Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly

Released in tandem, Scott

Kelly's The Wake and

Steve Von Till's The Grave Is A Grim Horse—new solo albums from Neurosis' two

frontmen—feature the grizzled howls of a couple of gravelly avant-metal

vets playing folk music. They've both dabbled in the quiet stuff before, and

it's almost depressing how little new ground they break with these new efforts—especially

Kelly's The Wake,

an album so stiff and stringy, it might as well be roadkill. With an unsure

voice and the starkest of chords, Kelly hammers out a brittle impersonation of

Michael Gira, drained dry of the master's gallows humor and sense of

grotesquerie as transcendence.

Gira—or more

specifically, his Angels Of Light—also casts a deep shadow over Von

Till's Grave.

But where The Wake is mostly flat, Grave has peaks and craters: Fleshed out with

cello, organ, violin, and pedal steel, Von Till's acoustic grumbling is far

lusher and more engaging. Again, it isn't the slightest departure from what

he's done on previous solo albums; it's just done better, with hints of

everyone from Tindersticks to Mark Lanegan creeping into the mix. Thankfully,

Neurosis is still going strong as ever—although it might almost be a good

thing if Kelly and Von Till were forced to focus more gravity and soul on their

vanity projects.