zero
Souls at Zero
Manufacturer: Energy Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

A Taste for the Perverse
Six-T-Six
3-D
Climbin' the Walls
Cuatro

ASIN: B000008KYP
Release Date: 1993-07-20

Tracks:

Frustration
Never
Look
Hardline
Lost
Checkin' Out
Souls at Zero
Grey World
Not You
Crowded Head
Welcome to the 90s
Mind's Eye

Customer Reviews:

Souls At Zero (Energy Records).....Awesome Album...........2007-01-23

Souls At Zero were formally Wrathchild America. They changed their name ,got a new sound,and got on a new label. This is an awesome album from 1993. Every song on this album rocks. My favorites are Frustration and Grey World. They were dropped from their record label Atlantic Records in 1993 and got a new label with Energy Records. The name Soul At Zero (awesome name) came from a chapter in a book called The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker. Wrathchild America is too an awesome name.They disbaned in the mid 90's around 1996. Shannon Larkin when on to drum for Ugly Kid Joe on the album Motel California (Castle)(awesome album too). Its a shame that they are not around anymore,because this band whether they are called Wrathchild America or Souls At Zero barely got notice. I personally think it was the timing (though it was an awesome time,but music was changing as the 90's grew near. Wrathchild America released Climbin' the Walls in 1989...almost the tailend of the metal reign and then came the other release from Wrathchild America in 1991 the album 3-D (both aewsome albums/check em' out). A year when Alternative Rock....aka Grunge came screaming in with a late 60's-70's style rock and Nirvana,Pearl Jam, and a horde of other fine bands too claimed their giant stake in the ground. By 1993 Wrathchild America were dropped (Atlantic..1993) like stated earlier and changed labels,style with less solos and more groove oriented,and of course the name as well(Souls At Zero).By 1993 Souls At Zero on a small and awesome record label Energy Records were barely on the sonar screen sad to state. They released their final album on Energy Records A Taste for the Preverse in 1995 and this is an incredible album too. They disbanded around 1996.Pick this up it is well worth it. I don't know who runs these record labels and I have respect for them,but not to hear awesome talent like these guys...whomever should have left the music business arena. These guys can play anything you especially hear the talent ring out on Wrathchild America's 3-D album. Anyhow get all these albums and give it a chance. This music is like todays and it fit easily into this current music scene. A++++

Average customer rating:

Extreme Music

Souls at Zero
Neurosis
Manufacturer: 3d
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Alternative Metal | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Hard Rock & Metal | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00004U2QZ
Release Date: 2000-05-03

Album Details

Japanese Version featuring Three Bonus Tracks: Souls (Demo Version), Zero (Demo Version), and Cleanse Iii (Live).

Customer Reviews:

Extreme Music.......2000-06-20

It all started , ended and began here, in all senses. Compared with this fabulous disaster of a record, the thrash bands of the Eighties were merely playing Whoops! Apocalypse with their talk of nuclear war and the bomb. Neurosis, on the other hand, acted out an end time drama that none have been able to eclipse since. Souls at Zero was where metal ate its industrial meets crustcore tail, a musical ouroubourous to match the striking cover image. Little surprise then tht Neurosis' fourth album is still regarded as the alpha and omega of extreme music

Average customer rating:

Six-T-Six
Souls At Zero
Manufacturer: independent
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000LWYVYS

Average customer rating:

A Taste For The Perverse
Souls At Zero
Manufacturer: independent
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000LWWP28

Music Info: