Neurosis is an American avant-garde metal band from Oakland, California. It was formed in 1985 by guitarist Scott Kelly, bassist Dave Edwardson, and drummer Jason Roeder, initially as a hardcore punk band. Chad Salter joined as a second guitarist and appeared on the band's 1987 debut Pain of Mind and then Steve Von Till replaced him in 1989. The following year, the lineup further expanded to include a keyboardist and a visual artist. Beginning with their third album Souls at Zero (1992), Neurosis transformed their hardcore sound by incorporating diverse influences including doom metal and industrial music, becoming a major force in the emergence of the post-metal and sludge metal genres. The band's lineup stabilized in 1995 with the addition of Noah Landis, who replaced Simon McIlroy on keyboards and electronics. That same year they formed the experimental music group Tribes of Neurot and in 1999 the record label Neurot Recordings. This line-up remained stable until 2019, when the band parted ways with Kelly after discovering his history of domestic violence against his family, though this would not come to light until August 2022 out of respect for the privacy of Kelly's family members. Neurosis have garnered critical recognition over the course of their 11 studio albums. The BBC credited them with taking "heavy music to previously unimaginable spaces ... [and shaping] metal's definitive response to the 21st century." History Formation and early years (1985–1995) In late 1985, Scott Kelly, Dave Edwardson, and Jason Roeder, formerly members of Violent Coercion, founded Neurosis as a hardcore punk outfit, inspired also by British crust punk in the vein of Amebix and Crass. In 1986 Chad Salter was added on second guitar and vocals. There have only been a few changes in the lineup of Neurosis' musicians since band's inception. In 1989 guitarist/vocalist Chad Salter was replaced by Steve Von Till, who previously played in bands Transgressor, Peace Test and Tribe of Resistance, and in 1990, Simon McIlroy joined the band as a synthesizer/sampler with Adam Kendall as visual artist (Adam and Simon have been friends since they were teenagers and they were doing a lot of experimental music together before). In 1995 Noah Landis, a childhood friend of Dave Edwardson, replaced Simon McIlroy as keyboardist. With The Word as Law, Neurosis began to transition from the hardcore punk of Pain of Mind to the more experimental sound of Souls at Zero, which