Isis – Temporal

Ipecac

A lot has been written and said about the importance of Isis, that rare breed of heavy band who not only garnered widespread critical acclaim in the metal world but also succeeded as a crossover act, appealing to fans of shoegaze, post-rock, avant-garde and beyond. This crossover appeal, combined with vocalist/guitarist Aaron Turner’s (now sadly soon-to-be defunct) label Hydra Head Industries introduced the more curious fan to a whole new world of serious heavy music and did a hell of a lot to add some much-needed credibility to these oft-ridiculed genres (anyone with some spare change should visit their webstore to help them pay remaining bands/bills before they close for good).

The announcement of their intention to split in 2010 was met with shock by many, but given the seriousness which they seemed to approach their music it did seem to make sense, the band themselves declaring they had “done everything we wanted to do, said everything we wanted to say.” A fair point and a dignified end. This all leads us nicely to the double-disc Temporal, a collection of demos, alternate demo versions, unreleased tracks, covers and remixes (and a DVD of promo videos too) that seems to be another of those posthumous releases served up from long-split bands as a final offering to their downtrodden fans.

A demo of Wavering Radiant‘s closing track “Threshold of Transformation” opens proceedings, the first 16 seconds being without doubt one of the most brutal openings to an album I’ve heard in a long time. The instantly recognisable ferocious downtuned guitars and Turner’s almost death metal vocal shatters speakers and eardrums. It’s a truly staggering start and what follows in the next five minutes is a run-through of everything that was so great about Isis – crushing heaviness, delicate melodies, breakdowns, crescendos and fantastic musicianship.

The demo versions here – some without vocals, others with what I can only guess are live vocals, drowned out by the noise – provide an interesting insight into the workings of the band. Some tracks already appear finished in the structural and musical sense, and apart from the production and overdubs, do not vary much from their studio versions. The only real missing parts are the keyboards/electronics provided by Bryant Clifford Meyer, who appears to be missing in action. The idea of a band having formed what is essentially a finished body of work before entering the studio reminded me of a Steve Albini quote about Neurosis – certainly the godfathers of this particular scene – describing them as being the most ‘prepared’ band he has recorded, each album being a fully-realised piece even before he miked up the bass drum. It would also not be wrong to say that a few of these demos sound better than the recorded output of many bands in the same genre.

“Holy Tears” is one of five videos on Temporal‘s accompanying DVD.

Some of the better-recorded demos provide nothing but utter guitar porn for Isis obsessives, Turner and Mike Gallagher‘s guitars panned wide in the mix and sounding crystal clear, allowing every note (including a few charming wrong ones) to be heard distinctly. The crushing “False Light” from Oceanic is a particular highlight from this selection, and I’d go so far as to say I actually prefer Aaron Harris’ drumming here as opposed to the album version. Disc 1 closer “Grey Divide” is as good a slab of instrumental rock as you are likely to hear; it begins sounding like Mogwai at their heaviest before spiralling upwards into spaced-out bliss before erupting, as you would expect, into a heavy, almost Neurosis-sounding slow riff fest. And that’s only in the first ten minutes. What follows is proper fucking heavy metal, the bang-your-head-while-sitting-down type of riffing that is irresistible. A great finish to the first disc.

When I read the tracklisting for this release, the one title that leapt off the page was “Streetcleaner (Godflesh cover)” and, given the influence of Justin Broadrick over this whole genre it seems fitting that this is included here. “Streetcleaner” kicks off Disc 2 and is faithful to the original, with the full band treatment making it sound more organic and still absolutely enormous. Special mention has to go to Harris behind the kit for replacing ‘The Machine’ and sounding fucking awesome while doing so. Elsewhere on Disc 2 we have a rather predictable Black Sabbath cover (“Hand of Doom”) as well as tracks which were previously released on the Isis/Melvins split 12″. There is a Thomas Dimuzio remix of In The Absence Of Truth‘s “Holy Tears” which, while being slightly quieter than the original, offers nothing wildly different structurally apart from a long, delightful drone section and outro. The one new track is “Temporal,” a drone piece which is certainly one of the most ambient tracks Isis has ever put together. Devoid of Harris’ drums, it glides rather too quickly through its two minute running time and left me wanting to hear slightly more.

The video for the original album version of “20 Minutes/40 Years” is also on the DVD.

Special mention has to go to album closer “20 Minutes/40 Years” which had me cringing when I read ‘acoustic version’ (the words Isis and acoustic did not yet make sense to me) but absolutely blew me away. Stripping away the noise, we are left with a beautifully-played song full of fantastic melodies and chord patterns that is a complete pleasure to the ears and shows off the songwriting talents of the band. The Isis guitar tuning of choice (look it up, guitar nerds) translates perfectly to acoustic as it allows Turner and Gallagher to produce that lovely ringing open sound. It’s about as different as they ever got, but is still unmistakably Isis, even including Jeff Caxide‘s delayed bass effect (which he never seemed to tire of).

While being far from perfect, Temporal is nevertheless a satisfying collection of rarities which has a deserving place in any Isis fan’s collection. It’s unlikely to win them a new audience but with a back catalogue as strong as theirs they have nothing left to prove and is a fitting end to one of the most important heavy bands of our time.

-Stuart Low-