Isis
Celestial

THE REVIEW

I insert the CD into my old CD player. I put on my headphones and crank it up. I turn off the light in my room and I'm ready for a new fascinating journey.

The Isis, an American band active since the beginning of the millennium, convey dark and gloomy atmospheres, slow and obsessive rhythms. It's pointless to try to pigeonhole this group into a predetermined musical genre recognized by critics. They are certainly influenced by the stoner movement and the doom/sludge one (do Electric Wizard and Mastodon ring a bell?) or by bands like the American Neurosis or the British Godflesh, but who cares?

The sound is magical and capable of penetrating the human psyche. True experimental music ("experimental action is the result of what is not expected" says John Cage) alternates with destructive guitar riffs. Ears bleed, the spirit dissolves.

The genius of Isis makes the unlucky listener bounce like a ball in a pinball machine in a psychedelic frenzy, because you can go from Commodore effect synth to metallic regurgitations, from strokes of nervous progressive to the dusted flavor of a western.

The disc stops. 50 minutes of pachydermic mental stasis but hours or eons of "celestial" journey exploring the desired meanders of non-being.