Isis – Wavering Radiant (Ipecac, 2009)

the boy blesses whispers into words / in the painted valleys, they await rain.

Chance has graced me with a gift /grasp at gold before the dark descends / sun beats down and panic reigns / in this time of ending.

I will always have a soft spot for metal. There is something about blisteringly heavy riffs that seep into my veins causing me to cavort in chaotic thrusts, fists ready to pump the air. I can feel my blood boiling from deep within me. From the toes to the tips, the knees trembling in anticipation.

Isis came to me from New Zealand. Not that they’re New Zealanders. But a friend on return from working in NZ had discovered Oceanic and Panopticon. These were incredible albums; I was tired of metal and absorbed in a world of post-rock, new folk and indie hip hop. I had left my metal roots far behind and couldn’t see anything coming from that direction. Sitting in the living room, my friend slid Panopticon in and it’s neo-industrial repetition and gutteral growls had me in seconds. A year or so later, I had the pleasure to see them play their ‘In Absence of Truth’ tour in Adelaide, and was crushed by their power, their ambience and their absolute heaviness.

Wavering Radiant has been floating around my iPod for a couple of months now. The last few weeks, though, it has received some fairly heavy rotation. Then, the other night, I played it just prior to closing the bar in which I work. Another friend couldn’t really get it (although I don’t think she was giving it a fair listen). ‘It sounds so angry… that’s why I can’t get into metal’ she said. Or at least words to that effect. But this is what I don’t get. Isis isn’t angry. Sure, it’s loud. Riffs distort endlessly. Drums pound and Aaron Turner’s vocals rip his lungs and chords to shreds. But there’s an unending beauty underneath it all. Their music could, of course, be considered bleak, dark, but somehow I find a hopefulness within it. A hope for what – I’m not sure. But a hope, nonetheless.

Isis aren’t your average metal band. Don’t look for finger-destroying riffs here – you won’t find them. Look for the dynamics of soft-loud, of, for want of a better turn of phrase, the calm before the storm. The gentle, clean guitar lines mixed with the symphonic, droning keyboards underneath spread a beauty through the music which is offset and reinforced by the blast of each song’s crescendo peak.

Unfortunately Isis have often been compared to Tool. Why unfortunately? (Will this generate the barrage of criticism that I expect?) Isis are a band that seem to be growing. Their early albums were brutal and beautiful in their battering simplicity. In the Absence of Truth demonstrated a gentler, post-metal side, which I put down to Turner having destroyed his vocal chords. But Wavering Radiant shows a culmination of both these sides, embracing both the heavier and softer sides of their sounds. The comparison to Tool, whilst understandable, frustrates me (as a Tool fan) mainly because I see Tool as a band that has failed to grow, that caught the scent of successful sounds and stuck with it – each album beating the dead horse a little further. Tool died for me with Lateralus, and whilst I blindly hope for some new salvation with each new release, they only continue to disappoint. (There. I said it). Isis, however, are moving forward. And I hope this will continue.

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