ISIS „Panopticon”

Music: Post Noise
Duration: 59.06 (7 songs)
Cool songs: So Did We, Back lit, Syndic Calls, Altered Course, Grinning Mouths
Website: www.sgnl05.com

Isis is a great, great band. Their early material (SGNL 05 and Celestial) was ahead of its time and 2002’s stunning ‘Oceanic’ topped my best list for that year. Needless to say, the imminent arrival of its follow up ‘Panopticon’ was a major highlight for me. I had massive expectations.

It’s a rather difficult thing to describe the music of Isis. To the straight up metal head, they’re probably too cerebral. Certainly, they have a massive appeal to the metal fan base, but calling them a metal band is just too narrow. Perhaps that’s why they sit so comfortably on a label like Mike Patton’s Ipecac. All uniquely different heavy music bands seem to reside on his roster (Famtomas, Melvins). Isis is one of those bands.

For the metal fan that likes to explore musical paths beyond the typical standard, then acts like Neurosis and Cult of Luna are your obvious comparison with Isis. The ball park they all play in is a massively broad and expansive one, but the objective is still the same – to create imaginative, wide reaching compositions that entice and mesmerize the listener with a depth and creativity that very few other ‘heavy’ bands can muster.

Panopticon is another amazing step in the life of this band. It has the same atmospheric feel of ‘Oceanic’, but with some subtle differences. If anything, Isis seem to treading the ‘less is more’ path that Neurosis so eloquently captured on their ‘ A Sun that Never Sets’ disc and took to even more exploratory heights with ‘The Eye of Every Storm’. By this I mean that Isis are content to be even more deliberate in how they combine both their mellow and heavy elements. ‘Panopticon’ is a much sparser sounding album – there is more air in the music and much more low, slow and moodier sections throughout. In true Neurosis style, these mellower parts make Isis’ heavier sections all the more powerful and dramatic. Isis have an amazing ability to make their compositions build to hulk-like crescendo’s, using lush, layered melodies, brooding ‘Tool-like’ bass lines and an unnerving mature, if slightly buried vocal performance from Aaron Turner.

As a direct comparison to the phenomenal ‘Oceanic’, ‘Panopticon’ sounds like a much cleaner record. Their raw, chaotic Noisecore elements that so enamored their earlier material are now only part of their whole Isis picture. No doubt, their trademark sound is still very much intact, it’s just that Isis are now becoming more progressive in the use of light and shade in their music. As a result, ‘Panopticon’ is slightly more unpredictable in the turns that it makes; there is more intensity, intricacy and depth in everything they do.

It is hard to imagine where Isis will go to after this album. I remember questioning the Neurosis path after the colossal ‘Through Silver in Blood’ disc. I thought that was it for them. How wrong was I? I hope Isis has the same effect. I’m not sure if ‘Panopticon’ is as grand as ‘Oceanic’ sound wise, but certainly, it has the same hypnotic impact. Fans of truly expansive, progressive music with passion and intensity in equal parts will find the world of Isis extremely inviting. For me, the expectations have been met!

note: 9.3/10

Tracklist

01. So did we
02. Backlit
03. In Fiction
04. Wills dissolve
05. Syndic Calls
06. Altered Course
07. Grinning Mouths