Album: ISIS - Wavering Radiant (2009)
7 tracks / 54:05
Acquired: May 2009
Vocals, guitars, artwork: Aaron Turner
Guitars: Michael Gallagher
Guitars, keyboards, electronics: Bryant Clifford Meyer
Bass: Jeff Caxide
Drums: Aaron Harris
All songs written by ISIS
For half a decade, ISIS has represented all that is good in modern music to me. That is why it was no wonder that I was awaiting Wavering Radiant pretty damn eagerly back in 2009. Maybe it was because my expectations that this album felt a little bit downer to me.
Sure, it has these incredible movements and an atmosphere beyond comparison, but also it feels that the songs are lacking a direction and there are too many parts that feel just indifferent. Sections that you could change and no-one would notice a difference. It feels as if this album was composed of awesome parts, but with gaps that needed filler material to fill the void.
Compared to their two previous releases, it doesn't feel as crushing and intense as Panopticon, nor does it have that meandering and fluctuating feel to it, unlike In the Absence of Truth. However, I also want to point out the evolution the band has made since their early, sludgy EPs. They don't just exploit the simple yet effective quiet-loud-quiet formula, and Aaron Turner's clean vocals are better than ever, having reached a level of maturity pretty much unheard before. But despite this, the songs have a somewhat indifferent quality to them. They are hard to get into, and once you do (or you feel like you do), there really is not much to them.
But considering that I have listened to this album only a couple of times through and through, the rest of the time listening to the songs separately, I might be holding on to faulty impressions that have no real basis. That's why it seems that a review of this album is the right thing to do for me. Maybe I'll even discover an album I have really never listened to before.
1. Hall of the Dead (7:39)
The album opens with the repetitive, droning "Hall of the Dead". The harsh growls of Aaron Turner stir up no cries of cheering, but the clean vocals sound more mature and polished than in previous records. However, they sound somehow weak and even off-key at times.
The whole first introduction feels a bit weak and tired, until the first mood change, which is followed by a massive, simple yet amazing riff, supported by a Hammond organ, that evolves into a dreamy, psychedelic drone in which the trebly, delayed bass guitar creates the most of the atmosphere.
The song has many great moments, but remains somehow incoherent in places, and as a slightly weak performance, does not work that well as the opening track. Even Tool's Adam Jones in additional guitar can't manage to make this song awesome.
7/10
2. Ghost Key (8:29)
The first, unreal notes of this song are superb, taking the listener straight into some another realm, right before bringing them back with massive, roaring post-metal crush.
"Ghost Key" contrasts the lightweight, dreamy parts with immense heavy parts one after another until progressing further into the song, in which the prog-rock-influenced psychedelia parts fuse with the heavy sections into one, massive opus.
This time Turner's clean vocals work really well with the song, becoming more an instrument of their own than a distinct vehicle of delivering lyrics to the listener, unlike the growls and roars, which are more on the front, instead of blending into the song.
The structure of this song seems more coherent and well-defined, the parts seeming to come more in a logical order instead of seeming to be made of random, unlinked riffs played in succession. One of the stronger efforts of Wavering Radiant
9/10
3. Hand of the Host (10:43)
The biggest song of the album begins slowly with ethereal guitar swells, that little by little expand into the drums and trebly bass lines, until reaching the repetitive, crushing riffery and Turner's beastly roars.
Past those, the song brings in weird, syncopated drum rhythms and some nice clean vocal work by Turner. The song really begins its meandering road, with quiet ups and massive, crushing downs, upbeat melodies and dark, gloomy chords. Especially Jeff Caxide is doing a lot with his bass in this song, creating awesome, pulsating bass rhythms that are interesting both rhythm- and harmony-wise.
The song covers a broad spectrum of both styles and atmospheres, being really a caleidoscope of modern metal music. Though a bit too expansive, as if not having a real picture what it really wants to be, I must still give credit to these guys creating material this original and impressive.
8/10
4. Wavering Radiant (1:48)
Another song with support from Tool's Adam Jones - this time in keyboards.
With the unreal, waving atmosphere, its title really fits it. A nice moment to relax before moving on to the final three tracks.
However, as I see it as an interlude, or an introduction to the next song, I don't see the need to give it a score of its own.
