An Undying Love for a Burning World
About this Album
Released on March 20, 2026, as a complete surprise with no prior announcement or singles, An Undying Love for a Burning World is Neurosis’s twelfth studio album and their first in a decade, following Fires Within Fires (2016). The album marks a new era for the band: Scott Kelly, a founding member and central creative figure, was quietly expelled from Neurosis in 2019 after the remaining members discovered the extent of his domestic abuse. Kelly publicly confessed in August 2022 and retired from music. In his place, the band welcomed Aaron Turner (of Isis, SUMAC, Old Man Gloom, and founder of Hydra Head Records), who began rehearsing with them in April 2024. Turner not only contributed vocally and instrumentally but provided foundational musical ideas for several tracks, including "In the Waiting Hours."[1]
Recorded over three weekends in winter 2026 at Studio Litho in Seattle (with engineer Scott Evans) and additional sessions at Circular Ruin in Brooklyn (with Randall Dunn), the album was mixed in three days at Antisleep Audio in Oakland and mastered by Matthew Barnhart. Artwork and layout are by Turner himself.[2] The record spans eight tracks and approximately 63 minutes, ranging from the 52-second opener "We Are Torn Wide Open" to the nearly 17-minute closer "Last Light."
Thematically, the album confronts environmental collapse, existential anxiety, isolation, and the search for meaning amid crisis. Steve Von Till described the record as something the band needed "perhaps more than ever," citing "the existential confusion and sorrow of the climate crisis and the sixth mass extinction."[3] Critics responded with near-universal acclaim: Metacritic aggregated a score of 92/100, Pitchfork awarded it 8.3/10 (calling it "Neurosis’ best album in two decades and maybe even a quarter-century"), Rolling Stone gave it 4.5/5 stars, and The Sleeping Shaman declared it "the most important album of the year, no contest."[4]