I've been a fan of Isis now since Oceanic came out and I bought that record because it was the album of the year that year for terrorizer magazine and also it was on Ipecac records. We saw them play the concorde 2 in brighton uk on that tour and they dragged 27, Cult of Luna and some techo shit along with them, one of the best gigs ever and oceanic immediately became one of my favourite all time albums.
So I backtracked, got hold of Celestial, their first full length, and their early eps, Mosquito Control and The Red Sea, all great, really heavy pounding stuff!
Then came Panopticon, a tad mellower than Oceanic but had some killer tunes such as In Fiction. But what comes up most come down because then came In The Absence of Truth, for me their weakest album. Vice magazine described them as ' baby tool' and they weren't far off. It was really disappointing, this was not the Isis I had come to love, gone were the grinding guitars and in were more subtle melodies and a twangy twangy bass sound. Hmm. Don't go the way of so many bands before you; getting old and growing up doesn't mean you have to write shit music (that means you Red Hot Chili Peppers, Incubus et al).
Thankfully Wavering Radiant is a step back on track! Ok. it's no Oceanic or Celestial and more In The Absence of Truth than Panopticon but big guitars are back! It's still a little disappointing but Aaron Turner (Isis vocalist) has described it as their pop album so hopefully one day they'll go back to their heavy sound and should blast your ass to the moon! 'Thinking man's metal' indeed!
Standout track: 7 - Threshold of Transformation
J$
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