Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Isis - Celestial CD (album) cover

CELESTIAL

Isis

 

Experimental/Post Metal

3.42 | 101 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

UMUR
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars Celestial is the debut album from post metal band Isis. Isis is a band I have heard and read a lot about in the recent years and a couple of years ago I borrowed Isis third album Panopticon from 2004. I could hear a lot of potential on that album, but after listening to Panopticon for a while I found that it didnīt really suit my taste. After seing that Isis is included on Prog Archives I have decided to start from an end and review all Isis albums and hopefully be positively surprised and ignite a new interest in the band.

The music on Celestial is generally slow to mid-tempo post metal with vocals. The music can seem a bit repetitive but itīs a characteristic feature in post metal and post rock. The riffs are very heavy and most of them are pretty great. Most of the songs have chrushingly heavy parts and slow minimalistic acoustic parts. C.F.T. (New Circuitry and Continued Evolution) is a bit different though as it is a post rock song without the heavy parts. The inclusion of this song is great for the diversity of the album. Deconstructing Towers is a slow dragging instrumental track that I could have done without while songs like Celestial (The Tower), Glisten, Swarm Reigns (Down) and especially Collapse and Crush are great post metal songs. There is a depressive and at times angry mood on the album and the shouting vocals emphasise that mood perfectly.

The musicianship is good and one of the things I enjoy the most is the drumming during the slow acoustic parts. Itīs very heavy but also very inventive.

The production is a bit too low-fi for my taste when Isis play their acoustic parts but all in all the production is good. A larger than life production would have done the trick for me though.

My conclusion is that Celestial is a very good album in the post metal genre. Iīm not particularly a fan of this genre, but I do enjoy this album as well as other albums in that style from bands like Neurosis and Omega Massif. The music is a bit too repetitive to really suit my taste but Iīll rate Celestial 3 stars as it is one of the better post metal albums I have heard so far. There are some really heavy stuff on this album that I enjoy very much.

UMUR | 3/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this ISIS review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.