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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.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Collapse and Crush (06:24)
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
05 In Fiction (05:37)
Through fiction we saw the birth
Of futures yet to come
Yet in fiction lay the bones
Ugly in their nakedness
Yet under this mortal sun
We cannot hide ourselves
06 Celestial (The Tower) (10:38)
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
07 Glisten (06:39)
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 C.F.T. (New Circuitry and Continued Evolution) (07:23)
We became parts of a greater whole
The black hole sees a light
09 The Beginning and the End (08:42)
Long you both laid in the sun's yellow stare...
On the edge with eyes rolled back, the waves were calling him.
As he teetered on the edge, the waves were calling him.
He had seen it, felt its might, bent under...
(Washing away, he thinks of you. Everything slows, light's flashing through.
The water flies over his head. You are me now as you lay on my bed.)
This is what he'd always known:
The promise of something greater beyond the water's final horizon.
10 Grinning Mouths (09:18)
Magistrates dream of plague
Tongues loll in anticipation
You are awake in their darker visions
Drool slips from grinning mouths
The plague is forced on us all
Is it there? Are they there?
Shouts of fact abound
But whispers of truth burn through
Is it there?
Are they there?
11 From Sinking (09:02)
His time there so long.
His fingers traced the endless walls he knew so well.
And there the breaths were short and hard and thick with salt.
And in this place he always knew he'd wake alone.
Hands clutch in panic.
In this place he built of sand homes that caved.
The walls were weak with salty tears.
Through the cracks in these walls he saw the sun.
The sun dripped through the cracks and died.
Shadows manage to betray.
Like liquid was the sadness, until into the light he stepped
In this truth he knew himself to be.
From sinking sands he stepped into light's embrace.
12 Weight (12:53)
(...all in, all in, all in a day...)
(...a day it changes everything...)
13 In Fiction (10:32)
Through fiction we saw the birth
Of futures yet to come
Yet in fiction lay the bones
Ugly in their nakedness
Yet under this mortal sun
We cannot hide ourselves
14 Grinning Mouths (09:49)
Magistrates dream of plague
Tongues loll in anticipation
You are awake in their darker visions
Drool slips from grinning mouths
The plague is forced on us all
Is it there? Are they there?
Shouts of fact abound
But whispers of truth burn through
Is it there?
Are they there?
15 Wills Dissolve (07:32)
Those eyes and (this) tower have seeped into our open veins
Uncoiled was it's strength
And our souls en masse
Poured down in sheets of rain
And dissolved 'neath their feet
Circling further down
Our wills dissolve 'neath their feet
16 Backlit (10:20)
Always object
Never subject
Can you see us? Are we there?
Are we there...
Can you see me? We are watching
We are watching...
You are fading...
In the daylight...
Fading...
Always upon you, light never ceases
Lost from yourself, light never ceases
Thousands of eyes, gaze never ceases
Light is upon you 'til life in you ceases
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