5. Stone to Wake a Serpent (8:31)
This tracks opens just like "Ghost Key", alternating with the lightweight and the heavy parts, before progressing on to more interesting stuff.
Once again the guitars create harmonic tension while Turner's clean voice leads the listener with his simple but hypnotizing clean voice, until the song reaches its massive and still groovy riff section that is decorated with Bryant Clifford Meyer's otherworldly keyboards and Hammond organs. At first the following growly parts don't seem that great, but then the band surprises the listener with yet another amazing, crushing riffs.
Although this song is hypnotic and impressive, really one of the best on the album, I can't shake the feeling that this song is just "Ghost Key" dressed into new clothes. Whatever, pretty great song nevertheless.
9/10
6. 20 Minutes / 40 Years (7:05)
The penultimate track opens with deeper tones and darker atmosphere than the previous ones have. Once the vocals arrive, I have that feeling once again that they are not as great as they could be, growls being too in front and cleans being too feeble, somehow lacking in feeling and emotion.
However, the riffs under Turner's vocals are great, meandering and mesmerizing. They rumble on with a hypnotic pulse, until finally changing into a lightweight, psychedelic section that little by little starts to become heavier and heavier without losing its ethereal quality.
To this date, I've regarded "20 Minutes / 40 Years" the most boring song of this album, probably due to its lack of obvious hooks (unlike eg. the introductions in "Ghost Key" and "Stone to Wake a Serpent"), but now I'm seeing that it is really a slow opener that flows effortlessly from one piece to another, retaining its well-hidden red thread that really is there - one just has to look for it.
9/10
7. Threshold of Transformation (9:53)
This song doesn't try to slowly grow up - it simply kicks into the face of the listener with an assault of low-tuned riffs interspersed with muted, prog-metal riffs in odd times.
Although there come sections in which the heavy metal elements are stripped off and Jeff Caxide takes the lead with his bass melodies, the song remains pretty heavy and oppressive throughout, rumbling on with unrelenting pace and force. Especially the final heavy moments around the 5-minute mark are pretty impressive.
Then the song lulls back into a dark, dreamy and intense section in which a single distant guitar lead guides the listener through a hypnotic, pulsating atmosphere created by the rest of the band, until reaching the final climatic section in which Aaron Turner closes the album with his clean singing.
8/10
***
Final verdict
Even after listening it through once again, Wavering Radiant remains a bit incoherent and feeble effort when compared to ISIS's earlier albums. The sounds and melodies are clever, some of the riffs are thicker than ever and Aaron Turner has obviously learned to sing better.
Also Jeff Caxide and Aaron Harris create intricate, mesmerizing pulses with odd rhythms, while Bryant Clifford Meyer's keyboards have risen to unforeseen prominence, and I must admit that when he doubles the massive guitar riffs with a Hammond organ - it sounds pretty damn cool.
But however, many times it feels that despite all these great aspects, the band is lacking ideas in songwriting: the songs feel like collages of different, unrelated sections that are just stitched together, making the songs feel a bit disjointed, and even though there are no really awkward transitions, sometimes it just feels that the following section doesn't sound right after the previous one.
Also Turner's vocals are a bit of a problem for me. Although he sings more cleanly than ever, I have thought that his raspy, unprofessional voice was one of the major appeals of their sound. Also his beastly roars have been awesome, as they have been in the background, working more as an instrument of their own, instead of delivering the lyrics. Now the growls and roars are prominent, attacking the listener, and in my case, disrupting the atmosphere and overall listening experience. Luckily lyrics-wise this album is once again of the guaranteed ISIS quality, Turner's texts being multi-layered, dreamy phrases, full of difficult metaphors and strange images.
Overall this album sounds that Wavering Radiant is an album more delicate and sophisticated than their previous efforts, but on the other hand, it probably would have been better without the growls and massive heavy riffery - at least in this scale. Many times it feels that exactly these moments shatter the intense atmosphere that the band had just created during a course of several minutes - an aspect that was never a problem in the earlier works by this band.
