Isole
Bliss Of Solitude

Human life is like a pendulum that incessantly swings between pain and boredom, passing through the fleeting, and what’s more illusory, interval of pleasure and joy. (Arthur Schopenhauer)

In this world, there is no light, and the Swedish band Isole strongly reiterates this, with their third full-length album in 2007 titled "Bliss of Solitude". Prepare for suffering, pain, and hardship. In "Bliss of Solitude," the heaviness of the soul becomes unbearable through pachydermal, majestic, sepulchral compositions, in a descent to hell that becomes more and more vertiginous.

The four-member Swedish band revisits the doom of Candlemass and partially that of Solitude Aeternus, but they rework it all with great personality and the ability to create contrasting emotions that leave the listener stunned. A classic, pure doom, with a suffering clean vocal. The music of Candlemass and the evocative drama of My Dying Bride.

An oppressive work. The tearing of the mind is just around the corner. The feeling of helplessness is distinct, it hurts. "By Blood" bewitches with its decadent sepulchral melody and hurls you into the desolate snow-covered lands of Sweden. It feels like being in a dark, closed room where there is no chance of salvation. Hope fades, little by little...

This is what they seem to want to tell us. Listen because when you are alone is the moment when you are no longer alone, because you finally belong to yourself. Man is always and inevitably "Imprisoned in Sorrow" and can only find comfort in the "Bliss of Solitude". Hope does not exist, nor does liberation, just as the ideal does not. In "Dying" you are alone with everything you love, in a world made of blurred scenarios, where the wavering horizon melts and spreads into a leaden, gray sky...

I know I've talked too much in emphatic tones. However, what this album generated in me was something unique. It leaves a bitter disturbance. The slow and echoing sound of the guitars drags you away. Consciousness reflects before everything. You may say too much pessimism?

I wake up. I look outside the window. Everything is pale. Outside, there is snow. The tree is without leaves, it's dead...

1. "By Blood" (8:17)
2. "From Clouded Sky" (6:13)
3. "Imprisoned in Sorrow" (7:35)
4. "Bliss of Solitude" (8:14)
5. "Aska" (8:15)
6. "Dying" (7:27)
7. "Shadowstone" (11:25)