Nick
Well-Known Member
ahh well its a different type of music i suppose
New Isis Album "Wavering Radiant"
- Thread starter tbird11
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ahh well its a different type of music i suppose
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Nick
Well-Known Member
and maybe they did, which would be different music...
TheSixthWheel
bangetzit
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No, I'm right there with you. I get the feeling they had more of a sense of purpose with In The Absence Of Truth. I think they were in Oz late '07 or early '08 and I missed em. I'm definitely seeing them next time they come out here.
tbird11
Well-Known Member
That show in Melbourne early 07 was awesome, saw Tool and Isis in the same week. Isis are a great live band, great big walls of noise, i really hope they tour again to promote this record........
forelander
you fail me
I saw them and it was a very disappointing gig for me. Very little variety across their entire discography, it was like going to a metallica concert and having them play nothing but death magnetic. I don't even think they played anything off oceanic.
Nick
Well-Known Member
when i saw them they came out and played panopticon start to finish. then on the encore played the first track off of oceanic.
to be fair i prefer a gig like that from a band like isis.
to be fair i prefer a gig like that from a band like isis.
TheSixthWheel
bangetzit
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My mistake, early '07. I knew it was a long time ago because I've been annoyed all this time that I didn't go see them. Oh and
for having seen them 
WOW. That would have been impressive. Fucking incredible. This thread is pure jealousy for me right now
An ISIS album from start to finish. Glorious.
TransdusksMoth
Member
I definately agree with you. Though I like Panopticon and Oceanic, The Absence Of Truth is the first album of theirs I've been able to really get into since Celestial.
Also, this is great news about the new album. If The Absence Of Truth was any indication of the direction they going, then I'm very excited to hear the new stuff!
Christ, I'll cream my pants at this new record.
Isis is definitely one of my favorite post metal bands.
Isis is definitely one of my favorite post metal bands.
TheSixthWheel
bangetzit
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I'm certainly looking forward to it too. But dude, what is post metal? I just call Isis awesome. I'm probably showing my age/ignorance here but I've never even heard that one before.
also, FUCK genres.
Okay, by way of explanation and including a large dose of personal opinion: "post" metal is a genre name created by journalist to group together any bands than can draw a lineage back to Neurosis starting with their "Enemy of the Sun" record at the heavy end and "A Sun That Never Sets" at the "lighter" end who may also have taken influence from the post-rock scene bands like Mogwai, Stereolob, MBV blah blah blah.
The genre includes, for example:
Isis
Pelican
Cult of Luna
Mono
Jesu
Nadja
Calisto
The genre started off well but is now rammed full of pretty average bands all doing very similar things with few points of interest. Good bands to look out for are Nadja, earlier Jesu, the first Isis record, the first 2 Cult of Luna records and their most recent. For some absolutely stellar stuff from the heavier end check out Belgium's Amenra.
The genre includes, for example:
Isis
Pelican
Cult of Luna
Mono
Jesu
Nadja
Calisto
The genre started off well but is now rammed full of pretty average bands all doing very similar things with few points of interest. Good bands to look out for are Nadja, earlier Jesu, the first Isis record, the first 2 Cult of Luna records and their most recent. For some absolutely stellar stuff from the heavier end check out Belgium's Amenra.
jymellis
Talk To DeWalt
awesome! i got into them because they are on mike pattons record label!
I always saw Post Metal, as some blend of post hardcore, post rock and metal at it's absolute core, but some bands go for sludge metal, doom metal etc depending what exact style they are looking.
My personal favorite Post Metal band is Pelican, followed very closely by Isis.
Isis tends to be an overall darker sounding band, so sometimes a certain mood will make me pick Isis over Pelican or vice versa.
My personal favorite Post Metal band is Pelican, followed very closely by Isis.
Isis tends to be an overall darker sounding band, so sometimes a certain mood will make me pick Isis over Pelican or vice versa.
TheSixthWheel
bangetzit
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Cheers for the details, I'll be sure to check some of those other bands out. I've already heard some of Jesu and Pelican, but again I just lumped those into my own catergory of 'awesome'. While I respect people's personal opinions, and I must thank you elrrek for the information you pointed my way - which I do appreciate - I have something I wish to discuss which is argued about daily, globally.
There's something that shits me about genres in a broad sense, and I'll admit that it's something which I've never understood. There's a very thin line between most genres, and what someone thinks is one type of music, someone else will tell them they're wrong and that 'band x' is indeed part of an entirely different style. Why should it matter? We should be asking instead: "Do they play mediocre music...or do they fucking rock??"
People seem to think we need these barriers to make it easier for them to pigeon-hole bands, I can't seem to give a shit...
