With their fourth release In the Absence of Truth, ISIS have perhaps fully reached their creative peak. Long hailed as the saviors of psychedelic doom rock, ISIS have, after nearly a decade in the business, honed their style into a trippy sort of stoner-meets-prog-meets-post rock configuration. Sharing a tour recently with Tool seems to have done wonders for these New England natives, as the music on this new release breathes and swells, going from soft spoken atmospheric passages to psychedelic freak- outs to crushing stoner/death bombast. A song like the tortured "Not in Rivers, But in Drops" contains all these elements, supplemented by plenty of textured guitar work and intricate ensemble arrangements. Rhythmically, ISIS bring plenty of food to the table, as each track just pulls you into a hypnotic state with plenty of tricky grooves. There's also a certain Pink Floyd and early Porcupine Tree feel going on here as well, from a vocal standpoint as well as with some of the atmospheric sections. But don't get too lulled into a calm state, as one would be tempted to do on "Dulcinea", as just when you think the trance will continue lethal death metal vocals and brusing riffs come crashing into the mix. In fact, there's so much variety here that it's almost impossible to classify what the end result is. Parts of the album are just plain gorgeous ("1, 000 Shards"), others totally avant-garde and progressive ("Firdous E Bareen") while others have a real savage nature to them, like "Garden of Light", so you are always left guessing what will come next.
Call it what you will, metal, prog rock, post rock, psychedelic, doom, or stoner-it's really all of these and none of these. One thing In the Absence of Truth is, is damn good music, and something you'll not quite forget.
Track Listing
1. Wrists of Kings
2. Not in Rivers, But in Drops
3. Dulcinea
4. Over Root and Thorn
5. 1, 000 Shards
6. All out of Time, All into Space
7. Holy Tears
8. Firdous E Bareen
9. Garden of Light