Customer Reviews

Sgnl-05

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I believe this is the finest EP by this amazingly innovative band. It contains 4 real songs and an intro. It is a great addition or extension of "Celestial" so if you like that, you're sure to enjoy this. And it is 35 minutes long, which is as long as some bands' full albums.

The first track is an intro, and sounds similar to Celestial's intro. Then The first real song goes on starts with a crushing riff and soon enough the vocals appear. The song continutes for a while as a sluggish, crunchy, standard Isis song, then about halfway through it; it breaks down into a clean, ominous melodic riff, something I wasn't expecting when listening for the first time, very nice refreshing change in direction in the song. It is definately one of their most solid songs overall. "Beneath Below" is a shorter, ambient track with a pummeling bass drum and very low frequency keyboard playing, it's actually not anything special. "Constructing Towers" starts off slowly with a quiet chord being strummed, then progresses on, picking up pace towards the end, until it finally deconstructs into swirling frequencies.

"Celestial (Signal Fills the Void)" is a remix of "Celestial (The Tower)," but I didn't even recognize it was a remix. This is probably the most interesting song, with ambient additions of keyboards, distant screams, and industrial noises to the rhythmic metallic chaos. This song `regresses' and slowly becomes more empty towards the end of its 10 minute duration, however adding more ethereal sounding keyboards, and finally breaking down into a single chord. It's definitely one of my top favorite Isis songs.

Be sure to check out their full length albums first, especially "Panopticon," the newest full length, which will be coming out 3 weeks from the time I wrote this. I can't wait to hear what they've done this time.

Isis's "Celestial" rocked with a heavy and awesome power, they continued that CD with this one and it is a very rewarding follow up/continuation. Isis are an ever developing band and better with every CD. Buy thier incredible album "Oceanic" which is thier best album and only that this album is in the shadow of "Oceanic" just slightly it gets its 4 star rating... still this and its prelude "Celestial" are awesome.
If you dont know Neurosis try them as well they are awesome and a large inspiration to Isis.

Isis is one amazing piece of work. Yes, I will describe Isis as a "instrumental band" since when there are vocals, there are very little. The focus here on the cd "SGNL > 05 is not the vocals, but the instruments themselves. I've heard one comparison of this band to "Neurosis", and I can honestly see the similarities. Isis's songs are dark, slow, chuggy, crunchy, artsy and drawn out. But see thats what makes this CD so beautiful. It forces you to take the notes, the instruments, and hear them as the lyrics. The pounding drums, the beautiful guitar work, low bass lines, all substitute for words. Notes are the words on this CD. This CD is an underground masterpiece, pick it up while its still a secret....

While this EP technically serves as a companion to Celestial, I can't help but think about how oddly prophetic it was of them to label SGNL>05 as the "Final Transmission." Indeed, this was the last Isis release that explored the sound they developed since their inception. After this release, the group rebuilt their sound that was demonstrated on their masterpiece release Oceanic; a sound the band's been exploring upon ever since. The irony is while they're previous sound was largely compared to Neurosis and Godflesh, the EP features a remix of "Celestial" by Justin Broadrick (of Godflesh fame) and was released on Neurosis's label Neurot Records.

"Divine Mother" is one of my favorite Isis songs and a large reason why I give the album a high rating. "Constructing Towers" and the "Celestial" remix are the other two solid songs on the EP, with "Sgnl>05" and "Beneath Below" feeling more like interludes or segues.

I'd gear this release more toward Isis fans than your casual music fan, but I think that any metalhead would enjoy "Divine Mother" for how heavy the song is. Feel free to check it out, but you might want to get a copy of Celestial first.

Of course, I bought this after I obtained Celestial. SGNL05 is beautiful. You won't expect the same sound from Celestial on SGNL05. The songs are ambiant and very calm, except for Divine Mother which is the best song the album. This EP is not their best, by far, Red Sea is the best but this comes in a very close 2nd. The first CD I bought was in fact Celestial and after a year I now have them all. ISIS, keep rocken on.

Following shortly after 2001's full-length Celestial, SGNL > 05 is a 35-minute long EP companion to a stellar album by a band that's out-of-this world (puns very much intended). Although several of the tracks come off as little more than wandering ambient filler, the inclusion of one of the band's most finely-crafted songs ("The Divine Mother") and a paranoid remix by Godflesh's Justin K. Broadrick, makes this a title worth adding to any Isis fan's collection.

