Panopticon

1. So Did We

2. Backlit

3. In Fiction

4. Wills Dissolve

5. Syndic Calls

6. Altered Course

7. Grinning Mouths

Tracks:

So Did We
Backlit
In Fiction
Wills Dissolve
Syndic Calls
Altered Course
Grinning Mouths

Customer Reviews:

Post Metal Bliss.......2007-07-06

This was the first Isis cd I bought. It was also my first step into the world of Post Metal or as Aaron likes to put it "Thinking Man's Metal". I absolutely loved the guitar tones. I can't pick a favorite song, but if I had to I would say it would have to be Backlit. the album is a masterpiece. This band has definately influenced the way I approach guitar. Go buy this cd, put on the headphones, close your eyes, and prepare for one of the greatest albums in years.

The band still gets 4 stars, but the album is closer to 3.......2007-01-11

I find this album very easy to diagnose, once I put it in my headphones and got a moment alone with it. ISIS are one of the most revered bands in the whole pantheon of hard/post-core, and Oceanic was the album that should most quickly answer the question "why?" but Panopticon is a bit of a horse of a different color. Yes they have evolved, however, this evolution feels lop-sided when we observe closely exactly where Panopticon succeeds and fails.

The more ambient sections/movements/etc are a complete victory, on a level that now fully competes (sound-wise) with the best of the breed (IE: Sigur Ros, Mogwai, Tortoise, etc.). The main issue is that ambience is by no means their claim to fame, although it is the element that makes their approach to metal seemingly quite unique. I expect fans of Godspeed You Black Emperor to begin raving about ISIS any day now, but alas it's the multitudes of underground hardcore geeks who seem to relentlessly blog their brains out over ISIS (ultimately creating an over hyped effect, to some degree).

This brings me to the weak point in the album, and the weak point in this band at this stage of their development, which is the portions of these songs that most clearly demonstrate the stigma of ISIS as a "baby Neurosis" (IE: distant yells underneath distorted guitar). This vocalist continues to distract from the glorious melodic suites of the ambient guitar passages. Even the driving guitar is incredible and usually more than merely functional, until that distant yell comes back and gets in the way. Songs like "In Fiction" succeed most, greatly due to the lack of vocal presence. It's as if the guitarists continued to improve on learning how to put notes together to paint a perfect portrait of their emotions or the theme or whatever, but the vocalist remains exactly as developed as he has ever been. Mostly this is not a huge issue, as he appears only a couple of minutes per song (the song lengths are all quite Tool-esque, as you should know). However this is enough to warrant me making an unpopular statement that hardcore guys might want to bash me over: perhaps the guitar distortion is best left turned off, along with the microphone. I mean really, these are the parts that make them most sound like a 2 cent version of Neurosis (even worse is when he does his gravely vocal thing during an ambient part--is that really needed?). Well, luckily this may very well be one of their most ambient albums so far, but the metal still arises, and everything under the metal sun has pretty much been done before (quit fronting on that!). It was always the graceful melodies which made these guys stand out as mature and epic, but perhaps they know that this is not their claim to fame and the fans of that genre have not fully adopted the idea of ISIS quite yet. After all, ISIS is on Mike Patton's Ipecac Records (a label known for excruciatingly unpleasant music with little loyalty to any genre except "noise" itself).
For the most part this is a very loyal ISIS release with few departures or drastic evolutions. Some of the transitions are, well, not there (meaning that some songs actually stop at the end rather than bleeding into the next song the way Oceanic did...take it or leave it). So, what you have here is a record that should blend perfectly into their live sets, or blend perfect in your Itunes on random with the rest of their catalog, but not a record that stands out in their catalog. So I probably won't buy their next one until I see it used or unless someone buys it for me as a gift. This is just because I am a person who searches for the weirdest music I can find, and while ISIS certainly have their place in history earmarked (you will have to peal Oceanic out of my cold dead fingers), I see little reason to purchase the same record over and over again, with only the cover and a few small details altered.

Sometimes I listen to this and think it does sound like it's in the sky (hence the title "Panopticon" and subsequent imagery) and Oceanic does sound like it's on or in the ocean, but other times I think they are both just a soundtrack to me loosing my mind. I guess you will just have to buy them both and let me know.

