The Official ISIS Thread
 

"In The Absence Of Truth" Tracklist:

‘Wrists Of Kings’,
‘Not In Rivers, But In Drops’,
‘Dulcinea’,
‘Over Root And Thorn’,
‘1000 Shards’,
‘All Out Of Time, All Into Space’,
‘Holy Tears’,
‘Firdous E Bareen’,
‘Garden Of Light’.


First thought... track titles sound pretty good. but theres alot of them. Either this album is going to be hugely long or tracks are going to be shorter than normal - and that thought is not a good one.. ive always enjoyed their longest tracks the most, tey give them the chance to develop into something.

next.. the front cover.


http://www.ipecac.com/images/081.jpg


ew ew ew...
Aaron Turner what were you thinking? ive always been a fan of turners artwork but this front cover is just boring, and.. crap, really. Hopefully the rest of the artwork is a bit better!


but then...


"Dulcinea" MP3:
http://www.ipecac.com/audio/081.mp3


*cries*

Isis are turning into Red Sparowes. and while i love red sparowes, we dont need another one. this track is uninspired and doesnt go anywhere. The heavy bit just seems to be put there to keep the Oceanic fans happy and again doesnt go anywhere.

i hope the rest of the album isnt as disappointing. :(

I love it. It's really long and they just jam out which is good. You don't need to be obnoxiously heavy to jam out. They jam out a lot more than red sparrows.

I don't find that dissapointing at all. I like it a lot.

I like it. Sounds a bit more Tool-influenced than their previous material.

i dont think isis need to be heavy.. they just need to be intersting!

and with the recent albums from Sika Redem, Mouth of the architect, Rosetta etc.. and some damn good post-rock releases, that song just doesnt compare.

Don't disrespect Isis by comparing them to boring ass tool. >:[

Lol. I wasn't comparing them. I said the song sounds a bit more Tool-influenced, which is understandable, as they're touring together.

I didn't like the start that much, but it definitely got better. I wouldn't be too concerned just yet SD.

Isis
 

Im in a band, and people we say we sound a bit like Isis...(make up your own mind www.myspace.com/intensionband)
But ive not really heard much stuff, so i was just wondering if anyone out there in the realm of MusicBanter could help me, just like reccomendations etc etc...

Chars

are you saying you haven heard much Isis or what?

Sounding like Isis is not a good thing.. there are 10,000,000 new bands that sound like Isis right now.. it gets boring very fast.

Yeah, ive heard one song and I enjoyed it very much.
Im only going on what people have told me, and me not hearing much isis I cannot say for sure, if we do sound like Isis...so I don't know, so thats why I gave people the opion to say...

Do you sound like Isis? No idea. Are Isis a good group? Hell yeah. They're a post-rock outfit, their last two albums don't have too much singing on them or anything, but the music is of a high standard.

Does that mean it's good to sound like them? Not really - because then you'll just go down as a ripoff act or derivative. Try to come up with your own trademark.

^WE ARE! We just keep getting told we do...Its not were going out and wanting to sound like Isis...

So maybe it's an indication that you ain't trying hard enough!

Or MAYBE it means that you DON'T sound like Isis, but they're the nearest thing that anybody can think of if they wanted to make a comparison.

Either way, keep working on the sound and hopefully you'll develop something unique.

Please do not sound like Isis......

As said above many bands rip them I get tired of it. And yes Isis sound very good. I have all their albums.

Well, I like your band very much.

Well thanks for that really usefull post on what Isis songs I should listen to...

Dumbass

You shouldnt listen to Isis' songs.. you should listen to their albums. well, Oceanic in particular.

They're not post-rock.. theres a slight influence now but they should NEVER be classed as a post-rock band. have you not heard Celestial?

there are some amazing isis-influenced bands around. the problem is though that there are hundreds that sound so obviously alike that theres no point in listening to them.

Oceanic Is their best album. I would classify Isis to be a Post-Doom band, which is a mixture of post-rock and doom metal.

Isis Kicks ass I met the at the Living Room in RI after they played on tour with Tool.

Isis are amazing I saw them open for Tool in Toronto back in September. They are an extremely talented bunch of musicians,Celestial and In The Absence Of Truth are outstanding albums.

Wow, this thread is ****. Can we get some literacy in here? Though they came out with their most recent album about a year ago, I am still not over it. I listen to it for days at a time. The most improved factor were the vocals, but the whole package is no joke. I was never a big fan of them until Turner started stepping his game up. You can tell they were heavily influenced by Tool after the bands toured together. Adam even plays on a couple of tracks on Wavering Radiant. I'm shocked no one else has talked about this album after an entire year.

