Isole – Silent Ruins: Redemption Pt. 1

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If Opeth slowed down, they’d be Isole. That’s the simplest way to sum up the latest release from the Swedish doom outfit, who have released one album per year since 2006, with death vocals, complex progressive arrangements an alternative instrumentation mixed in, to create something as epic as the likes of veterans My Dying Bride. Lengthy opener From The Dark shows off all of facets of their style, but does start to drag and become background noise from about half way through. A brace of excellent six/seven minute tracks in Forlorn and Nightfall get the attention back quickly though, particularly the guitar solos, and Nightfall‘s excellent Krux-ish riff. The next three tracks continue in a similar vein, never getting boring, but ten-minute closer Dark Clouds suffers from the same problem as From The Dark. The first half is as good as all of the shorter songs, but the second half lets it down. Silent Ruins is an excellent doom album, however, and will hopefully give rise to an equally good second part to the ‘Redemption’ tale, apparently one of a person who wakes up with no recollection of the end of then World and pieces it together song by song.

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Doom Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Isole