Celestial

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Customer reviews

review by: manmadeofjam date: 2008-10-24 rating:
Swarm Reigns
The style of Celestial has been much talked, much argued.
It has a straight forward formula and on paper it should typically be Post-Hardcore Punk. After all, it's 2 guitars, bass and drums... with keyboard. It has all the hallmarks of a rock format, but yet it transcends all the labels into something that deeply resonates with power, strength and all-out force but is simulteneously rooted in repetition and drone.
Some say that Black Speed Metal can be considered a drone, and ambient noise. Well this has the same effect, you can feel a part of it and immerse yourself within the waves of noise and feel the palpable power: or you can let it wash over and past.

I listen, I can see the band, hear the chugging monolithic riffs and see Aaron roaring into the microphone. There's no pretence, no drama and no costumes - it's affinity with Hardcore and Punk lies in it's basic set up. Yet, the lyrics, the song titles and the over-all feel all point to something, as the album title dictates, Celestial: out of this earthly realm and into the fantastic heavens.
Within Turners label and on Steve O'Malley's Southern Lord label (and, indeed, within Sunn 0))) ) there are many bands embracing the archaic mysticism, myths and rituals of old civilisations passed. This is all too likely because the drone, the giant resounding drums and crippling riffs all recall a feeling of something bigger than us, something that has only ever been described in folk-tales, eminent myths and archetypal legends.

Sounds pretentious, maybe, but this album is an underground classic
It's called Celestial for a reason. Isis could never reproduce this, but never wanted to. Buy it and then think of civilisation crashing down to it's knees...

Like this?
Invest in Pelican - Australasia, then go watch the crashing waves.

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review by: woodford34 date: 2005-10-19 rating:
explosive
Firstly you must be aware that isis are not your average band, they dont sound like todays metal scene which has quite franically gone stale. Its also difficult to place an exact genre on the band as well, many call this genre of music noisecore or progressive metal. Either way if you can open upto this type of music it will throughly reward you with thick textures and grinding atmospheres.
Celestial the second lp and fourth release by isis is utterly hypnotic in its heavyness, the first track celstial is just a starting point that the rest of the album follows, thats not to say that the album lacks variation every song is different, creating new images and provoking thoughts.This is not a recor that relies heavily on lyrics , but more the overall sound of the album.Tracks like deconstructing towers and swarm are based on heavy repitition and huge riffs played continually which only creates a rich atmosphere and polluting piece of music.
It differs from later releases Panoptican and Oceanic in that it seems more simplistic and all together a lot heavier especially in comparison to oceanic but this only seems to add to the overall sound of the album.
Isis are a band that seem capable of almost reinventing their sound with every release but still delivering terrifyingly good results, this is a record to be heard and enjoyed.
Warning this album will take a while to fully blossom but patience will be richly rewarded.....
I recommend this album to fans of neurosis, cult of luna, pelican and maybe fans of more mainstream metal because this is not to be missed.


review by: date: 2003-01-01 rating:
A fine album!
This album is no too dissimilar from the album which preceeded it, Oceanic, Isis' best work so far.
This album is a lot heavier and much more aggressive and uneasy than Oceanic which is more ethereal and mellow. The riffs are much harder on this album which shows on tracks like Glisten and Swarm Reigns(Down).
Even though it is not as accomplished as Oceanic or even instrumentally better than Oceanic it is still a beast of an album.
Highly recommended if you like heavy, original music.
Its quite collossal; no tracks are under 5 mins (except the SGNL> tracks which are not music, just short breaks in the music.) Celestial (the Tower) is a gigantic song at 9 1/2 mins with the best riff i've ever heared them play.
In short, if you like Isis' work and you haven't got this, you must own it. If you don't know Isis this is a worthy sludgecore album to have, its quite original, i've never heared anything like them before, and its rewarding once the whole album has sunk in. (kind of like how a Melvins album takes ages to get used to/understand.)

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