Wavering Radiant

Isis, Isis (Rock)

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 5, 2009)
• Original Release Date: April 21, 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ipecac Recordings
• ASIN: B001YXXSJM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,363 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The music of ISIS is a suitable metaphor for their twelve-year career: patient, meticulous, fraught with tension and gradually building towards an apex of seismic proportions. From the hypnotically bludgeoning down-tuned riffs of their early years to the gracefully sprawling passages on their pivotal sophomore album Oceanic and continuing through the intricate rhythmic textures and increased melody of 2006's In The Absence of Truth, ISIS have successfully navigated the process of growing and evolving without disavowing their initial vision.

There is no consensus among ISIS' cult-like fan base as to which album serves as the ultimate document of their art. Each record is a piece in the puzzle. Consequently, to brand their latest offering, Wavering Radiant, as the pinnacle of their achievements would be folly. Yet it's a tempting proclamation. The factors that defined ISIS in the past are still present, but the band manipulates its tactics and strategies with a refined sense of purpose and a heightened knack for nuance. They've extrapolated on the polar nature of their music. It's simultaneously their most challenging and accessible music to date. While Wavering Radiant is finely structured, dynamically varied, and melodically developed, it's also unpredictable, expansive, and densely layered. Every ISIS endeavor is an active listening experience -- requiring an aficionado's ear for subtlety and a scholar's grasp of the larger picture, but Wavering Radiant manages to provide instant gratification while also harnessing the slow burn of a classic, revealing the full extent of its mysteries only after repeated listens.

Rare is the record that finds the individual players as compelling as the sum of their parts, and ISIS has achieved just that. While the monolithic guitars of Aaron Turner and Michael Gallagher remain a primary fixture in the ISIS soundscape, the dueling instrumentalists continue to develop and expand upon their interplay. Together they evoke the emotional range of Wagner: brooding, triumphant, vengeful, and morose. Aaron Turner's vocals are more prominent than ever. But in keeping with the egalitarian nature of their art, the vocals continue to serve as flourishes rather than a focal point. Clifford Meyer's multi-instrumentation duties play a stronger role this time around as well. His atmospheric textures are still present, but he unlocks new horizons for the band with Fender Rhodes, electric organ, and the occasional psychedelic guitar lead. Jeff Caxide's bass playing still covers a broad spectrum, from providing melodic counterpoints to the guitars to conjuring Peter Hook's chorused bass leads. Wavering Radiant finally gives Caxide his due, allowing his various approaches to further accentuate the music's shifting moods while anchoring the melodies into the formidable rhythm section. And here drummer Aaron Harris once again shows his expansive depth in technique and ability. From esoteric tabla passages to authoritative syncopated punctuations, Harris transcends the basic metronomic function of the drum set to imbue the percussive element of the band with a heightened sense of drama and power. Wavering Radiant finds every component of the ISIS armory coming into equal play.

Grandiose without being over-indulgent, epic without compromising focus, ISIS have resurrected the art of prioritizing the album over the individual songs. Wavering Radiant, though divided into seven pieces, is essentially one composition. It's difficult to listen to the record without feeling the ghost of an era in rock music where musicians weren't afraid to take chances, weren't concerned with pandering to short attention spans, and weren't compelled compact their material into a radio-friendly format. With producer Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Melvins, Enslaved) behind the boards, the recording displays a sonic range and tonal depth in perfect step with the broad range of the band's capabilities. This is an audiophile's dream: rich in headphone candy, goose-bump inducing in its crescendos, majestic in its beauty, humbling in its devastating power. If radio still exists in 30 years, Wavering Radiant is the kind of record that obsessive DJs will play in its entirety during their graveyard shifts. But the huddled mass of ISIS enthusiasts are already celebrating its arrival.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great accomplishment in musical art, May 5, 2009

By	Murat Batmaz (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Isis' Wavering Radiant is a tremendous accomplishment.

This album sees the band growing into a much tighter musical force, with greater focus on composition. The songs boast a feel of utter thoroughness, unlike the ones on their previous album, In the Absence of Truth. This is the result of all band members having written the album together rather than flying from the east coast to the west for sessions where every member tried to piece together their own riffs and melodies.

Although comprised by seven tracks, Wavering Radiant feels like a single composition broken down into parts for easier navigation purposes. There are nebuluos musical ideas linking the tracks together to achieve a cohesive vibe. Each cut is imbued with common musical threads, macro-compositional tonal centres, that strangely evoke previous (and following, as you go through the disc several times) numbers. What's more, sometimes the band employs the technique in the same track. The exchange of a single-riff theme between guitars, bass, drums, and even vocals on "Hand of the Host" is a prime example of this feat. Then, two tracks later, an awkwardly familiar theme appears and subtly glues them together.

Aaron Turner continues his classic harsh, raspy yells but also mixes it up with clean passages that are spread across the album. He is more courageous this time around, as he swiftly moves from his shattering growls to strangely addictive clean harmonies. In a way, this reminds me of Mikael Akerfeldt circa My Arms, Your Hearse. Though his clean singing still lacked greatly, it matched the flow of the record perfectly. The same case applies for Aaron Turner. His low, almost spoken-like delivery on the aforementioned "Hand of the Host" or the ending of "Stone to Wake a Serpent" is unexpectedly gripping given his abilities as a 'normal' singer. His clean singing has a dreamlike quality to it, and thus matches the lyrical theme of the album. Also, listen to the clean vocals on "20 Minutes / 40 Years," amidst the shimmering keyboards, heavy-duty bass, and nuanced drumming. He sounds absolutely desperate and convincing, especially when contrasted by the panicky growls later on.

