Friday, September 22, 2006

Mp3 of the Week: Isis

Unlike all previous iterations of art-metal doctrine, Isis’s prizes meditative, Slint-like brooding over Melvins-grade menace -- but clocks both while ghostriding the expressway to yr skull. As shown on their retrospective DVD Clearing the Eye, they began their journey as understudies in the Neurosis school of thermonuclear drone, but found their calling when they cut their engines and drifted off into the quieter, watery deep. On "Dulcinea," from their new In the Absence of Truth (Ipecac, due October 31), frontman Aaron Turner’s mood ring gradually darkens from impressionistic ambient swirl to toilet-clogging doom, raising his listeners’ SAT scores with each headbanging coda. Breakthrough album, definitely. And the Tool kids are going to find a lot of shit to like on the album. Longtime fans of Isis, as well as stoners of all stripes, will want to torrent the shit out of their downtempo split-session (not split-CD) with Aerogramme, In the Fishtank, which you can grab a track from over here. In the meantime, check out a screening of Clearing the Eye -- the Japanese footage is not to be slept on -- this Saturday afternoon at the Middle East, and see them open for Tool on September 29 at the Tweeter Center.