When not flying solo, Scott Kelly is still active as the founder member of Neurosis, an uncompromising hardcore metal band which formed in 1985.
Heavy Metal of any shape or form is still regarded primarily as a male preserve since the testosterone fuelled blasts of power and noise don't allow much scope for sensitivity.
Kelly may be unplugged on this album but he certainly isn't out to show his feminine side as is evident when he sings of "violence in a whisper" on The Sun Is Dreaming In The Soul.
Nevertheless, the mere fact that he is performing with such as stripped back sound means that he can't help but be more emotionally exposed.
Understated backing comes from Noah Landis and Greg Dale as 'The Road Home' but there are no drums and few distractions from what is essentially the sound of one man with his guitar bearing his tortured soul .
The title of the latest Neurosis album, their tenth, is "honor found in decay" and a case could made for this as a suitable title for Kelly's third album. This would mean interpreting decay as the inevitable consequence of ageing. Though only in his mid forties, the bearded and heavily tattooed Kelly has the well worn look of someone who has burnt the candle at both ends.
As it is, his chosen title is an accurate enough summary for these intense songs that explore themes of mercy and redemption.
Perhaps the most portentous track is Within It Blood where a deep bass drone seems to imitate the burden of doubt and uncertainty he carries.
|
The title track finds him standing "in a field of death" while on We Let the Hell Come he stands on a river shore taunting "the blade of the reaper".
Within this bleak landscape the sun's rays are mostly hidden by clouds and whatever illumination there is never shines brightly enough to shed much light on his life journey.
In this context, romantic, even corny, lines like "I love you like the flower loves the sun" (A Spirit Redeemed To The Sun) take on a bleak aspect and although the final track - We Burn Through The Night - is also a love song of sorts, the image of a "candle in the sky" represents a fragile fire that could be extinguished at any moment.
This sparse, introspective content denotes a fierce integrity and, as with artists like Michael Gira and Mark Lanegan, the growling pessimism should be taken as a plea for redemption rather than as a self pitying lament.
Kelly's unflinching honesty sets a challenge to the listener to join him if you dare in exploring some stark and forbidding territory.
Well worth the risk, I'd say.
Scott Kelly's website
|
