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Rating: The sludge/post-metal movement is now established, affirmed, and rooted, with an ever-growing group of fans.
But with this review, we go back a bit, to 2000; when the market didn’t have much to offer yet, and the massively influential Neurosis reigned supreme - it had been only four years since the impactful "Through Silver in Blood", and I believe quite a few people were still recovering, these Isis timidly emerged.
After six years, they are one of the most acclaimed names in the vast post-metal landscape, creators of a sound as seminal as it is personal. This Celestial is their first album. 7 songs among which the 4 "sgnl>" alternate. The first thing that strikes the ear is that the band is still very young and has just taken the first steps on its personal path that will culminate four years later in the still unsurpassed (for the writer) Panopticon. Music still heavily influenced by the great Neurosis but also by the pioneers Godflesh, of whom they also recorded a cover in the same year.
The band's massive, melodic, expansive sound is already recognizable, but it's still at an embryonic state and is often dominated by the aforementioned influences and also by a somewhat weak production especially in the more "post" and less "sludge" parts (which are still the majority). A promising start to a career in continuous ascent: if you didn’t like the subsequent Isis, you won’t miss much, but for everyone else, I recommend at least a listen.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Celestial (The Tower) (09:42)
Remit
Remit the signal
The flood is coming down
I can't hold it back
I can't see her
I can't even breathe
Even breathe
Breathe
The individual
Will drifts into space
And the signal
Fills it's void
Void
Black hole
The eyes of greater size
Than all the oceans
Do you ever get that feeling that you're sinking?
I do
03 Glisten (06:34)
Drawn in
Kneeling, scraping, praying
Her lips glisten
Anticipate
Glisten
Fall into
The burning noise and sting
Her jaws dripping
Sockets glowing
Glisten
That reach hasn't reached me
Her machine has reached me
(She's) Waiting for me to give in
Waiting for me to cease
08 Collapse and Crush (05:55)
Collapse the veins
Crush the heart
Snap the tendons
Dissolve the bones
Flood the brain
Burn the skin
Pierce the lungs
Collapse the body
Stars now beneath our feet
We've known the terror and still not stopped
Swarm down and forgive me
Rain down and forgive us
09 C.F.T. (New Circuitry and Continued Evolution) (05:42)
We became parts of a greater whole
The black hole sees a light
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Other reviews
By Bisius
The vibrations it emits, can you feel them...? You can. How? You don’t know, but you perceive them, passing right through you, infecting you.
This tower is cursed, so why did you enter?
By Roller
The sound is magical and capable of penetrating the human psyche.
The genius of Isis makes the unlucky listener bounce like a ball in a pinball machine in a psychedelic frenzy.
