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Isolation's second demo A Prayer for the World to End was featured about a year ago on this very publication. From what I recall it was a fine entry into the first division of the black/doom league. Now, I know what you're thinking, but though the case might be that the usual musical set-up on offer by such acts is the droning minor key buzz, miserably lead by a frail, anemic excuse for percussion and topped with the testicle-shrinking, burning-witch shrieks of an asylum escapee, Isolation beg to differ with oppressive auras and convincing audible sickness. Black/doom it might be but a trite, by-the-numbers affair it is certainly not.
Well, given that this release is a compilation of two previous demos (including the aforementioned) there's really nothing new on display - not even production-wise since they audibly still wallow in trebly weak dissonance. Their aesthetic bedrock is essentially the familiar Bethlehem-esque musical schemes of emotively charged, mid-to-fast tempo passages backed with a shrill counterpoint of an almost psychotic vocal delivery. Sometimes guitar passages/themes can also stray into straight-up black metal territory with a transition both natural and appropriate as a tension-release component. The early Katatonia-tinged inclinations in their guitar-based melodicism leave a scent of that bitter/sweet aura of "Jhva Elohim Meth" that synergistically bolsters the despair-laden compositions. Actually, instead of mechanically slapping the black/doom label on their music I'd say that their discography to date chronicles the embryonic stages of a riveting amalgamation resulting from Moonblood's riff-driven melancholy colliding head-on with the dragging and agonizingly unfolding progressions of Katatonia's demo-graphy. To that effect add the comparatively versatile -though loose- percussive dynamics of straight snare-lead pounding, proper tom-tom usage and appropriately accentuating fills and what you have are the promising foundations for what is yet to come - of note is the interesting rhythmical build-up on "The Nameless and Unnameable" that shifts through plodding doom and rippling tom/snare triplet grooves before bursting grandiosely into an up-tempo spurt of sheer black metal (this being a truncated version of the song originally present in A Prayer for the World to End).
Although firmly cemented within the self-constrained framework of its genre, Isolation is a comprehensive introduction to the band in case you missed them last time 'round and more than an apt investment for an unpleasant, lights-out, earphones-only musical experience.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Introduction |
| 2. Quiet These Colours Will Fade |
| 3. Hier Am Ende Der Welt |
| 4. Abschied |
| 5. The Nameless And The Unnamable |
| 6. Nur Ein Moment |
| 7. Outroduction |
: 38:53
| Buy other Isolation albums |