Having worked with noted producer Joe Barresi (Melvins, Tool), the production is the best ever, with incredible tonal depth and sonic expanse. The drums sound a lot tighter, with some great Tool influence. There are tribal rhythms, fierce double-bass parts, and sparse, trance-like beats. The bass tone has never been better on an Isis album. Not only that, Jeff Caxide covers a broad spectrum. Rather than merely following the guitars or main melody, he assumes a central role in pretty much every song, providing counterpoint to the guitars and vocals as well as accentuating the songs' shifting moods. When he is not actively present in a progression, he serves a heavy low-end for added tension.

What cannot go unmentioned is keyboardist Bryant Clifford Meyer's contribution. His wide-ranging tone selections help achieve deeper atmospheres, especially on the Floydian pyschedelia that permeats "Threshold of Formation," by far their most epic and majestic album closer. Also, his slithering organs and shimmering keyboards draped over swirling guitar noise on the mid-section of "Hall of the Dead" are marvelous and extend the scope of the compositions.

Adam Jones from Tool appears on the album as a guest contributor, particularly shining on "Ghost Key," whose intro is both ghostly and beautifully fresh sounding. His use of modulation effects operates as a parameter to the wonderfully layered arrangement and nuanced drumming. He distills a textural element into the song which is patiently built into a quiet acoustic coda.

Wavering Radiant is an excellent body of work. This may be the album I've listened to most this year. It is absolutely addictive.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Solid Grower Album That Has Some Great Moments (4.5/5 Stars), May 7, 2009

By	Mike (Here and There) - See all my reviews

Ever since Isis moved to the West Coast, they started going toward a more mystic destination that's opposite of the darker sound they had when they were in Boston. Wavering Radiant continues the path they were on with In the Absence of Truth, only this time going along a path that needed a bit more clearing.

True to the direction the band was going in on ITAOT, the album is generally more up-tempo then their previous works and Aaron Turner may have more vocals on this record than any of the previous releases. However, the overall tone of the album is darker than their previous release, and that probably stems from their decision to part ways with long-time producer Matt Bayles and instead brought in "Evil" Joe Baressi to help the band restore some of grit in production.

As far as the songs go, it's mostly exactly what you'd expect from Isis: heavy songs that explore the space they're in and don't care to make time constraints. The difference I would think is that the band is starting to put as much emphasis on leads as they do on rhythm. The guitar work seems to be a bit more featured in this album than in albums past, the keyboards are definitely higher in the mix, and Aaron Turner is singing more, implementing both growls along to go with the "singing-as-an-instrument" motif that he's been going for since ITAOT (don't get that confused for the generic "good cop/bad cop" thing 41,793 other metal bands have going on.)

Overall, I really enjoy the album because the band's shown a considerable amount of growth since their inception and only continue to evolve. The album is great and the core songs of the album are fantastic. I would recommend this to fans of metal, progressive, and independent/alternative music. Based on the response I've gotten from people I know, this would probably appeal to any mainstream music fans who miss when the radio would play bands like Tool and Deftones.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Isis album yet., May 12, 2009

By	Jonesy (Barbourville, KY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wavering Radiant (Vinyl)

I've been a fan of Isis since a few months before In the Absence of Truth was released. I've since listened to all their albums and quickly fell in love with the music this band creates. I've probably damaged my ears listening to their music over the last few years. From the loud, ruthless Oceanic, to the equally impressive Panopticon, Isis proved to be arguably the best heavy band in years. In the Absence of Truth was a bit of a let down for some fans (not this one), with it's tribal sounding drumming. And some fans went as far as to say the album was a bit boring (again, I disagree), but the album showed Isis was continuing to change and evolve. They don't make the same album twice. Now we're given Wavering Radiant, which has quickly become my favorite Isis album, and one of my favorite albums of all time, easily.

After my first listen through the album, I really liked it, but didn't quite catch all the subtle (and probably obvious) changes Isis has made to their signature sound. Like many great albums, this one takes patience and many listens to fully appreciate. What makes the album so special is that each member of the band shows virtuosity with their instrument, but still come together to make a solid, cohesive band. Every member plays amazingly well and creates truly impressive, powerful music. The song structure is a bit less predictable than previous albums, but still manages to always pull off those climactic moments that make you just want to explode.

Aaron's vocals are better than ever too. It sounds like he spent more time in the studio. His screams are more in the forefront of the music than before, his singing is better, and I believe there's more vocals this time than ever before. Some may assume more vocals would distract from the power of the music, but it really doesn't.

The time changes are plenty. One moment the music is giving you and adrenaline rush, the next minute it sounds pretty, then it sounds groovy, almost danceable, probably due to an amazing bass player. Well, maybe I'm the only one who feels like awkwardly dancing in some parts, but the idea here is that each song goes many different places, but always still sounds like one awesome song.

I was worried Isis would run out of ideas, or take their special sound and use it to the point I'd get sick of it, but they haven't. Wavering Radiant is a big step in the right direction for this band. I didn't think they could possibly get better, but they have. I would advise anyone listening to this album to listen to it loudly. Give it quite a few spins before you decide how much you like it.