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Since 2002’s Oceanic, Isis have basically written one song. It’s not a song so much as a template, a theme with variations. These include clean and dirty vocals and guitars, and myriad paths to the top of Isis Hill, the peak of each track. Over time, Isis have softened, trading riffs for textures. This has lost and gained them fans. Some prefer the band’s early rawness. Others like the kindler, gentler Isis. Neither group is wrong. Isis have simply changed objectives.
The ideal Isis track is long and patient, yet dynamic. Although Isis songs have mostly sounded the same since Oceanic, they have had various architectures yielding various results. The band’s biggest Achilles heel since then has been the riff. When Isis step on their distortion pedals, octaves, minor thirds, and other standard fare ensue. Over time, these peaks have diminished as their novelty has worn off. Wavering Radiant still has “boom” moments, but busy, gauzy production smoothes them out. Producer Joe Barresi seemingly hates snare drums. Here, they are mere thuds; this is the third recent metal album, after Enslaved’s Vertebrae and Satyricon’s The Age of Nero, that he’s hobbled with dull sound. Contrast it, for example, with the haunting nudity of 2004’s Panopticon.
But, again, objectives have changed. Now Isis are almost in the realm of pure texture. Wavering Radiant is to Isis what Disintegration was to The Cure – a keyboard-soaked, reverb-drenched set of textures. (Isis are also fond of The Cure’s watery clean tones.) Its overproduction fits the music. It is detailed and subtle, an audio Jenga puzzle. Out comes a guitar line; in comes a bass line. Each moment counts, almost to a fault. The songs still have simplistic overall tonalities, but they now have more tonal variations within them. They’re fleeting – a non-diatonic note here, a modulation there – but they help maintain interest. Aaron Turner’s vocals help in this regard. He’s more comfortable with singing than before, and he uses it to carry songs to peaks. Before, riffs sweated to push songs up Isis Hill. Now, Turner hits those target notes. It’s a small change, but forward progress in Isis’ game of inches.
It’s good to hear that someone out there has a complaint about the production. I really dislike how things are recorded on In the Absence of Truth: there are more guitars lines than previous Isis albums, with more effects, too much of it in my opinion, but then it’s all compressed together so that there is no space at all between notes. Way, way overstuffed. Isis sounds like they have direction again on Waivering Radiant, but the production still has its issues which has kept me from enjoying the album thoroughly.
well at least so far the snare drum sounds like an actual snare drum rather than just a “plap”. either the drummer can’t tune one or bayles had decided having a horrible snare sound was more fitting for the music.
I really liked In the Absence of Truth, but truth be told, this album seems unfocused. I’ve no problem with the “kindler, gentler Isis” so long as they’re actually going somewhere. Lack of focus is generally a pretty trite complaint among music critics, but I don’t use that reason often.
Ick, the same song approach, again. Ben you must not actually know what a snare sounds like, because it sounded fine before and cracked appropriately. You know people don’t always play the snare with the wire set.
Dull sound though? My ears feel this album feels more alive than any previous, much richer than before. And the drums sound bad? You listening to the same album? Sometimes I feel like I’m alone in feeling the emotional pull of this band, more than just a trippy, heavy group, but that’s fans versus critic I suppose.
By the way, ITOAT had little peaks, they were mostly jams save for the righteous finish of Garden of Light. That album’s crunchy parts just didn’t have as much weight as all the previous albums. I don’t here much of it in this one either, but that’s mostly who the producer is, the riffs pound like the Melvins did.
The bass is mixed way higher on this album, which is awesome for me since he’s one of my favorite bass players. Nice to see Aaron Harris tone it back down but add in lots of fun stuff for us drummers to pick apart, dude just has a way with making simple beats sound monolithic and full of beauty.
Anyway, blabber blabber about one of my top 3 bands, good take on the album here.