ISIS quit a year after releasing this album. I don't know if it was because they realized they had run out of ideas and there was no need to discover the wheel once again, or if they thought that it's good to quit while you are in the top. Whatever the answer was, it's a bit of a disappointment that the amazing albums didn't reach the level of awesome the previous albums had set. Though this may sound too hard. This is not a bad album, far from it. In fact, this is a pretty enjoyable ISIS record. The only problem with it was that maybe I just had expectations too high, and the album didn't meet them.
Sure, it has these incredible movements and an atmosphere beyond comparison, but also it feels that the songs are lacking a direction and there are too many parts that feel just indifferent. Sections that you could change and no-one would notice a difference. It feels as if this album was composed of awesome parts, but with gaps that needed filler material to fill the void.
Compared to their two previous releases, it doesn't feel as crushing and intense as Panopticon, nor does it have that meandering and fluctuating feel to it, unlike In the Absence of Truth. However, I also want to point out the evolution the band has made since their early, sludgy EPs. They don't just exploit the simple yet effective quiet-loud-quiet formula, and Aaron Turner's clean vocals are better than ever, having reached a level of maturity pretty much unheard before. But despite this, the songs have a somewhat indifferent quality to them. They are hard to get into, and once you do (or you feel like you do), there really is not much to them.
But considering that I have listened to this album only a couple of times through and through, the rest of the time listening to the songs separately, I might be holding on to faulty impressions that have no real basis. That's why it seems that a review of this album is the right thing to do for me. Maybe I'll even discover an album I have really never listened to before.
1. Hall of the Dead (7:39)
The album opens with the repetitive, droning "Hall of the Dead". The harsh growls of Aaron Turner stir up no cries of cheering, but the clean vocals sound more mature and polished than in previous records. However, they sound somehow weak and even off-key at times.
The whole first introduction feels a bit weak and tired, until the first mood change, which is followed by a massive, simple yet amazing riff, supported by a Hammond organ, that evolves into a dreamy, psychedelic drone in which the trebly, delayed bass guitar creates the most of the atmosphere.
The song has many great moments, but remains somehow incoherent in places, and as a slightly weak performance, does not work that well as the opening track. Even Tool's Adam Jones in additional guitar can't manage to make this song awesome.
7/10
2. Ghost Key (8:29)
The first, unreal notes of this song are superb, taking the listener straight into some another realm, right before bringing them back with massive, roaring post-metal crush.
"Ghost Key" contrasts the lightweight, dreamy parts with immense heavy parts one after another until progressing further into the song, in which the prog-rock-influenced psychedelia parts fuse with the heavy sections into one, massive opus.
This time Turner's clean vocals work really well with the song, becoming more an instrument of their own than a distinct vehicle of delivering lyrics to the listener, unlike the growls and roars, which are more on the front, instead of blending into the song.
The structure of this song seems more coherent and well-defined, the parts seeming to come more in a logical order instead of seeming to be made of random, unlinked riffs played in succession. One of the stronger efforts of Wavering Radiant
9/10
3. Hand of the Host (10:43)
The biggest song of the album begins slowly with ethereal guitar swells, that little by little expand into the drums and trebly bass lines, until reaching the repetitive, crushing riffery and Turner's beastly roars.
Past those, the song brings in weird, syncopated drum rhythms and some nice clean vocal work by Turner. The song really begins its meandering road, with quiet ups and massive, crushing downs, upbeat melodies and dark, gloomy chords. Especially Jeff Caxide is doing a lot with his bass in this song, creating awesome, pulsating bass rhythms that are interesting both rhythm- and harmony-wise.
The song covers a broad spectrum of both styles and atmospheres, being really a caleidoscope of modern metal music. Though a bit too expansive, as if not having a real picture what it really wants to be, I must still give credit to these guys creating material this original and impressive.
8/10
4. Wavering Radiant (1:48)
Another song with support from Tool's Adam Jones - this time in keyboards.
With the unreal, waving atmosphere, its title really fits it. A nice moment to relax before moving on to the final three tracks.
However, as I see it as an interlude, or an introduction to the next song, I don't see the need to give it a score of its own.
5. Stone to Wake a Serpent (8:31)
This tracks opens just like "Ghost Key", alternating with the lightweight and the heavy parts, before progressing on to more interesting stuff.