Massive..........2007-01-10

So, Panopticon arrives in the mail along with around twenty other albums that were purchased around various recommendations that were made in passing by a few fellow forum-goers. Never having heard the band before and not having much of an idea what to expect, I rip away the plastic wrap, pop the disc into my DVD drive, rip it, and get to listening.

For the next hour, I would be subject to the aural equivalent of a majestic ocean body slowly swallowing the very foundations of the Earth, leaving in its wake a vast landscape of weeping sorrow and glimmering hope. That magnificent and devastating ocean has a name - and that name is Isis.

Now, I don't have much of a clue as to where to go with this thing. Isis is not a hard band to describe, but it is very difficult to truly capture the essence of the sounds that extend from their instruments. Their music is a mostly instrumental, atmospheric, shifting beast that at times seems to extend out from your speakers and develop a sense of physical mass. This is heavy music... not the kind of heavy that slams you against the wall and leaves you with a splintered skull, but the kind of heavy that embraces and envelops you, weighs down on your very senses, and forcefully sweeps you away into the dark unknown. There are no double-bass runs, there are no blast beats, there are no solos, there are no "riffs"; there are only dense soundscapes littered with kinetic walls of aural energy, ambient stretches of space, and gently ringing guitars that embody the calm before the storm and make you welcome the inevitable devastation that is surely forthcoming.

The perfect display of all these things is in the opening track, "So Did We". The song comes in with a slow, simple drum pattern and reasonably heavy guitars that are soon joined by Aaron Turner's distant, hardcore-ish yells. Turner is surprisingly unobtrusive, so people who have an aversion to this kind of vocal style shouldn't have much to fear. Regardless, this only goes on for around thirty seconds before the vocals cut out, the distortion disappears, and twin guitars come in with interweaving melodies that continue onwards, shifting, morphing, and changing until a bit past the two minute mark, where the music lapses back to a sound similar to the introductory passage. At three minutes, one guitar takes on a sort of sludgy droning, while the other rings clearly in the forefront, creating an eerie and moving aural scene. Soon, the droning transforms into a wash of noisy guitar atmospherics that blend smoothly into the background, while the tranquil reverberations retain their prominence in the foreground. At just under four minutes, the background guitar suddenly comes to the front and quickly diminishes into a short stretch of feedback, before fading out and being replaced once again by clean twin guitar tapestries that weave in and out of each other to create a melancholy, sorrow-filled stretch of airy music that evolves and builds on itself until just past the six minute mark. At this point, everything hits a climax and explodes into a wall of sound so enormous that it escapes from your headphones, clings to your walls, and begins to slowly close in on you from the outside, the weeping guitars and powerful cymbal washes enveloping you so wholly that you cannot help but to let go and lose yourself in the vastness of it all. It's utterly massive, soul crushing music. I cannot express enough the kind of impact the last few minutes of this song has on me. It's unreal. Indescribable. If you only hear one Isis song in your life, hear this one.

...and that, to one degree or another, is the sound of Isis. Unfortunately, this is the absolute high point of the album... and it's a shame that the band hits their peak so early. However, don't take that the wrong way. The rest of the album maintains a consistent and dynamic flow of quality, it just never really surpasses the celestial beauty and power of "So Did We" (save for possibly "In Fiction", which is also absolutely tremendous).

The instrumentation across Panopticon is very minimalistic. There is no doubt in my mind that the guys in Isis can play should the need arise, but all the sounds on this album lend to the creation of mood and atmosphere, to the creation of the overbearing leviathan that forebodes the devastation and reconstruction of our modern musical landscape. It's so refreshing in today's mess of musical superficiality to see a bunch of young guys get up on a stage and channel this kind of artistic energy amongst themselves. I applaud them for that.

Essential recording. Absolutely essential.

Lame Tool rip-off.......2006-12-01

Somehow these guys landed the opening slot for Tool this summer. They sucked......hard. They are nothing more than a bad Tool cover band. Nothing new or interesting here; move along.

Epic.......2006-11-01

Just heard this band on the recent Tool tour. Was very intrigued by their sound, and while they didn't really sound awesome live - given the number of instruments playing at the same time (or perhaps it was the venue) - I kind of figured out what they were trying to do. So I bought the album. I wasn't dissapointed.

Post-rock, post-metal, whatever you want to call it. I personally think that this is where rock meets metal. So if you like both, they you will like this album. It has clean and death vocals. Song structure is very progression oriented, with each song gradually building around an initial simple melody or tune or riff. They sound a little like Agalloch, with the latter being more metal oriented, but similar concept. People who like ISIS should try Agalloch's The Mantle.

