It's difficult, even for a band like Isis, to replicate the glory of their previous two albums; indeed, as far as I'm concerned, "In The Absence Of Truth" remains a step below "Oceanic" and "Panopticon." There are no shortage of songs of enormous quality, featuring that celestial and ethereal sound that first envelops you, warms you, and then suddenly sinks you with abrupt shifts in sound that move with colossal, asphyxiating cadences of the Sludge Metal school. The nine minutes of the concluding "Garden of Light" once again demonstrate the greatness of a band among my favorites of the last twenty years. Listen to the instrumental part that concludes the piece, with those tribal percussion accompanying a guitar sound that "ascends" to total ecstasy...HOLY TEARS...
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