Once again the guitars create harmonic tension while Turner's clean voice leads the listener with his simple but hypnotizing clean voice, until the song reaches its massive and still groovy riff section that is decorated with Bryant Clifford Meyer's otherworldly keyboards and Hammond organs. At first the following growly parts don't seem that great, but then the band surprises the listener with yet another amazing, crushing riffs.
Although this song is hypnotic and impressive, really one of the best on the album, I can't shake the feeling that this song is just "Ghost Key" dressed into new clothes. Whatever, pretty great song nevertheless.
9/10
6. 20 Minutes / 40 Years (7:05)
The penultimate track opens with deeper tones and darker atmosphere than the previous ones have. Once the vocals arrive, I have that feeling once again that they are not as great as they could be, growls being too in front and cleans being too feeble, somehow lacking in feeling and emotion.
However, the riffs under Turner's vocals are great, meandering and mesmerizing. They rumble on with a hypnotic pulse, until finally changing into a lightweight, psychedelic section that little by little starts to become heavier and heavier without losing its ethereal quality.
To this date, I've regarded "20 Minutes / 40 Years" the most boring song of this album, probably due to its lack of obvious hooks (unlike eg. the introductions in "Ghost Key" and "Stone to Wake a Serpent"), but now I'm seeing that it is really a slow opener that flows effortlessly from one piece to another, retaining its well-hidden red thread that really is there - one just has to look for it.
9/10
7. Threshold of Transformation (9:53)
This song doesn't try to slowly grow up - it simply kicks into the face of the listener with an assault of low-tuned riffs interspersed with muted, prog-metal riffs in odd times.
Although there come sections in which the heavy metal elements are stripped off and Jeff Caxide takes the lead with his bass melodies, the song remains pretty heavy and oppressive throughout, rumbling on with unrelenting pace and force. Especially the final heavy moments around the 5-minute mark are pretty impressive.
Then the song lulls back into a dark, dreamy and intense section in which a single distant guitar lead guides the listener through a hypnotic, pulsating atmosphere created by the rest of the band, until reaching the final climatic section in which Aaron Turner closes the album with his clean singing.
8/10
***
Final verdict
Even after listening it through once again, Wavering Radiant remains a bit incoherent and feeble effort when compared to ISIS's earlier albums. The sounds and melodies are clever, some of the riffs are thicker than ever and Aaron Turner has obviously learned to sing better.
Also Jeff Caxide and Aaron Harris create intricate, mesmerizing pulses with odd rhythms, while Bryant Clifford Meyer's keyboards have risen to unforeseen prominence, and I must admit that when he doubles the massive guitar riffs with a Hammond organ - it sounds pretty damn cool.
But however, many times it feels that despite all these great aspects, the band is lacking ideas in songwriting: the songs feel like collages of different, unrelated sections that are just stitched together, making the songs feel a bit disjointed, and even though there are no really awkward transitions, sometimes it just feels that the following section doesn't sound right after the previous one.
Also Turner's vocals are a bit of a problem for me. Although he sings more cleanly than ever, I have thought that his raspy, unprofessional voice was one of the major appeals of their sound. Also his beastly roars have been awesome, as they have been in the background, working more as an instrument of their own, instead of delivering the lyrics. Now the growls and roars are prominent, attacking the listener, and in my case, disrupting the atmosphere and overall listening experience. Luckily lyrics-wise this album is once again of the guaranteed ISIS quality, Turner's texts being multi-layered, dreamy phrases, full of difficult metaphors and strange images.
Overall this album sounds that Wavering Radiant is an album more delicate and sophisticated than their previous efforts, but on the other hand, it probably would have been better without the growls and massive heavy riffery - at least in this scale. Many times it feels that exactly these moments shatter the intense atmosphere that the band had just created during a course of several minutes - an aspect that was never a problem in the earlier works by this band.
ISIS quit a year after releasing this album. I don't know if it was because they realized they had run out of ideas and there was no need to discover the wheel once again, or if they thought that it's good to quit while you are in the top. Whatever the answer was, it's a bit of a disappointment that the amazing albums didn't reach the level of awesome the previous albums had set. Though this may sound too hard. This is not a bad album, far from it. In fact, this is a pretty enjoyable ISIS record. The only problem with it was that maybe I just had expectations too high, and the album didn't meet them.
Score: 83/100
No comments:
Post a Comment