WAVERING RADIANT

Wavering Radiant is the fifth full-length studio album by US experimental/ Post metal act Isis. I´ve reviewed Isis studio albums from an end and it´s been quite an interesting journey. While I´m not too much of a fan of the first two albums I acknowledge their importance in the genre. With their third album Panopticon (2004) they got me hooked though. A seminal album in the genre IMO. Their fourth album In The Absence Of Truth (2006) was another good album albeit not as excellent as Panopticon, so I didn´t exactly know what to expect from Wavering Radiant.

After listening to the album for a while I´ve come to the conclusion that this is probably my favorite album by Isis so far. It´s crushingly heavy when it needs to be while maintaining a very melodic edge all the way through. The vocals are both aggressive and clean melodic ones. There are many atmospheric post rock sections in the music and above all this album wins because it has got a great atmosphere and feeling. Compared to Panopticon, this album is not quite as groundbreaking but for me personally there´s more to enjoy about Wavering Radiant than there were about Panopticon. There are some added organ ( I think?) on the album which gives the album a nice organic sound. The melancholic almost shoegaze feeling in the music also adds lots of atmosphere to the sound.

The production on the album is warm and organic. I enjoy the bass heavy production even though my car speakers have a hard time handling the pressure.

Wavering Radiant is such a great album IMO. This album is one of the more interesting releases this year for me. A 4 star rating is well deserved. I like how Isis have developed their sound in the last couple of years and I´m sure we can expect even more positive changes in the future.