Wavering Radiant

Songs are still suite-sized, but this is the toughest and catchiest Isis record since their 1999 debut full-length, "Celestial."

To attempt to rank Wavering Radiant within the Isis discography is to miss this point. Fans of earlier releases will likely be disappointed but if this record proves anything, it's that Isis are a fully-functioning organism, slowly moving towards something not yet known by the listener and perhaps not even the band themselves.

There are still the Cro-Magnon howls and monumental riffing matched against maudlin post-rock workouts that you expect from the Californian five-piece, but the songs seem more considered, focused and, well, catchy than before.

The output of Isis, a Los Angeles band often filed under the subcategory of post-metal, upholds a deliberative truce between brute physicality and moody rumination. Wavering Radiant, the group’s impressive new album, satisfies both sides in a way that suggests a balance of prior achievements.

It probably will never be regarded in the same light as Isis’s first three albums (the older a metal band gets, the better their early albums become in the minds of fans), but Wavering Radiant exudes a level of grace that could only come from true masters of the sound, further proof that while they played a large role in setting the template, they also reserve the right to reshape it whenever they damn well please.

Whether trading in power chords or atmospheric overlays, the band excels at transforming emotions into thrilling sounds, palpable awe, and tangible dread. This is metal played at its arresting best.

It’s testament to their power that an average Isis album is still pretty good.

As snobbish as that may sound, you have to lose yourself in Wavering Radiant to hear and feel the big picture.

It’s a proper album, in the sense that a divide is made at four of seven, the title track a segue between halves – its makers clearly bear download culture little respect, constructing their latest so that it’s best experienced as a whole, bridging arrangements as vital as the blustering bombast and constitutional inflections of grandly designed standout pieces.

Easily the band's most accessible effort, hipsters and headbangers will likely agree it's also their most intricately imagined.

Some bands use studio trickery like an instrument, but Isis' straightforward tools avoid baroqueness even when the band is throwing deep.

Wavering Radiant is a testament to ISIS’ ability to stare into the face of adversity, unflinching, and deliver one of the finest albums of its career.

If the too-often twinned strands of listener preference can be unwound, hopefully it will be remembered as the most-heard Isis album, not the greatest.

Though the length of the songs can prove to be daunting, the album is arguably one of Isis' finest moments. [Jun 2009, p.105]

This is perhaps the first Isis album since Oceanic that both demands and inspires repeat listens. It might very well be Isis’s best work to date. At the very least, Wavering Radiant affirms that we still have good reason to follow the band's every move.

Isis’s four previous full-lengths have clear story arcs, but Wavering Radiant’s themes are open to interpretation, giving it added appeal. Close to perfect.

Only the very dedicated need apply. [Jun 2009, p.119]

Theirs is a sophisticated, finely nuanced sound, lynchpin Aaron Turner's vocals notwithstanding. [Jun 2009, p.88]

Wavering Radiant is strong enough on musical merit that decade-strong devotees deservedly ought to join new converts in welcoming the latest Isis album into the world.