Isole
Throne Of Void

THE REVIEW

They see reality this way. Grayness is above everything, a heavy, very heavy veil of suffering hangs over us all. We cannot escape this painful sense of "reality", because it is undeniable in man a small part of pain. Isole convey pain before anything else. The music comes later, the guitars come later. First, there's suffering, solitude, despair. First, we are with ourselves. Alone with ourselves. Leave everyone and everything alone for an hour, close yourself in, put on the headphones, listen to the epic drama of this album, of this "romantic" way of accepting solitude as part of man himself. In multiple forms, we are slaves to it because solitude, and with it suffering, are internal sensations, realizations that despite friends and various affections are always within our psyche. The Swedish group can bring to the surface, even on the most beautiful day one can have, the darkest mental ruminations, the deepest doubts, the most hidden perplexities.

Isole, here on their second album released in 2006, leave behind a picture of mournful desolation, which, when savored, generates calm, peace. A desolation that prompts the leaves to change their color, perceiving second by second, moment by moment, their imminent death until, like soldiers at war, they fall from the branches and touch the ground. A soaked earth, steeped with all the icy despair and naked cruelty of man who pours into it all his worst intentions. Here is "Autumn Leaves".

Those leaves are now dead. They have fallen into a deep sleep. They are beyond life. A bit like man. But who can tell us that once this life is over, there is nothing but a dream, a single infinite dream or the union of countless dreams that make us retrace our entire life? I can't give you an answer, ask "Dreams".

We are immersed in an aura of affliction, of anguish. The slow but enchanting melodies of Isole generate in me spleen, yes, that of Baudelaire. Black mood, sense of inadaptation, dissatisfaction. The struggle is against the ideal, the quest for the absolute, the infinite. Anguish fights incessantly against Hope. Hope exists, Hope is "Life", Hope lasts little, very little, it is only a fleeting state of mind.

I have written only a few inconclusive words, I have talked about solitude, suffering, desolation. I have described what the music of the Swedish quartet generates in me, and it is inevitable when talking about them, not to leave out all those aforementioned feelings. Give them a listen, perhaps with headphones, alone but in the company of yourself...

1. "Autumn Leaves" (6:54)
2. "Dreams" (6:29)
3. "Green Demon" (10:31)
4. "Throne Of Void" (6:04)
5. "Insomnia" (6:41)
6. "Bleak" (7:28)
7. "Life" (3:58)