MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM (23)
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March 16, 2024
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of metal records from the Eighties (1984–1993, in our periodization schema). Series edited by Heather Quinlan. Also check out our MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM playlist at Spotify.
NEUROSIS | “LOST” | 1993
“This isn’t metal! Where are the riffs or the solos? It’s just a bassline with tons of feedback!”
On my winter break junior year in college, I tried to introduce Neurosis to some friends back home. It didn’t go over well.
With “Lost,” I’m reminded of the climactic scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Nazis finally open their prize. An apparition of a woman floats in the air and French archaeologist Belloq exults, “It’s beautiful!”… right before everyone’s faces start melting and all hell breaks loose.
It’s easy to label them as post-metal now, but in ’93 their mix of sludge metal, crust punk, industrial noise, folk melodies, sampling and tribal drumming was hard to pin down. Punk purists and hëshers alike did not care for Neurosis.
How to describe this to the uninitiated? It’s doom and gloom without a hint of Sabbath. Heavy as the Melvins but much more ominous. Gothic but never “goth.” Trippy sans hippie. Even bits of folk, minus the granola. It’s a quiet-loud-quiet-loud dynamic whipped into a beautifully grueling extreme. This would have been the soundtrack to mass human sacrifices performed by Ancient Mayans while ingesting shitloads of peyote, if only they had access to electricity and amps.
Listening to this song then as well as now makes me want to go berserk and welcome the end of the world. But how does one even show appreciation for this? Headbanging, moshing, stage-diving all seem far too feeble a response. Spontaneous human combustion? Or perhaps I should just violently implode under the weight of the music.
To further illustrate, a breakdown of “Lost”:
0:02 “Are you lost?” I never wanted to find out what movie this dialogue was sampled from. Finding out would probably ruin it for me.
0:56 “My eyes were jaded, so close to the center i could not see.” Creepy, off to a good start.
1:43 Eardrum-piercing feedback begins. A feeling of unease settles over me.
3:17 The RRRROOOOOAAARRRRRRRR!!!!! kicks in. My bowels are really feeling this one.
5:15 A “beat-switch” as the kids would say. Not much of a verse-chorus structure so far; more like a series of moments building up to some post-apocalyptic horror.
6:36 OK, if this was power yoga session, we’re now in the cooling down period.
7:58 Phew — the song seems over, I made it and exit stage left staggering off the battlefield.
8:00 I was wrong, so wrong. A new bassline starts along with sinister HHHRRRAAW HHHRRRAAW samples. HOW DID THIS SONG GET EVEN HEAVIER AND MORE INTENSE?!?!? Its like surviving a series of tidal waves and coming up for air only to be pummeled all over again by a bigger, angrier tidal wave. And yet, I’ll keep swimming in this ocean to see what comes next.
9:41 Physically, emotionally… I’m finished. And this is only the first song off the album.
MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Heather Quinlan | Crockett Doob on Metallica’s ENTER SANDMAN | Dean Haspiel on Mötley Crüe’s HOME SWEET HOME | Jack Silbert on Poison’s TALK DIRTY TO ME | Adam McGovern on Dio’s INVISIBLE | Mariane Cara on Faith No More’s EPIC | Heather Quinlan on Blue Öyster Cult’s SHOOTING SHARK | Steve Schneider on UFO’s DIESEL IN THE DUST | Carlo Rotella on Primus’ JERRY WAS A RACE CAR DRIVER | Erik Davis on St. Vitus’ BORN TOO LATE | Greg Rowland on Motörhead’s ACE OF SPADES (remix) | Kathy Biehl on Twisted Sister’s WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT | Nikhil Singh on G.I.S.M.’s GAS BURNER PANIC | Erin M. Routson on Metallica’s ESCAPE | Holly Interlandi on Helmet’s MILQUETOAST | Marc Weidenbaum on Celtic Frost’s I WON’T DANCE (THE ELDERS’ ORIENT) | Amy Keyishian on Living Colour’s CULT OF PERSONALITY | Josh Glenn on Scorpions’ STILL LOVING YOU | Alycia Chillemi on Danzig’s SOUL ON FIRE | James Parker on Godflesh’s CHRISTBAIT RISING | Miranda Mellis on The Afflicted’s HERE COME THE COPS | Rene Rosa on Type O Negative’s BLACK NO. 1 | Tony Leone on Slayer’s SOUTH OF HEAVEN | Christopher Cannon on Neurosis’s LOST | Brian Berger on Black Sabbath’s HEADLESS CROSS | MÖSH CONTEST-WINNING ENTRY: Tony Pacitti on Metallica’s THE CALL OF KTULU. PLUS: CONTEST RUNNER-UP: James Scott Maloy on Accept’s MIDNIGHT MOVER.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!