Track one, "Sgnl>05 (Final Transmission)" is an appropriately-tiled continuation of the segues found on Celestial. Not much to give praise to but something to get warmed up to, for the best is yet to come. Track two, the aforementioned "Divine Mother" sees the band showing off their Neurosis roots with droning riffs, semi-tribal drums, Aaron Turner screaming his lungs out. I love this song. I actually bought this EP prior to listening to Celestial, and in my opinion, this song is as good or better than any track on the full-length, with the notable exception of "Glisten". It follows a fairly traditional Isis blueprint (start out soft, build to infinite mass riffage, give it some room to breathe before the trademark CRUSHING crescendo), but nevertheless, it is one of the band's most finely crafted songs, especially from their early, more 'mosh-friendly' era.

It's unfortunate that the three tracks that follow can't live up to the first song's promise, but not content with treading water, the rest of the EP explores ambient textures and hollow musical spaces (without turning into a complete bore, I assure you). "Beneath Below" is reminiscient of the band's tribal jam in an echo chamber, while "Constructing Towers" is like a long, repetitive (acoustic!) funeral dirge. It goes out with an electric sear, not a fizzle, as Aaron Harris' drums usher in the final track, "Celestial (Fills the Void)", which is the aforementioned JK Broadrick remix. Considering the amount of influence Godflesh has had on the guys in Isis, it must have been an honor for him to offer up this condensced remix of the band's first album. Fortunately, the master does his apprentices proud, splicing riffs, distant vocal samples and ambient effects that make for a listen that's as soothing as it is brooding.

In short, this is far from the best introduction to Isis' material (start with Oceanic or Celestial and move up from there), but if you're a fan of the band, you probably won't be let down by this EP. It played an important part in bridging the gap between the band's first stage and their later, more ambient material, but the songs themselves are worth a damn in their own right, too. Recommended.

Mesmorizing, pounding, durging, tribal, ballsy, sinister, good stuff. If you llike neurosis youll appreciate Isis

I was not a huge fan of the band until I heard Celestial, which completely blew me away. So, in thinking that this was a continuation of Celstial, which it was, I was pretty optomistic. I was not let down. Isis is full of emotion and agression, in the music alone. If you want to listen to something that really grabs ahold of you, and refuses to let go until after the album is over, then this is it for you.

this cdep is a continuation to "celestial" and continues the lyrical and musical stylings brought forth in that release. it starts out with "sgnl>05," which is a transtiion noise piece mirroring the other four "sgnl>" tracks on celestial; it's filled with sounds of typing and so forth. with "divine mother (the tower crumbles)," the music actually starts. the beginning of this song is a gallop-heavy riff that reminds me of metallica playing in about 4x the earths' gravity; it's heavy and ominous. aaron turner's vocals are almost death metal growls, they're low and evil-sounding. the end of this song is an almost-psychadelic gitar part, which returns back into heaviness, and ends with a bunch of feedback and noise. "beneath below" is a pointless ambient guitar/drums/keyboard track that detracts from the album. "constucting towers" begins with a chord strummed over and over on an acoustic guitar, which is then joined by all the other instruments. this trackc omes very close to falling apart at the end. the high point of this album is justin of godflesh's remix of "celestial." hardly sounding anything like the original version, it's a 10-minute-long, droning, beautiful piece, soft and yet incredibly [upset] at the same time. this cd is definately worth picking up if you like isis or want to hear some experimental metal/stoner rock.

While this typifies Isis's sound and the direction in which they are headed with their upcoming Oceanic album, I was really confused when I picked this up, because it was the first Isis CD I had gotten. I didn't realize this was being marketed as a companion CD to Celestial (Hence the tracklisting) - The opening track is just a throwback to the noise segues on Celestial; Divine Mother (The Tower Crumbles) is undoubtedly the only really "heavy" song on the CD, but is a good example of some expansion on their progressive songwriting style. Beneath Below features some interesting production work, and the most, uh...destructive "bass drum" sound I've ever heard (if you can call it a bass drum - It sounds like a distorted cannon, and it makes my speakers cry). Constructing Towers comes off to me as a poorly written Neurosis song, and the remix of Celestial, though very ear-grabbing, is just that - A remix. So three new actual songs, one remix, and one noise segue. A good buy, but get Celestial first.