KTRU Corner: Isis' Wavering Radiant

By Kevin Bush     9/3/09 7:00pm

In the words of Isis frontman Aaron Turner, heavy metal has "long been unjustly maligned as solely the province of knuckle-dragging meatheads." Although Isis keeps intact the dark lyrical themes, heavy guitar riffs, aggressive percussion lines and high levels of feedback that have made metal a somewhat disreputable genre, the band has managed to craft a distinctive sound that demonstrates metal's extraordinary versatility and artistic strength.Though the band is rooted in the sludge and hardcore styles of bands such as Neurosis, Godflesh and the Melvins, Isis' 2002 release Oceanic has been called a progenitor of the art metal, post-metal and metalgaze subgenres. Turner himself has been resistant to categorizing Isis in interviews, and once dubbed their sound "thinking man's metal."

Wavering Radiant, Isis' fifth full-length album, is compelling enough to live up to such an audacious characterization. This music is grandiose, dense and highly atmospheric. Tracks average about eight minutes in length and often feature multiple changes in sonic themes. Blistering guitars from Turner and Michael Gallagher combine with Jeff Caxide's hypnotic bass lines and the reliable drums of Aaron Harris. Turner delivers well-crafted, emotional lyrics, combining unintelligible growls with sung (but still unintelligible) melodic lines.

This contrast is somewhat unrefined and seems a bit arbitrary, especially in the opening track, "Hall of the Dead." As a whole, however, the transitions between screamed and sung vocals coincide appropriately with shifts in mood and work well with Isis' malleable style.

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The strongest contribution to the distinctive sound on Wavering Radiant comes from the Hammond B3 keyboard of Cliff Meyer, the band's newest member. Bouncy keyboard textures imbue the album with elements of electronica and psychedelic rock. At times, the rest of the band is a bit too reliant on Meyer to fill in aural gaps, and his sound can come off as a bit intrusive. But the keyboard is vital to shoring up the album's ethereal mood and lends itself well to solos, particularly on the tracks "Ghost Key" and "Stone to Wake a Serpent."

The songs on Wavering Radiant are thematically linked and cohesive enough to allow the album to work well as a single piece of music. The album's third track, "Hand of the Host," has a long, heavy development with multiple changes in rhythm and melody. The song builds slowly before devolving into ambient noise and atonal drones. These sounds continue seamlessly into the title track, which does a nice job showcasing Isis' ability as an experimental band despite lasting fewer than two minutes. The last and strongest song, "Threshold of Transformation," has a brooding, psychedelic beginning that progresses into an explosive middle featuring haunting vox effects coupled with animal-like vocal growls. After around nine minutes, the melody abruptly crashes into a ghostly guitar and keyboard ending.

While it can sometimes come across as bit too clean and effects-heavy, Wavering Radiant is a very good album with an eclectic style that transcends the limitations of traditional heavy metal. Isis certainly has enough raw energy to appeal to the aforementioned "meatheads," but the band's unique sound and progressive contribution to the metal genre make Wavering Radiant a solid addition to the KTRU library.

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