The Sacred Neurotic: Napalm Death’s Shane Embury Expands Dark Ambient Project

Dark Sky Burial, the dark ambient project of Shane Embury, has released The Sacred Neurotic through Consouling Sounds. The album features contributions from Carl Stokes, who plays drums on several tracks alongside electronic percussion, synths, and guitars. Both musicians share vocal duties across the record.

Title: The Sacred Neurotic
Artist: Dark Sky Burial
Release Date: 2025-12-12
Genres: Ambient, Drone, Electronica, Experimental Music
Label: Consouling Sounds

Featured image: Gobinder Jhitta

Embury and Stokes have known each other since they were 18, meeting in the mid-1980s. Stokes has performed with Cancer, The Groundhogs, and Current 93. The collaboration between the two developed over 2021, when they began working on each other’s material. Both came from heavy metal backgrounds before moving into experimental territory.

Shane Embury has been a bassist and founding member of Napalm Death since 1987. He has also played in Brujeria, Lock Up, and Meathook Seed, among other projects. His work with Napalm Death spans over three decades and includes more than a dozen studio albums. Dark Sky Burial emerged during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, born from Embury’s interest in experimental electronic music and his need for a different creative channel outside extreme metal.

The Sacred Neurotic moves away from the predominantly electronic approach of earlier Dark Sky Burial releases. The album incorporates live drums, guitars, and synths alongside the project’s established electronic elements. Embury describes the record as a progression in both vocal and musical directions compared to previous output.

The thematic content draws from Jungian concepts, particularly the shadow and individuation. Embury and Stokes built the album around archetypal patterns, old religions, and metaphor. The record examines conflict between opposing forces, both within individual psychology and across human history. The pair describe the work as anxious and frenetic in places, sweet and melodic in others.

Dark Sky Burial has developed over five years since its inception. Embury has stated the project addresses personal difficulties and questions of identity that arose during the pandemic period. The collaboration with Stokes represents the most extensive work with another musician in the project’s history.

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