Labels: Hydra Head
Review by: Alex Deller
One would think that playing a noise like this on Aaron Turner’s own record label would be a formula for shame and disaster. After all, Isis are clearly on the threshold of greater things many would ever have expected of them. They took their influences (Neurosis, Godflesh, Earth et al) and forged something new within the hardcore realm. As with any innovator, be they Converge or Christie Front Drive, the punk rock gene pool is always hungry for a new style and sound to latch onto. And then comes the stagnation. Instead of drawing reference from the non-punk we see schools of bands picking up the most recent [insert trendsetting band here] album and pillage it for all its worth, diluting the source until all we’re left with is the equivalent of a dub of a dub of a dub of the original, a slew of pallid clones cluttering distro boxes across the globe.
So, nice as it was, the graceful march into Pelican’s first track set off certain warning signals – the murky industrial slurring of detuned chords, the chiming melodies that cut through the mire like sonar, the immense resonance of the drumming – it all seemed a touch, well, Oceanic.
Thankfully repeated listens have tendered a more favourable result. Though the Isis comparisons are impossible to shake. it’s clear that Pelican have more tricks up their collective sleeves than those of the master forger. The sinuous, melodic guitar lines creeping amidst the crushing guitar chugs lean towards the prettiness Mogwai are capable of, likewise the tumultuous crescendos that recall those Glaswegians at their impenetrable best, or the dizzying heights of Godspeed! You Black Emperor when they reach for the stars and leave your heart lodged awkwardly in your oesophagus. This combination of the ugly and the sublime, the delicacy of the guitar playing nestled alongside thunderous, tribal drumming make for an aural experience that stands on its own without constantly checking how deeply overshadowed it is by its overachieving big brother. Praise be.