Archive for June, 2011

Album of the day: Isis – Live IV Selections 2001-2005 & Live V 07.23.06

Posted on Sunday, June 26th, 2011

Lovingly pinched from Sea of Tranquility: Live albums are a curious beast. Some are recording contract fillers, some are overdubbed after the event and not quite live after all, and some provide a challenge for the bands that have employed all kinds of studio trickery to create their art (which in itself is not a bad thing given the music that’s produced). Isis are a band that spent their lifetime working to produce art of an exceptional standard and their studio recordings could easily have threatened the quality of their live performances. But Isis were (and remain) consummate musicians and were as superior on stage as on record.

Of the tracks on Live IV Selections 2001-2005, it’s the tracks recorded earlier that are not as heavy as usual but this provides a great insight into the development of Isis as a live band. With the extension of a few riffs and ambient parts added, such as at the beginning of CFT, a song that’s not the best on 2000′s Celestial but works well live. ‘False Light’ and ‘Weight’ from Oceanic are perhaps the best songs here, with Aaron Harris’s drum-work – his fills in particular – standing out.

Where Live IV is a selection of performances taken from differing sources over a five-year span, Live V, produced by Justin Broadrick, is a complete performance of 2002′s Oceanic taken from a direct soundboard recording from 2006 (recorded at Koko’s in London). Oceanic is regarded, rightly, as a triumph in the band’s history, a successful blend of styles that not only shifted the band to the forefront of metal but marked ‘The Beginning Of The End’ of a genre that had nowhere else to go.

Isis had taken it as far as it could be taken before they moved on to ever greater musical heights with Panopticon, In The Absence of Truth, and what came to be their swansong, Wavering Radiant. Of course, ‘False Light’ and ‘Weight’ make another appearance and are, again, outstanding, representing a band that never stopped improving in the live environment.

Continue reading: Review: “Isis: Live IV Selections 2001-2005 & Live V 07.23.06″ – Sea of Tranquility – The Web Destination for Progressive Music!.

Tags: aaron turner, Album of the day, isis, Justin Broadrick, Live IV Selections 2001-2005, Live V 07.23.06, post rock, Sea of Tranquility
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USX’s Nate Hall To Release Solo-Album

Posted on Sunday, June 26th, 2011

USX’s Nate Hall has a solo album in the works, called A Great River. The album will be released via Neurot Recordings.  

The Hounds Of Hasselvander: New Album Out Soon!

Posted on Sunday, June 26th, 2011

The new Hounds Of Hasselvander album, The Ninth Hour, will be in stores very soon! A second “new” album will be coming out in October, called Ancient Rocks, consisting of everybody’s favorite obscure songs from the obscure bands that made them in the late 1960′s and early 1970′s! “This album ...read more

Album of the day: Orchid – Capricorn

Posted on Saturday, June 25th, 2011

Praise for Orchid‘s Capricorn from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Once again, not to be confused with the old sceamo band THE Orchid, but yes very much to be confused with BLACK SABBATH, that’s their schtick as it were, this Bay Area based doom metal act now offering up their debut ...read more

Transylvanian Hungerrr: A Photo Study of Wolvserpent (by Stefan Raduta)

Posted on Friday, June 24th, 2011

W o l v s e r p e n t A photo study by Stefan Raduta (Transylvanian Hungerrr) video by Torsten Meyer On Saturday June 12 I finally got to see Wolvserpent perform live. They hail from Idaho, and connoisseurs may know them from their previous incarnation, PussyGutt. It’s ...read more

Album of the day: Cold Mourning – Colder Than Thou (2LP)

Posted on Friday, June 24th, 2011

Praise for Cold Mourning‘s Colder Than Thou from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: The Buried By Time And Dust label, as their name implies, specialize (mainly) in digging up dusty old treasures from the vaults… of DOOOOM! In the past, they’ve brought us vinyl reissues by such doom metal legends as Witchfinder ...read more

Sleep: New York Footage Posted On Line!

Posted on Friday, June 24th, 2011

Fan-filmed video footage of Sleep‘s June 22, 2011 performance at Terminal 5 in New York City can be seen below.

Album of the day: Ancestors – Invisible White

Posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Lovingly pinched from AllMusic: The third album by Los Angeles psychedelic / stoner rock band Ancestors is their mellowest release to date. The surging Uriah Heep /Deep Purple side of their sound has been tamped down in favor of acoustic guitars and long synth tones very much reminiscent of Pink ...read more

Kink X-Rated Roadburn Radio: 8pm to 11pm CET (Get Ready For The Broadcast of Russian Circles’ Performance at Roadburn 2010)

Posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Here is our playlist for this week’s Roadburn Radio on Kink X-Rated. Tune in from 8pm to 11pm CET (2pm EST / 11am PST) and listen to the latest sounds from the underground and the bands that inspire us as we work on next year’s Roadburn festival. And get ready ...read more

Wolvserpent: Quality Video Footage of Chicago Performance Posted On Line!

Posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Wolvserpent performing ‘Wolv’ off of their album Blood Seed at Pancho’s in Chicago on June 12, 2011. Filmed by Jon Rosenthal of The Inarguable. “Wolvserpent is a Boise-based duo of drone-adjacent metal that write the soundtrack to freezing to death. Half-tucked within the usually niche world of doom, the two ...read more