Getting Back Out Of The Hole
ISIS
Wavering Radiant
Know what you should not do? Follow up what was considered your high point with complete mediocrity. ISIS did this with their last LP, In the Absence of Truth, and… well lets just say I listened to it once or twice and went back to Panopticon. Just as if that bad boy had never even happened. Your mom’s miscarriage? No one talks about that when there you are doing your thing much better than what would have been her (technically it was called Bethany, but that’s besides the point). It was the same thing with the last ISIS record.
Bong water ripples
Then there is Wavering Radient, and this is where it gets harder to explain. While I was temped to explain that ITAOT was a weak record because of Aarron Turner’s expanded use of clean vocals, I can’t actually say that. Clean vocals are on this record. Is it because the songs are shorter? Nope, that’s not the case either as most of these are around seven minutes as were the majority of ITAOT. Faster songs? Guest Vocals? Naked chick on the cover riding a dragon? Nope, nope, and nope. What makes this album better than the last one? Better s(b)ongs.
ISIS never speeds up out of the ‘ISIS thump’ groove for any noticeable amount of time outside of song peaks but that is not a bad thing. The post metal blueprint became the ‘NeurISIS’ sound because ISIS was really good at it, and here is another example. “Stone to Wake a Serpent” and “Ghost Key” could be movies or books if volume was related to typical plot progression.
Figure 1. Western Literature Plot Progression/ISIS song structure:
Intro >> Plot Point >> Progression >> Added Tension >> Progression >> Apex (Creshendo ) >> Resolution (Outro)
No one ever bitches about how Joseph Heller didn’t reinvent the written story, and people shouldn’t complain when ISIS doesn’t come up with the “New ISIS Sound”. Only complain when they bring a weak product to the market; then we’ll have to wait another three years to see if they can do it better. This is not one of those times thankfully.
Score:
3 \m/ out of 5
