Oceanic (Isis album)
| Oceanic | ||||
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| Studio album by ISIS | ||||
| Released | September 17, 2002 | |||
| Recorded | April–May 2002 Fort Apache, New England New Alliance, Massachusetts |
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| Genre | ||||
| Length | 63:20 | |||
| Label | Ipecac | |||
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| ISIS chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |  |
| Orlando Weekly | Positive |
| Pitchfork Media | 9.1/10 |
| Sputnikmusic | |
| Stylus | A- |
Oceanic is the second full-length album by American post-metal band ISIS, released on September 17, 2002, by Ipecac Recordings. On November 4, 2014, a remastered edition was released via Hydrahead/Ipecac Recordings.
On July 23, 2006, Isis performed Oceanic in its entirety at KOKO, Camden Town, London as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties curated Don't Look Back series. This performance was recorded and eventually released in 2009 as Live V. The track "Weight" was used in the 20th episode of the 1st season of the 2007 television series Friday Night Lights.
The album reintroduces the water and female themes of past releases the Red Sea and Celestial through a story: A man at the brink of emotional numbness finds a female counterpart who completes him ("The Beginning and the End"). However, he soon finds that she has had a long-term incestuous relationship ("False Light", "Weight") with her brother ("Hym", "The Other"). This drives him to lose all hope, and he commits suicide through drowning ("from sinking sands, he stepped into light's embrace").
The entire story is described by frontman Aaron Turner in a radio interview and in more nebulous terms in the album's booklet.
Its style marks a distinct departure from their previous sound; up until this point, Isis had been characterised by crushing, distorted guitars and a coarse, unforgiving tone. With this album came the introduction of lengthy periods of clean guitar, large amounts of ambient noise and female vocals; a notable post-rock influence, first hinted at on SGNL>05 and Celestial. This transition was retrospectively labelled by FACT's Robin Jahdi as "one of the more eye-opening musical metamorphoses of the decade"; it has been described as "seminal". As Ben Richardson notes in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the album's release "fomented an explosion of glacial, Neurosis-inspired instrumental 'post-metal'"; likewise it has been described as "the standard by which all post-metal albums have been judged since". It has retrospectively been labelled a "masterpiece".
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