Isis
Panopticon

"But they were not from their own wings: except that my mind was struck by a brilliance in which its desire came. Here the power of the high fantasy failed; but already my desire and will were moving, like a wheel equally set in motion, the love that moves the sun and the other stars."

I already know I'll listen to it until it hurts, until I lose touch with reality, until the (forgive the term) total befuddlement; I want to intoxicate myself with every single note, every little glimpse... And this is because "Panopticon" is not an album, at least not as we typically understand it. "Panopticon" is a true mental journey, a confrontation with a reality that is unknown to us but makes us rediscover ourselves, our identity, through chiaroscuro sounds and sensations... These things aren't only achieved by Neurosis (whom I adore) and company, as you can see.
The previous (and extraordinary) "Oceanic" had already laid the foundations for what we have in our hands today. An album where light and shadow chased each other, where there was already a hint of that superb compositional refinement that we can say is the group’s own, but which was dotted with doubt, or at least it seems so after listening to "Panopticon". Isis had reached the peak; everyone understood by then that they were dealing with an extraordinary band, and perhaps for this reason, no one, I believe, expected what happened: the band showed that they had achieved the true goal they had set, which "Oceanic" had not yet reached.
The experience of listening to "Panopticon" is difficult to describe in words; so much so that one cannot even think of illustrating not so much its beauty but its primordial essence, or rather, its soul, through a review, even though I have tried to trace back to that spark that allowed its conception. This time the distortions grow, impregnating with a new wave sensitivity that alternates with more tranquil moments, bringing out the darkest nihilism as well as the brightest and most dazzling hope (or illusion); all of this remaining within a melodic perceptibility that serves as a simple substrate on which we, the listeners, the real protagonists, will trace our sensations.
This is the real spirit of the album: "Do Did We" starts with penetrating distortions only to be cleaved by the purest melody, which evolves to achieve luminosity, as if it were an ascent from the depths. Similarly, "Backlit" reveals a rock soul within, starting bright and then sketching musical scenarios that are nothing short of excellent, leading to the deepest melancholy of the wonderful "In Fiction". Continuing on this path, "In Fiction" itself evolves, changes its colors, and flows into optimism, becoming a demonstration of the emotions that an electric guitar can evoke, in metallic and at the same time intense distortions that do not seem to destroy and annihilate hope, but on the contrary, build and support it. And so on, in a true sinusoidal alternation of contrasting sensations and feelings, "Panopticon" leaves the listener stunned, immersing them in a vortex of notes that are built time and time again and create an immense ocean where getting lost does not only mean pleasing ears and heart but above all "searching" for oneself and "finding" oneself.
Put this way, it almost means as if Isis infused the album with a therapeutic function, when they actually imbue it with just that something that leaves us petrified by the beauty and immensity of pure art. And if one wants to have a precise idea of what this "ocean" is, just listen to "Syndic Calls" or "Altered Course", before flowing into the spectacular "Grinning Mouths", which summarizes the entire soul of "Panopticon" in its architectural riffs.

I don't know how much you managed to understand from this reading, I humbly ask you to forgive my digressions, but in the end, this was the only way to try to describe an album that makes "digression" and "rediscovery" its reason for being. I apologize again for the Dantesque introduction, it may seem pretentious and exaggerated to say that the Supreme Poet anticipated the impossibility of becoming aware in the face of the immensity that is intrinsic to the album, but in the end, this is precisely what I started from to be able to talk about "Panopticon".
Go without bread, for once, but by divine goodness, not without a work like this one.