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Austinist Reviews: ISIS In The Absence of Truth
The face of metal is drawn in fine lines, and for the last eight years ISIS have been making high-minded sludge rock with an impressive sense of those delicate boundaries. But on their latest release, In The Absence of Truth, they’ve abandoned their position as sludge’s deafeningly loud vanguard in favor of a much more detailed, but much less affecting sound.
In The Absence of Truth isn’t a bad album. Most songs closely follow the build/release formula that ISIS have been practicing since their debut record, and the casual listener might not notice a major stylistic shift from 2004’s Panopticon. All the basic building blocks are there: tense rhythms, gradual builds and violent crescendos. What has changed most dramatically is the ratio of loud to quiet. On previous albums, ISIS masterfully balanced tension and release, but on In The Absence of Truth, the band seems so focused on being progressive, that they've forgotten to be powerful.
The album’s opener “Wrists of Kings” sets the tone early: a full six-and-a-half minutes of buildup to a criminally short throwdown ending. “Over Root & Thorn” begins with two minutes of ambience, giving way to three minutes of mild nu-rock before finally hitting an interesting stride at just over 5 minutes. The opening bars of “Holy Tears” promise loud, confident relief, but the song loses traction almost immediately, backing off into dry, featureless rock. Virtually every song suffers from a lack of direction - where ISIS used to revel in their loudness, In The Absence of Truth finds the band holding back at all the wrong moments, and letting go when it’s too late to matter.
For a record with an average song length of seven minutes, momentum is key; but ISIS just can’t seem to keep things interesting, despite (and sometimes because of) Aaron Turner’s jacked-up vocal effort. On previous albums, the vocals were a subtle texture, riding just underneath the music. Even the harshest screams had a hard time competing with the crashing guitars on 2002’s Oceanic. But now, Turner’s alt-rock crooning is expanded and cranked up in the mix, often stealing focus from any tension or excitement built by the guitars.
Of course, previous albums worked well using the same formula – crooned verses building to loud, shouted choruses. But where tension was previously built around slow, controlled swells, In The Absence of Truth is built almost entirely around vocal meandering and superfluous guitar effects that just don’t fill in the space effectively.
If there’s one thing that ISIS does well, however, it’s finish. And this album is no exception. Probably the strongest track is the closer, “Garden of light”, a song that combines everything good about ISIS: mesmerizing drone, tidal rhythms, and fierce climaxes.
