ISIS "Celestial" 2xLP

Isis’s classic debut full-length Celestial highlights the band’s roots in metal and hardcore while displaying the post-rock and ambient experimentation for which they became best known. It was described by Decibel Magazine as “a transitional record between the band’s early work and the post-metal benchmarks such as Oceanic... the elements of the greatness are present, but rawer, more direct.” With chugging sludge, expansive doom, droning metal and a nuanced use of keys, samples and noise, the album shifts between moments of complete devastation and graceful passages of sheer beauty. Isis came into their own with Celestial, mastering the flow of sonic dynamics and smoothly bringing sparse elements into an otherwise oppressively heavy sound. This unique and varied album, nearly an hour long, was their first captured by engineer Matt Bayles, who subsequently recorded Isis’s following three long-players. For this special reissue, Aaron Turner’s artwork has been fully re-imagined from the original elements, and the two discs are housed in inner sleeves with flood-black interior printing. Celestial is available again with remastered audio, carefully crafted specifically for vinyl by longtime cohort James Plotkin.