Isis will disband after their current tour. This is no longer news, is it? Much has been said about it: some people are surprised, some are not. The official explanation is Isis has gone as far as their members wanted. Seems reasonable to me. A timely retreat is a victory, and stretching the career without motivation would reduce the quality of the work, that’s for sure.
Isis posing very seriously
I confess I’m a fan of the band, so the break up is no good news for me. But I’m not terribly surprised either. Isis career is quite linear and even predictable. They can be considered fathers of post-metal (Neurosis being grandfathers). They created a style of their own and perfected it album after album: there’s not a bad one! I would even dare to say each release has been better than the last one. But it is also true they haven’t managed to reach the relevance of 2002′s Oceanic.
Wavering Radiant is a good farewell album, albeit not a very original one. Paradoxically, we must blame the enormous impact of Oceanic for it. That release spawned a legion of copy-cat bands, saturating the post-metal scene and diluting Isis’s originality .
So, given the circumstances, I understand their decision. Isis have written a page in metal history pioneering the post-metal genre and leaving us a handful of excellent releases after 13 years. They’ve been an example of integrity and craftsmanship until the end. Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!
Listen on Spotify
Buy on Amazon
Tags: isis, neurosis, oceanic, post-metal, wavering-radiant