Maybe it’s fitting that Isis is unleashing a remastered vinyl edition of their seminal masterpiece, Celestial, barely two weeks after the release of Palms’ debut which feature three-fifths of the group within its’ ranks. Sure, Aaron Turner can continue with Split Cranium and Old Man Gloom, Aaron Harris can work with Tool’s Danny Carey for the Man Of Steel soundtrack and on Palms (With Bryant Clifford Meyer and Jeff Caxide), and Mike Gallagher can work on more MGR or with the reunited Cast Iron Hike but nothing will EVER beat the magic of Isis. And for the record we like Palms (Check out our review here!), it’s just when those five individuals that make up Isis decide to create together the chemistry is undeniable.
At its most raw, Celestial is Isis unbridled and uninhibited. This is the band before they began to really delve deep within themselves (And before Turner experimented with clean vocals) on later albums like Celestial’s follow up Oceanic and even more so on Panopticon. The Godflesh influences are the most noticeable here as well on tracks “Celestial (The Tower)” (I was lucky enough to see Isis perform this live at least once and it is nothing short of monolithic live and on record) and “Swarm Reigns (Down)”. “Glisten” is another song here that transcends genres and follows the trend that this album was not made for the short attention span generation.
Honestly, putting this album and the word “remaster” in the same sentence is an affront to post-metal and to Isis because the album in its’ purest form is a classic but if this means there’s a chance to own this long out of print giant on vinyl once again then I’m all for it.
Celestial is out on July 9th through Ipecac Recordings.
Grade: A+