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Rating: The Isis are a band that needs no introduction. A leading figure in post-hardcore, this Boston quintet had already made a name for themselves with both critics and audiences with their excellent self-produced Celestial. But 2001 is the year of their breakthrough: they move to the Ipecac of the brilliant Mike Patton and release the superb Oceanic, an album that inevitably establishes them as one of the greatest novelties in today's musical panorama.
Oceanic is a stunning work, a record that, in just 9 tracks, masterfully fuses moments of pure violence with others that are ethereal, elongated, and strongly inspired by psychedelia and an "atmospheric" nature. It kicks off with the magnificent single "The Beginning Of The End," followed by the sudden and piercing explosions of "The Other" and "False Light" and "Carry," with its magnificent and lengthy introduction with a vaguely ambient flavor. Track 5, a magnificent untitled interlude, breaks the album in half. After the unease of the first part, one encounters two pieces, "Maritime" and the stunning instrumental "Weight," that cradle us between sounds that reveal the band's more psychedelic and sophisticated roots, only to face, in the last two songs, "From Sinking" and "Hym," new devastating bursts of violence. These are the Isis, take it or leave it. Listening to their music, and particularly this magnificent album, it's almost like collapsing into the extreme abysses, only to unexpectedly soar, flying over that ocean of despair that is life itself.
The recent Panopticon, again released via Ipecac, seems to have confirmed their immense abilities unveiled with Celestial and Oceanic: something that can only please all admirers of a band like Isis, among the most original in the contemporary music scene. A band, in short, that now seems to reconcile critical and public success equally, continuing not to disappoint anyone, and Oceanic is tangible proof of that. A must-have and support.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 The Beginning and the End (08:01)
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.
03 False Light (07:42)
Come down on me, my sweet angel Poison milk from that withering breast Come down on me, my sweet angel Poison milk from that withering breast Your mask is drifting See what writhes beneath Porcelain grin is cracking, incest to uncoil Your laugh spreads yawning, black hole formation Drown and the first real breath takes hold Washed in a chill so peaceful, sink further Hold his hand and crush it The depth of the chasm is infinite Discover bliss and serenity in drowning
04 Carry (06:46)
...and the water takes hold.
Fills his lungs and crushes his body.
Dust floats through sun in water.
He sees like he's never seen before.
(As you draw close, fall to me.
I will carry you, true and free.
Now that you are here, you'll swim with me.
I am clutching you, true.)
...and the water carries him away.
Soon he ceases to be at all.
He sees like he's never seen before.
He is light in water.
07 Weight (10:46)
(...all in, all in, all in a day...)
(...a day it changes everything...)
08 From Sinking (08:24)
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.
09 Hym (09:13)
Love flows fears no windows minds time oceanic. Dissolve me.
His own light, now it's gone.
The thirst came on.
And it came on in waves.
He would dream of cells swollen with water.
Blank memory washed away, swallowed whole through eyes and teeth.
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