• Band Name: Isis
  • Record Label: Ipecac
  • Release Date: Oct 31, 2006
Metascore
70 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 18
  2. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. In the Absence of Truth is as solidly explosive and as adventuresome as Panopticon, but their elemental control over the music is greater, therefore creating a more even production.
  2. Despite a couple brief dull spots, the ingredients are so carefully selected and masterfully performed that the collection creates a pretty endlessness, existing at its best as one long take of dark-n-stormy post-rock.
  3. They’ve pushed themselves on this album, striving to achieve something honestly different to what was released before it. Occasionally they’ve fallen short of perfection, but for the most part this album is a certifiable success.
  4. 80
    Even if the high-minded concepts prove elusive, no worries. [Nov 2006, p.138]
  5. It's certainly a leap further into the ethereal weirdness that defined 2004's shoegaze- and electronics-inspired Panopticon. [Nov 2006, p.192]
  6. The dynamics and musicianship of songs like "Not in Rivers, but in Drops," "1000 Shards" and "Holy Tears" reveal a band at the top of its game. [4 Nov 2006]
  7. They remain a fantastic band, constructing their own cities of sound, a strange architecture with wine-dark interiors.
  8. It’s the sound of a band knowing how to execute the formula to near-perfection, each lengthy song teasing us, ebbing and flowing hypnotically, tantalizingly hinting at a huge crescendo of sonic pyrotechnics that doesn’t quite arrive in full. In other words, a comfortable tension.
  9. The songs are still long, the rhythms are still organic, and in general Isis still sounds like Isis.
  10. Theirs is music brimming over with passion first explored, then exploded.
  11. It’s still unclear where this band is going. [23 Oct 2006]
  12. Every strong point is matched by a weaker one, but there is never an extremity of either.
  13. 50
    Truth subverts metal's natural will to power with dreamy, ambient passages that are never as sublime as the band clearly thinks they are. [Dec 2006, p.98]
  14. In the process of adding new facets to their sound, Truth winds up reinforcing self-imposed limitations.
  15. 40
    The lurch towards conventionality has exposed Isis' limitations: their paucity of melodic ideas, the pompous drumming, the lack of wit or soul. [Jan 2007, p.100]
  16. It's a powerful formula, but one the band perfected with their 2002 album Oceanic. [Dec 2006, p.141]
  17. Alas, it feels like In the Absence of Truth finds the band both spinning its wheels and running out of ideas.
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 14
  2. Negative: 1 out of 14
  1. ChampiodiPi
    1
    Formulaic, tired, trite, boring, soulless, stargazing pretentious tommyrot. Unnecessary, redundant. Isis flog a dead horse which committed suicide after their only slightly less awful début Oceanic and this is BEFORE their God awful vocalist is brought to trial. Full Review »
  2. EricC
    7
    The album advances and reveals itself at a slower-than-sludge pace, making it one of those rare metal albums that seeks to reward patience. It has it's share of satisfying moments, but rarely ventures in to breath-taking territory. It's an impressive album, but it could have been more. Full Review »
  3. Adam
    10
    astonishing from start to finish my favorite band since radiohead and sigur ros words do no justice with this release my best album of 2006 and maybe since 2004s panopticon. Full Review »