Isis is done.

Not sure how many of you know of this band, or care about this kind of music, but Isis, probably the best band at what they do (long, dynamic, atmospheric "metal" that's soooo much better than metal), has decided to call it quits.

ISIS has reached an end. It's hard to try to say it in any delicate way, and it is a truth that is best spoken plainly. This end isn't something that occurred over night and it hasn't been brought about by a single cataclysmic fracture in the band. Simply put, ISIS has done everything we wanted to do, said everything we wanted to say. In the interest of preserving the love we have of this band, for each other, for the music made and for all the people who have continually supported us, it is time to bring it to a close. We've seen too many bands push past the point of a dignified death and we all promised one another early on in the life of the band that we would do our best to ensure ISIS would never fall victim to that syndrome.

I am glad this is how they're going out, and I fully agree with the reasoning, but this is honestly one of my favorite bands and has been for 5-6 years, so this is pretty upsetting to me to say the least. As soon as I read this I ordered a ticket for their last Boston show ever, so I'll be seeing them a second and final time on June 21st with The Melvins opening. Should be a great show, just wish it was for a different reason.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, just thought I'd let anyone who knows who they are what was going on. If you're interested in checking these guys out (there are shouting vocals so if you're not into that don't even bother), here are a couple of songs:

Sheesh... This is a bummer. I never even got to see 'em.

I was thinking of going to see them on this tour, I guess I'll have to now. Great band though, I got into them a few years back when I was getting into Neurosis and Pelican and a few others like them. I think Oceanic is my favorite album still, but the new stuff has still been great, it's actually kind of nice to see a band willing to call it quits at their prime rather than going forward just for the hell of it.

btw that's a great recording of The Beginning and the End, I've never seen that one before

Edit: Damn, for some reason I thought their Boston shows were early July not June. I'm still at home until the week after that, guess I won't be seeing them then...

I saw them last year (at Paradise, same as these shows) with Pelican and a band called Tombs opening. Pelican was a bit of a letdown, they played mostly City of Echoes poop which I don't care for so it was kind of boring. If they had played stuff from Fire In Our Throats I'm sure I would have been way more into it. Tombs was really good, and Isis of course was amazing. They played like a 15 minute version of Celestial as the encore...just amazing.

If somehow you're able to make it to the second Boston show let me know and we can try to meet up or something. Already got my ticket to that (it's going to sell out REALLY fast) so I'm going for sure. They're doing two nights, the 20th Isis is opening and the Melvins are headlining, 21st Isis is headlining.

And yeah, Oceanic is pretty much tied with Slint's Spiderland for my favorite album too. The flow of it is just perfect.

I'm going to be in Minnesota until June 29th so I definitely won't be making it to the show.

Ah, yeah, that might make things difficult.

They're pretty good,nice band,thank you,Freddie!D

A few more amazing professionally shot videos:

Tonight....

So that was pretty much the best show I've been to....The Melvins love ruled and Isis was amazing, far better than last year. Ears ringing heavily, despite using plugs.






More to come, probably Wednesday.

Nice! I'm jealous...

[jayman]

melvins>>>>>>>>>>>> isis x 100000

Two completely different moods from the two..not even really comparable.

sorry, but i'll stick to animals as leaders for my metal cravings.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Originally posted by jayman

melvins>>>>>>>>>>>> isis x 100000

My Chemical Romance is better and metaler.

So as I said, this was an amazing show. The trip started off with a train ride to Boston with no lights because the generator was broken or something like that. Going through the tunnels in the pitch black was pretty sweet.


Destination for today was Paradise Rock Club on Commonwealth Ave




First band up was Totimoshi, who I'd never heard of before. They were pretty decent.




Next up was the legendary Melvins, still with Big Business so they have the lefty/righty dueling drums setup with Dale and Coday. I'm not sure they need explaining.....if you know who they are you know the deal, and if you don't know who they are you should. Amazing high energy show all around.

Being right at the stage, I was almost killed by Buzzo's hair several times.










No idea on the setlist...but highlights for me were Civilized Worm and Halibut/El Hombre (Anaconda; see here)

Then Isis was up. The feeling of the place changed about as quickly as they changed sets. Setlist was stronger than last year, although it felt a little short it was much more powerful. They started off with From Sinking from Oceanic which was pretty good, but I feel like they and the crowd really didn't get into it until about three or four into the set.






At about the 6th song in the set things just got crazy. They played Collapse and Crush (old, rarely played Celestial-era song), So Did We which was a great closer, and then for the encore they did In Fiction and The Beginning And The End, which was just about the most intense and surreal thing I've ever experienced. Between the songs themselves and the it being their last time in Boston (which they're originally from), it was just incredibly powerful for everyone there.








In the end I'm not sure who was better really....they both set two completely different feelings with the Melvins being really "fun" and high energy, and Isis being very "deep" and serious. But either way, never going to forget this show. More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boulderdas ... 330223238/

Isis setlist:
1. From Sinking
2. Not in Rivers, But in Drops
3. Holy Tears
4. Threshold of Transformation
5. Ghost Key
6. Collapse and Crush
7. So Did We
8. In Fiction
9. The Beginning and the End