ITP V.011 REVIEW: ISOLE: BORN FROM SHADOWS

BAND-ISOLE (GAVLE, SWEDEN) GENRE: DOOM/TRADITIONAL DOOM LABEL: NAPALM RECORDS RELEASE DATE: 10/28/2011

PREVIOUS RELEASES (CATALOG): ISOLE VS. SEMLAH (SPLIT-2010-CYCLONE EMPIRE), SILENT RUINS (2009-NAPALM RECORDS), BLISS OF SOLITUDE (2008-NAPALM RECORDS), THRONE OF VOID (2006-I HATE RECORDS), THE BEYOND (EP-2006-I HATE RECORDS), FOREVERMORE (2005-I HATE RECORDS) DEMOS: (Demo - 1992),Waves Of Sorrow (Demo - 1994),Autumn Promos (Compilation - 2005)

BEST RELEASE (S): THRONE OF VOID (2006), BLISS OF SOLITUDE (2008)



ISOLE: BORN FROM SHADOWS: TRACKLISTING:                                                                                  1. The Lake
2. Black Hours
3. Born from Shadows
4. My Angel
5. Condemned
6. Come to Me
7. When All is Black


ITP RATING: *** 1/2
PRODUCTION: ****
SONGWRITING: ***
PERFORMANCE: ****

Swedens ISOLE have graced the ears of doom fans with their despondent, depressive tone for over 20 years, engaging listeners at last with the bands epic release 2008's "Bliss Of Solitude". ISOLE's dark, epic compositions are performed slow, as doom should be with exquisite death and clean vocal harmonies melting listeners into world of melancholic and depressive bliss.
Here at ITP V.011, we have ISOLE's NAPALM RECORDS debut, "Born From Shadows" on deck to review. ISOLE's "Born From Shadows" kicks off with the track "The Lake" as the tune evokes slow, picked chords and awesome clean vocals. ISOLE's The Lake" alternates between death and clean vocals, switching perfectly from mesmerizing, dark atmospheres to mid paced doom.

ISOLE's " Black Hours" evokes a sludgy/doom stoner opening riff before crawling into slow, melancholic textures as Daniel Brynste's double tracked vocals soulfully emote a mournful atmosphere, reminding me of the late Layne Staley of ALICE IN CHAINS. ISOLE's "Black Hours" crawls into funeral doom instrumental break of depressive darkness, and the clean vocals are, WOW!

The title track of ISOLE's "Born Of Shadows" crawls in at a mid pace, epic and powerful as the band plays some tight, dark, doom. A light array of keyboards flavors ISOLE's "Born Of Shadows", with quality tight drumming as at 2:50 ISOLE's Henrik Lindenmo barks out death vocals , the floor drops for an acoustic, melancholic interlude with beautiful clean vocals. ISOLE's "Born Of Shadows" morphs into brutal death doom complete with blastbeats and death/clean vocal interchange, slowing down for an epic, slow death/doom closure. This..Is..EPIC!!

ISOLE's "My Angel", creeps in with an out of tune piano piece, straight into mid paced doom, with spectacular clean vocals. ISOLE's "My Angel" features quality production as the floor drops from the song with a soft passage and clean vocals before picking up a louder dynamic. ISOLE's "My Angel" lags on with extensive length and little variety, and I'm a tad bit bored. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

ISOLE's "Condemned" crawls in at a turtles pace with quality death vocals, waking me up from the previous tunes slumber. ISOLE's "Condemned" features some quality riffing, picking up a pace with clean vocals and awesome musicianship. ISOLE's "Condemned" evokes a "brutaful" clean to death vocal transition as again, the tunes extensive length wears on me a bit.

ISOLE's "Come to Me" evokes a slow, mournful intro with gorgeous, melodic guitars as the song picks up a frolicking mid pace with again, very good clean vocals. ISOLE's "Come to Me" evokes a well produced ending as the drums drop out of the song, bringing out the bare bones of a gorgeous vocal performance from ISOLE's Daniel Brynste.

ISOLE's "Born From Shadows" closes with the tune "When All is Black", entering with pompous power chords and morphing into a slow, bluesy, cabaret styled epic.
ISOLE's "When All is Black" evokes a creepy atmosphere, crawling in making for an interesting listen, with enough of a funeral doom Prozac uninhibited cheekiness to rival Mr. Bungles as the song fades into a instrumental distance.

While the various genres of doom can often be a hit or miss, the genre features lengthy compositions with often no variety of riffs or an ingenious atmosphere of dark droning dissonance.

ISOLE's "Born Of Shadows" features exellent production and an awesome vocal performance from vocalist Daniel Brynste. ISOLE's talented vocals carry the bands lengthy compositions as the death/clean vocal interchange is Earth shattering indeed.

However, ISOLE's lack of compositional variety emote boredom as the tunes lag weighted down via lengthy compositions, repetition and ZZZZZZZZZZ.

ISOLE vocalist Daniel Brynste, while very talented might sound pompous, almost a classically inspired "too good" of a clean vocalist and the raw death vocals can and should off set this prentention more often.

ISOLE's have all the ingredients to make a mighty death/doom meal, as all that is missing are tasty riffs, and compositional variety.

ITP RATING: *** 1/2
PRODUCTION: ****
SONGWRITING: ***
PERFORMANCE: ****

Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal-\m/ -l-