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Released on February 23, 2015 via Nordvis Produktion
Everyone misjudges a group by first look, with the sheer amount of variety out there – it’s to be expected. Sadly, I found myself misjudging IZAH as merely another tired progressive Opeth clone – be it because of the bright forest artwork, the mammoth song lengths or the obvious progressive-edge, I simply don’t know. However, after digging into this 4-track epic, I’m simply blown away by what IZAH has done with Sistere.
To me, ‘progressive’ has always meant music which builds up to a massive climax overtime -progressing from one form to another- possibly not even sounding like the song it originally was. Oh, how IZAH simply nails that head on. By connecting sections of sludge, doom, and death –almost always blackened– with shoegaze-styled riffs (a la Deafheaven) and clean yet brooding intervals, this Dutch act has created a sound that I could only attribute to them. And, as a startling bonus – not much of the tracks linger on mood-setting effects and almost always jump straight into the current track.
No clear flaws exist musically. That is, except that the album certainly runs long with the title track been an enormous 30+ minutes – a song that could encompass an album all on its own. Though, I wouldn’t see why anyone would pick up Sistere expecting a short experience – even their previous EP and Split (With Fire Walk With Us) feature standard breaking song lengths. To me, this is somewhat of a feat.
Expectations with IZAH’s Sistere should be high. You are not getting an Opeth clone or anything that really follows the modern ‘progressive’ framework you see commonly used today (i.e. clean sections aplenty building into heavy spazzy death metal and dropping back off again). Instead, you’re receiving a effort in combining meaningful lyrics and spirituality with a cavalcade of genres – all brought to you by people that clearly have a love for what they are putting forward musically.
