Souls at Zero by Neurosis

Souls at Zero is the third studio album by Californian avant-garde metal band Neurosis. The name was taken from a chapter in the book The Great and Secret Show by horror writer Clive Barker. The album was released in 1992 under the Alternative Tentacles record label. It was later reissued in 1999 with bonus tracks on the band's own Neurot Recordings label. On February 15, 2010, the album was reissued on CD and digitally with new artwork under Neurot. On February 14, 2012, a fully remastered version was released on vinyl via Relapse Records.The album marked a dramatic change in Neurosis' sound, which was previously firmly based in hardcore punk. The shift was also evident on their contribution to the Dead Kennedys tribute Virus 100. The band embraced doom metal influences and experimented with elements of post-punk and gothic rock, noise rock and industrial music, psychedelic and progressive music, and folk music. Along with their subsequent 1990s work, this established the band's unique style, highly influential to the development of post-metal and sludge metal. In an interview the band stated that the cover art was inspired by the movie The Wicker Man. Since they could not afford to buy the licence for the image from the film, they created their own straw figure.