IN THE ABSENCE OF TRUTH

In The Absence Of Truth is the fourth full-length studio album by American post metal/ experimental metal act Isis. The album was released on the 30th of October 2006 through Ipecac Recordings and produced by Isis and Matt Bayles.

The music further explores the direction that Isis began on Oceanic (2002) and later perfected on Panopticon (2004) Which means post metal with heavy slow riffs and mellow atmospheric post rock sections. This time the vocals are mostly clean sung though and the shouting aggressive vocals are pretty sparse. The same can be said about the amount of heavy post metal parts compared to the amount of atmospheric post rock parts. While the distribution on Oceanic (2002) was 70% heavy riffs and 30% atmospheric riffs and the distribution on Panopticon (2004) was 50% heavy riffs and 50% atmospheric riffs the scale has tipped even more on In The Absence Of Truth as the distribution is now 30% heavy riffs and 70% atmospheric riffs. This will probably please some and annoy others. I enjoy that Isis has made an album that doesn´t sound exactly like its predecessors. The clean vocals are not the most convincing I´ve heard though and a bit more practise in that department could have propelled this album to a higher state. One of the things I enjoy greatly on In The Absence Of Truth is the drumming by Aaron Harris which got an almost tribal like feel to them at times ( think Tool). The songs are generally pretty long and slow building which is business as usual for Isis.

The production is a bit warmer than on previous releases.

While it´s obvious that Isis still kneel at the altar of Neurosis and probably always will, I find that the music on In The Absence Of Truth explores new ground too and Isis is still a very worthy listen for fans of the genre. My rating is somewhere between 3.5 - 4 stars but I´ll round it up to 4 stars as this album is certainly way too accomplished to receive a 3 star rating even though it´s not flawless by any means.