Isis
Clearing the Eye

THE REVIEW

If I had to choose my "heavy" band of the first decade of the new millennium, I would have no doubt: I would write in capital letters ISIS. The immense and terrifying Post Rock-Sludge-Noise creature built by the visionary mind of Aaron Turner. Authors, in a career that unfortunately lasted only about a dozen years, of five full-length albums that reached very high peaks of cold and detached beauty, especially in the masterpieces Oceanic and Panopticon. Capable of "deconstructing" every musical form, creating a sound wall of unprecedented effectiveness.

Clearing The Eye is a substantial and claustrophobic DVD recorded at the end of 2005 during the Panopticon world tour, adding to it some rough recordings from the early 2000s when their sound was still overflowing with Noise fury and violence.

Starting with the viewing of the long songs, which in some cases exceed ten minutes, one can notice an essential stage and instrumentation; very few lights and no interaction from the band members with the audience. ISIS focus solely and exclusively on the imposing music that emanates from their instruments; the audience must not get distracted. One must stay well-focused to keep up with what is produced by the amplifiers; but the task is not that simple. Because the long instrumental digressions, another of those basic characteristics of the sound universe created by the five, destabilize, they enter harmfully into your mind, your soul. Bewildering and annihilating, even better and "beyond" compared to Neurosis (but this is just my opinion).

A good part of the DVD is dedicated to a concert held in Sydney, Australia, where Aaron's T-shirt, bearing the cover of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, immediately catches the eye. Aaron has always declared his love for Dark and New Wave. And this can be noticed in the bleak atmospheres, in the solemn instrumental extensions that are a constant in the path followed by ISIS; it's not easy to approach and appreciate such a complex, layered sound.

It's a continuous alternation of opposite sensations; a sonic contrast that leaves you stunned. Within the same track, it transitions from frantic assaults, from tremendous Hardcore blasts to sudden passages where everything calms, dims, weakens. In these relaxed moments, the imposing and impetuous sound of the guitars becomes gentle, intangible, pure; mystical and evocative like the early eighties Cure meeting on the right path the meditative and profound OM of venerable Al Cisneros. The listening of the paradisiacal crescendo found in the thirteen minutes of "Weight," for me the best piece written by the band, is worth much more than what I have written so far...THE BEGINNING AND THE END...

Ad Maiora.