MOSQUITO CONTROL

Mosquito Control EP was released on 1998. It's the first sample of Isis music after 1998's demo, cassette. As you can read in the biography, Isis started more like a sludge/ stoner metal band but you can easily tell, even from this ep, that they were meant for something greater than another stoner band. This ep consists of four songs (30 mins) full of distorted guitars and screams. All songs are really simple, both technicaly and in terms of time signatures, without flashy or complex solos and in very slow tempos. All these elements create a chaotic atmosphere, something that would later turn out to be their best characteristic.

The guitar and bass parts are fine really (of course not as good as in the albums to come). The voice of Chris Mereshuk, who also plays keyboards in this album, may not appeal to many people but they really add to the whole atmosphere. The only bad thing about them is that they sound too forced. Chris Mereshuk will only appear again on "The Red Sea" ep and this time not as a vocalist. The interesting part of this album is the drums. Aaron Harris does a fine job with the drum parts, which without being technical, manage to create a rythmic background mostly seen in Doom Metal. No double bass pedal is used and no blast/scan beats or anything like that appears here. This shows that they are different from most heavy bands out there. The "open-minded" Aaron Harris will become even better on the next albums by developing an even more temperate style and focusing more into the sound!

Summing up, this is a fine album and a very good example of a band evolving and becoming more mature by the years. This ep shows that this band would concentrate on the atmosphere and the whole feeling of the music or an album rather than a band that would create a couple of good,heavy and memorable songs. A pleasant listen, though a bit tiring at times... Recommended for fan of Isis really. Surely not a good starting point for someone who wants to explore the "world" of Isis (Oceanic and Panopticon are good ones). Two stars!