I love ISIS. For me this band captures everything I look for in music. Their very lengthy conceptual songs usually take you from beautifully arranged almost hypnotically instrumental compositions to blasting heavy (post-)metal structures with a heavy sludge/post-core element, all accompanied with Aaron Turner’s vocals which jump from perfectly clear singing to one of the best shivers-inducing grunts I’ve ever heard. Unfortunately, ISIS is no more. The band disbanded in June 2010, shortly before their last release of a split EP with the Melvins. This still makes me sad as I have never managed to see ISIS perform live (I am a bit of a late convert as I only started listening to ISIS around the time of their last studio album ‘Wavering Radiant’ got released). I can only hope ISIS will embark on that almost obligatory reunion tour sometime in the next decade or so. To keep fans a little bit happy they now release ‘Temporal’, which is a collection of unreleased demos, remixes and other rarities.
‘Temporal’ consists of two discs, one which has demo recordings of songs which later appeared on studio albums and the other disc includes rarities and remixes of songs which originally were released on (split) EPs. The first track on disc 1 is ‘Threshold of Transformation’, which is a demo version of the track which eventually was released on that last studio album ‘Wavering Radiant’. This demo track is a great opener to this anthology, but unfortunately when the song reaches its climax it abruptly cuts off. It’s unclear to me if this is meant to be or if the promo version we got was corrupt as the version on ‘Wavering Radiant’ is at least 4 minutes longer than this demo version.
Up next is ‘Ghost Key’, another demo version of a track that was released on ‘Wavering Radiant’. This track is a great example of one of those long instrumental melodic pieces that shifts from very quiet to very loud heavy explosions of distortion (listen to the amazing riff kicking in at 4:23), something ISIS always managed to capture so well. The for me so characteristic bass sound of bass player Jeff Caxide is in parts very much in the front of the mix, something I like a lot. The song ends on an amazing climax after a very long stretched melodic part.
‘Wills Dissolve’ is the next track and whereas ‘Threshold of Transformation’ and ‘Ghost Key’ sound very well produced for demo tracks, ‘Wills Dissolve’ has the most demo quality sound of all the demo tracks on this release. ‘Wills Dissolve’ is an older track and the final version was released on ‘Panopticon’. Despite the demo quality, it is another brilliant instrumental track, with yet another great sludgy guitar riff kicking in at 3:36 to then follow into a relatively lengthy build up to yet another massive climax.
From ‘Wills Dissolve’ we go into ‘Carry’, another old demo version as ‘Carry’ appears on the studio release ‘Oceanic’. This is probably one of my favourite ISIS tracks as it has all those elements I described I like so much in ISIS. The demo production of this track also illustrates Aaron Turner absolutely brilliant grunting vocals.
‘False Light’ is yet another old demo track of a version originally released on ‘Oceanic’. This demo version again has a very raw production and you can barely hear Aaron Turner screaming in the background.
The last track on disc 1 is an unknown track to me. ‘Grey Divide’ is nearly 17 minutes long instrumental track. Fans of the post-rock/post-metal genre will be happy with this long instrumental composition. The production is also a lot better than some of the others here.
Disc 2 mostly consists of tracks that have been released previously on now hard-to-find split EPs or EPs. Except the title track ‘Temporal’ and final track 20 ‘Minutes/40 Years’, while the first is nothing more than a 2 minutes space filler that was originally recorded in 2009, the latter is an acoustic version of a version originally released on ‘Wavering Radiant’. This is a great track to end this anthology with. It demonstrates what a great band ISIS was as for an acoustic track it still manages to capture some heaviness, with beautifully non-restricted sounding drums.
But the ultimate track on this disc and the whole anthology must be the first track of disc 2, namely ‘Streetcleaner’. This is a cover version of a Godflesh track and die-hard fans will know this track already. It was recorded in 1999 and originally released on the Japanese EP release of ‘The Mosquito Control EP/The Red Sea EP’, on the ‘Sawblade EP’ and the ISIS/Pig Destroyer split EP. The original Godflesh version is already great, but ISIS managed to totally put their own sludge-metal stamp on it.
Another cover on ‘Temporal’ is ‘Hand of Doom’, which is a Black Sabbath cover that was released on the ‘Sawblade EP’ and on the Japanese EP release of ‘The Mosquito Control EP/The Red Sea EP’. It’s probably my least favourite track of this anthology, as it doesn’t steer away from the Black Sabbath version very much.
The next 2 tracks are both remixes of songs originally released on the studio album ‘In the Absence of Truth’. The Melvins/Lustmord remix of ‘Not In Rivers, But In Drops’ was a b-side track originally released on the ‘Holy Tears’ single and the Thomas Dimuzio remix of ‘Holy Tears’ was a b-side track originally released on the ‘Not In Rivers, But In Drops’ single. Both these tracks aren’t near as good as the album versions and will be of interest only for the curious fans.
The 2 remaining tracks ‘Way Through Woven Branches’ and ‘Pliable Foe’ were released on the previously mentioned split EP with the Melvins, shortly after ISIS disbanded in 2010. Although ‘Pliable Foe’ almost sounds like a Tool song, both tracks are very good and since this split EP was a very limited release this anthology would be worthwhile to obtain for this reason only.
Overall, this anthology is a must have for any ISIS fan out there, although a bunch of fans would probably label this release as slightly unnecessary as they will already have the rarities in their music collection. Also, the demo tracks on the first disc are quite inferior compared to the studio album tracks. I wouldn’t recommend this release as a starting point for people unfamiliar with ISIS. They should in my opinion start with the older releases ‘Oceanic’ or ‘Panopticon’, or even ‘Wavering Radiant’ and become an ISIS convert through those.
Released on November 6, 2012 on Ipecac Recordings. This release also includes a DVD with all the official music videos.
Posted by Sander van den Driesche.
