Performer Notes

Personnel: Adam Richard Jones (guitar, keyboards).
Audio Mixer: Joe Barresi.
Recording information: Jhoc (11/2008-01/2009); Sound City (11/2008-01/2009).
Arrangers: C. Meyer; Marcella Gallagher; A. Turner; Isis; A. Harris.
Los Angeles ambient metal pioneers Isis have evolved consistently over the course of their five studio albums to the point where calling them "metal" seems unfairly reductive. Sure, the crushing waves of guitar still exist, but those walls of sound now act as a blank slate on which a listener can project mental pictures. Teaming with new producer Joe Baressi, the band has created a deeply hypnotic set of songs that operates almost as a seamless symphony, more often than not glittering with ethereal beauty. Every track but one runs more than seven minutes long, and the band uses the time to explore textures and movements, such as on "20 Minutes/40 Years," which changes like the stormy sea, and on "Hand of the Host," a melancholic epic that owes much to the Cure's washes of sound on DISINTEGRATION. This is heady stuff, with incalculable rewards for those willing to get lost in it.

Professional Reviews

Spin (p.90) - "[T]he toughest and catchiest Isis record since their 1999 debut....They soar and attack in equal measure: widescreen escapism for an age of diminished expectations."

Alternative Press (p.105) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[With] increased use of Rhodes piano and melodic vocals -- welcome additions that sturdily balance the soul-smashing doom passages."

CMJ - "Striking a delicate balance between the percussive grit of OCEANIC and the melodic refinement of IN THE ABSENCE OF TRUTH, Joe Barrisi's expert production only accentuates the post-metal innovators' decade of evolution."

Kerrang (Magazine) (p.55) - "Aaron Turner's vocals are given more prominence, making this music somehow more traditional than their usual fare, somehow more accessible."

Pitchfork (Website) - "On new album WAVERING RADIANT, these self-professed Fennesz and Pink Floyd devotees have turned often-drab contemporary guitar rock into music flush with fresh emotions and ideas..."

Album: Wavering Radiant [Slipcase]
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Hall of the Dead
2)	Ghost Key
3)	Hand of the Host
4)	Wavering Radiant
5)	Stone to Wake a Serpent
6)	20 Minutes/40 Years
7)	Threshold of Transformation

Album: Wavering Radiant [Slipcase]
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Hall of the Dead
2)	Ghost Key
3)	Hand of the Host
4)	Wavering Radiant
5)	Stone to Wake a Serpent
6)	20 Minutes/40 Years
7)	Threshold of Transformation