As Aaron Turner of ISIS states - "the standard song format of verse-chorus-verse-chorus is something that has been done and redone, and it seems pointless to adhere to that structure when there are so many other avenues to explore"
So why can't we have the same approach when it comes to music genres.
With some effort and proper research into your own personal music tastes, you'll find the music you love listening to, you'll find friends who share the love of similar music, you'll be able to find band members who are willing make similar music. All while avoiding this genre business.
And for those of you who are asking "But how else do you describe a band to someone who hasn't heard them?" I say this - With all the technology in the world today, can't you whip out your phone or mp3 player and just fucking show them??
Why use mouths to talk when we should be using ears to listen??
Meh. I guess it's good for those of us who sleep better at night because they can have everything in its right place.
forelander
you fail me
Judging by your rant, you seem to be losing more sleep over the subject than someone like myself, who generally breaks everything into genres. I don't really care what genre a band is though since I like almost everything that could be called metal and I'm not anal retentive about the issue, but it makes my life easier when I'm describing a band to someone.
TheSixthWheel
bangetzit
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I only brought up the rant because it pisses me off when people treat me like Captain Ignorance if I haven't heard of a certain kind of genre. The purpose of my rant was to include detail and a few facets of the situation. No sleep has been lost, believe me. I guess I was just looking for some lively discussion thrown in somewhere along the way too.
henrebotha
Active Member
Genre is merely a descriptive tool. That is all.
How do you expect music journalists to write about music without the use of genres? Sure, you could describe (for instance) Isis's sound to an extent; but how would you communicate that they have a more doom-sounding distortion than a death-sounding one? You could try to use words like "loose" and "fuzzy" and "woofy" and whatnot, but those words' associations in relation to guitar tone are far less clear and established than simply "doom distortion". (As an example, much of Muse's guitar work could be described as "fuzzy" too, but it's a far cry from how Isis's guitar work sounds.)
The distinction is also academic. Grouping music into genres helps us to map out the history and evolution of music. Realising that Isis shares a framework with Neurosis and Pelican helps us to understand that they likely play to the same audience. Sure, the members of Isis could have taken a bunch of disparate influences and combined them into something utterly new; but then who would their audience be? They would have to at least widely subscribe to the "rock" genre for their music to make any sense to listeners. Genre is a way of understanding that Isis's sound is an evolution of music before it, which helps us to understand that they fall under pop -> rock -> metal -> progressive metal -> post-metal (or however you wish to see it) - meaning that, for instance, we should not expect jazz when we listen to them.
My parting shot here is that ABSOLUTELY NO MUSIC IN THE WORLD EVER is free of context or tradition. Genre is an easy way of describing the context and tradition that a given piece of music relates to. We know for sure that Isis are not going to put down their instruments and sing four-part major-key Xhosa chorales on their next album - even if one song includes such an element, it will be against the backdrop of metal guitars, metal drums, metal bass, metal effects, and a metal voice.
...bear in mind this post was written while at work, lacking sleep and not lacking caffeine. So it's highly likely that I comptlely misworded key arguments or forgot to say important things.
Genre is merely a descriptive tool. That is all.
How do you expect music journalists to write about music without the use of genres? Sure, you could describe (for instance) Isis's sound to an extent; but how would you communicate that they have a more doom-sounding distortion than a death-sounding one? You could try to use words like "loose" and "fuzzy" and "woofy" and whatnot, but those words' associations in relation to guitar tone are far less clear and established than simply "doom distortion". (As an example, much of Muse's guitar work could be described as "fuzzy" too, but it's a far cry from how Isis's guitar work sounds.)
The distinction is also academic. Grouping music into genres helps us to map out the history and evolution of music. Realising that Isis shares a framework with Neurosis and Pelican helps us to understand that they likely play to the same audience. Sure, the members of Isis could have taken a bunch of disparate influences and combined them into something utterly new; but then who would their audience be? They would have to at least widely subscribe to the "rock" genre for their music to make any sense to listeners. Genre is a way of understanding that Isis's sound is an evolution of music before it, which helps us to understand that they fall under pop -> rock -> metal -> progressive metal -> post-metal (or however you wish to see it) - meaning that, for instance, we should not expect jazz when we listen to them.
My parting shot here is that ABSOLUTELY NO MUSIC IN THE WORLD EVER is free of context or tradition. Genre is an easy way of describing the context and tradition that a given piece of music relates to. We know for sure that Isis are not going to put down their instruments and sing four-part major-key Xhosa chorales on their next album - even if one song includes such an element, it will be against the backdrop of metal guitars, metal drums, metal bass, metal effects, and a metal voice.
...bear in mind this post was written while at work, lacking sleep and not lacking caffeine. So it's highly likely that I comptlely misworded key arguments or forgot to say important things.
Excellent post dude, and I totally agree with all of it despite you having been sleep deprived and all.