I really like the first two songs a LOT. I have played them numerous times. The rest of the album is good, but not outstanding - that's why I've given it 4 stars.

As far as the vocals go, if you are a black/ambient metal-head, you won't understand what people are talking about when they say they are 'weak'. The guys growling on some tracks and singing clean on others. Granted he's no classical singer or anything, but vocals here are 'behind' the music, and should be viewed as another instrument.

This is definitely a must buy for those people who have listened to a lot of ambient oriented metal and like Tool and are looking for something new. Nice.

Average customer rating:

fun, hard, rowdy, and intelligent

Songs for the Panopticon
Gone Out Gone
Manufacturer: Gone Out Gone
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0009B90Z6
Release Date: 2004-08-24

Tracks:

Electric Cafe
Edge
Before the Fail
Moonlight
Eris Goes Dancing
Waiting
Duriur
Blister Gas Party
Gleam
Love Becomes You
*

Product Description

10 Tracks. 1.Electric Cafe; 2.Edge; 3.Before The Fail; 4.Moonlight; 5.Eris Goes Dancing; 6.Waiting; 7.Durier; 8.Blister Gas Party; 9.Gleam; 10.Love Becomes You

Customer Reviews:

fun, hard, rowdy, and intelligent .......2005-06-23

Gone Out Gone's "Songs for the Panopticon" takes you by a bit of surprise, beginning brightly & warmly enough to open for U2, and crashing around you with New Wave vigor - what a big sound! ...I recommend immediate download and/or purchase. Normally, I'd have a few things to pick on, but either my contentment pills have kicked in without warning, or this is a seriously well-written, well-performed, and professional album... "Songs for the Panopticon" is full of energy, charisma, and is almost flawlessly executed, making it stylistically & emotionally accessible to a wider range of people - I would think the piece would have good crossover appeal. Vague lyrics lend a song a sense of mystery, and engages the listener in frequent attempts to understand; all the while, the song grows on you, getting firmly into your brain. I could see this song making it onto at least three of my local radio stations. It's fun, hard, rowdy, and intelligent - plus, the afterglow is beautiful! Congratulations to Gone Out Gone on a job well done - and I wish you the best of luck with your art!!

Average customer rating:

Pancake Panopticum

Manufacturer: Blue Flame Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0008377Q4

Average customer rating:

Panopticon

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

Electronica | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000FTKPII
Release Date: 2006-04-04

Average customer rating:

Panopticon

Manufacturer: Cosmopolis
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Alt-Country & Americana | Country | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CAAR4W
Release Date: 2004-01-27

Average customer rating:

marriage at the panopticon

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000H31U7M

Product Description

BMI composer Mark Sutton has composed for film, television, jazz clubs, and the concert hall in New York, Minneapolis, and around the country for the last ten years. Currently based in New York, he has composed for symphony orchestra (Berkshire Symphony), chamber orchestra, big band, and numerous chamber ensembles and small jazz groups, as well as rock bands and synthesizer. Trumpet player and flugelhornist with the Minnepolis based Motion Poets. Sutton's first solo album "Marriage at the Panopticon" was nominated by the Minnesota Music Awards for Best Jazz Recording, and highlighted the breadth of Sutton's composing abilities. Opined Tom Surowicz in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, it was "a slew of tunes that are complex, chameleonic and catchy. Sutton's writing traverses funk, gospel, neo-classical and ethnic sounds in addition to marvelous modern jazz...one of the best local CDs of the year.

"Limited Edition CD & DVD" Gutter Phenomenon [Explicit Content] + 30 minutes with Every Time I Die cut from the upcoming "Shit Happens" full length DVD release shot in 2005 / 2006

Average customer rating:

"Limited Edition CD & DVD" Gutter Phenomenon [Explicit Content] + 30 minutes with Every Time I Die cut from the upcoming "Shit Happens" full length DVD release shot in 2005 / 2006
Every Time I Die
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000JN7T3Y

Product Description

Track Listings 1. Apocalypse Now And Then 2. Kill The Music 3. Bored Stiff 4. Easy Tiger 5. Tusk And Temper 6. The New Black 7. Champing At The Bit 8. Gloom And How it Gets That Way 9. Guitared And Feathered 10. L'astronaut 11. Pretty Dirty