Mmm, this thread is a bit tragic and I'm tempted to scrap it and start afresh - I find that most of the useful ISIS discussion takes place outside this thread anyway. Wavering Radiant is fantastic and garnered a bit of praise from lucifer, Satch and myself in this thread and from others elsewhere.

I don't see a need to scrap this one.
I also placed WR as one of my favorites of 2009 and I seem to remember talking about Isis all over the place except for this thread but this is the place for it so I'm a-gonna rant now..

Isis has been one of my favorite bands for a long time. They definitely are my favorite 'heavy' band. I like all of their music and I continue to listen to all of their albums at least occasionally. For reference, here's my loose ranking of them:

Oceanic
Panopticon
Celestial
Wavering Radiant
Sgnl>05 ep
Oceanic remixes / reinterpretations (not a real album but whatever)
Mosquito Control / The Red Sea eps (I rate them equally)
In the Absence of Truth

Note: I do not dislike any of them at all. Absence of Truth is a good album but I plain don't like the high concentration of 'clean' singing. However, the production is great and, as every rock journalist mentioned, the drum work improved leaps and bounds. But I was seriously worried that this was the beginning of the end for my favorite band. If WR had continued in that direction and Turner dropped the effected growl completely I would have been really disappointed.

The reason I like WR so much is because not only did they not go 'in a more mature direction' or whatever bands say when their heavy sound goes light, but they incorporated the lightness with the heavy and also upped the ethereal atmosphere a la Panopticon. The result was even better than I hoped for. I feel that WR was a much bigger step forward than Absence of Truth.

OK, somebody else rant now. I could talk about Isis forever

I have to agree with the fact that Wavering Radiant was a much better album than In the Absence of Truth. Sure Absence of Truth had some really enjoyable tracks like Holy Tears and the drumming is real good but still Wavering Radiant is way better crafted.

Aaron Turners clean vocals improved alot on WR and his growls were just spot on. The songs are great on the album and wor good together.

The only thing that I can complain about Wavering Radiant is that sometimes the sound on the album is little too "good" if you can say that. It sounds a little "glassy" from time to time but that isn't a big complaint.

Wavering Radiant is in my opinnion the best Isis album right after Panopticon and Oceanic.

I like In Absence of truth more than Wavering Radiant. In Absence of Truth has a real hypnotic quality to it.

Slightly different but I agree with your overall perception

The bolded words describe every Isis album. But, to me, Absence of Truth happens to be .. the least favorable hypnotic experience the band offers.

The other ones don't feel as hypnotic in the sense that I mean. In Absence of Truth had a lot more tribal sounding drumming, along with a bigger emphasis on post rock-ish influences.

Hmm .. I agree with you on the drumming.
Panopticon is the most 'post-rock' in my opinion. It's got a lot more expansive, undefined territory in the songs

Panopticon was so desolate and cold and I loved every bit of it.

I always thought In the Absence of Truth was a little more proggy than past efforts and that it meandered a little too much. It's by all means a good album but I was worried that it might be the beginning of the end for them as well. But that's clearly not the case as WR is a superb step in a new direction (I agree with the ethereal descriptor) and it doesn't even look shabby next to Oceanic/Panopticon.

It's unbelievable that ISIS is still managing to push the envelope this far down the track and with so many imitators. Best metal band ever, full stop.

Isis is officially breaking up according to the band's website...sad, sad day. Panopticon is still my favorite and an all-time post-metal masterpiece.

Link

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

There goes one of my favourite bands :(


Though I loathe to admit it, it is a perfectly understandable move on their part - what they said about the 'pushing past a dignified death' syndrome rings true. I'm just happy I managed to see them for a second time last February.

Yeah. Tragic, but at least it ended on a good note. I had no idea they had been a band for 13 years. I'm buying my ticket to see them in DC right now.

So, for the hell of it, why don't we post some favorite ISIS tracks:

Well that is some sad but understandable news.

Perhaps I'll make an effort to see them two weeks from today.

That's right! They're coming you're way. DOO IT.

Definitely! It'll be worth it.


One of my favs from Oceanic

Too bad I'm home from college, there's two shows within an hour of campus:banghead:

Wonder what Turner will do now. I know he's got Hydra Head to run, but I hope he's not finished making music.

ISIS broke up
http://isistheband.blogspot.com/2010...ed-end_18.html
WHOA sorry guys

The nwes of them breaking up makes me sad.
Thank you for giving us great music Isis.