This album was first set to be an EP but the band had more material than expected and wanted to use the long tribal drum workout cleanse which brought the CD to around 55 mins. This version I have has a demo version of the Souls at Zero song Takeahnase and a live noise drum track called cleanse II.
The guitars on the album particularly on the first track are crushing. The production is more raw than other neurosis releases and less sludgy than Through silver in blood, giving songs like Lost and Enemy of the sun a bone breaking heavyness.
Lost starts out with samples of an old man talking about the shortness of life, before the pained vocals from Von Til enter. When the guitar kicks in the whole thing becomes one unstoppable apocalyptic grind. Keyboards and other synth noises are well used, as the song hulks through it’s slow core groove. The second track Raze the stray is similar but uses an Asian style singer at the beginning.
Burning flesh in year of pig makes us of documentary style vocal samples and other electronic effects. Cold ascending and Lexicon blur into one grind noise holocaust, before enemy of the sun provided brief rest at it’s tense beginning before more epic thunder like guitars kick in. This track leads into The time of the beast which in turn mixes perfectly into the tribal drumming of Cleanse. The bonus demo version of Takeahnase is a more raw and in my opinion better version than that on Souls at Zero.
Cleanse II is a bit of a mish mash of drums samples and noise, but none the less interesting anyway. Another brilliant piece of work from neurosis.
