Modern Classics: Isis - Oceanic

Since some people consider Isis and Mastodon to have some sort of relation, I decided to have Isis as this weeks “Modern Classic”.

While this might sound strange to say, I don’t see that much of a comparison to Mastodon and Isis, yet at the same time, I can understand why Mastodon and Isis would share fans.

Much like Cult Of Luna, Isis comes from the same school as Neurosis. Neurosis, essentially created their own genre by slowing down hardcore and added such things as keyboards and samples. While the concept and actually performing what some people are calling “post hardcore”, “atmospheric hardcore” “atmospheric post hardcore” and “metalgaze” might seems simple, coming up with compelling songs is not. In fact, the whole purpose of the genre is focussed on song wiritng.

The albums previous to “Oceanic” were much more experimental, and in some ways a bit noisier. “Oceanic” itself present a much more honed and perfected craft. It also presents us with a few more lighter moments which we would see even more of on the next album “Panopticon”. It seems, and sometimes in an unfortunate way, the most of the bands in the same field of Isis feel that the only way to progress is to lighten up.

The harsh, almost grating vocals actually fit perfectly. While most of the songs feature vocals, the amount of time spent on vocals is actually very short. The vocals are in fact treated much more like an instrument than in most other bands, and serve as a way to guide the song.

In general, Isis along with Neurosis has served as a new influence to an influx of bands playing this style of music to escape the more well known and over saturated fields of metal and hardcore. Reading these words cannot give much insight, but once you hear “Oceanic”, everything will all make sense.

9/10

Isis
Ipecac Records
Hydra Head Records