In the Peripheric Ring, One Is Totally Seen

Isis - Panopticon

Another band from Mike Patton's Ipecac label. I've often heard these guys compared to Tool, and for that reason I've been keen to check them out for a while. At first it seems like a pretty fair comparison, Isis' songs are long, slow, heavy and epic, and Justin Chancellor even guests on one of the tracks off this album. But after a few listens the differences really start to show. Isis are a lot less evil sounding than Tool. They're not afraid of the occasional use of a major scale, or a long drawn out peaceful ambient break. More than anything else the ambient electronics, sparse vocals and the way the two guitars work together remind me very much of Mogwai.

I like this album a lot! Even though it's a huge downer and you have to be in the right mood to listen to it. The only way to describe it is 'majestic and powerful', but in a bad, moody sort of way, like the moon's falling out of the sky, or the earth is falling into the sun, or at least like modern civilisation is decaying before your eyes.

I'm not sure exactly what these songs are about, as the lyrics are usually cookie monstered beyond recognition and they haven't posted them to their website yet (which is a very nicely done site by the way), but judging from the quotes on the inside of the CD booklet (which is very nice too by the way) it's something to do with how the government wants to steal your freedom, and the music suits this perfectly.

This is easily the best album I've bought this year, I'll definitely be ordering their back catalogue soon.

A related note: The panopticon is the state of living under constant surveillance (the corporate controlled government wants to steal our freedom!) Today I read a post by Paul Musgrave about a recent issue of Reason magazine that mailed individualised copies to all their subscribers, with a satellite photo of their house on the front, and targeted advertising on the back. Isis are telling it like it is man!