L.A.-based band Isis calls it quits
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A tough week for heavy music fans got even tougher Tuesday night as atmospheric post-metal band Isis has, in the words of the band, “reached an end” after 13 years and five studio albums.
“Simply put, Isis has done everything we wanted to do, said everything we wanted to say,” the band said in a statement released on its website titled “Good Night!”
“In the interest of preserving the love we have of this band, for each other, for the music made and for all the people who have continually supported us, it is time to bring it to a close.”
Led by lead guitarist and Hydra Head Records founder Aaron Turner, Isis built upon the experimental-leaning approaches of Neurosis, Tool and Godflesh, eventually incorporating sounds from the worlds of post-rock, shoegaze and ambient music into the band’s heavy but nuanced mix.
Update: The original version of this post identified the Hydra Head Records founder as Aaron Harris, instead of Aaron Turner.
Shows planned for the spring have now become the band’s farewell tour, which includes a stop at the Troubadour on June 5 and the Bonnaroo festival before ending in Montreal on June 23, a coincidental bit of scheduling that finds the band’s final show happening in the same city that hosted its first in 1997.
The band added that it also has plans to finish a final EP, compile material for potential future live releases and “generally doing whatever we can to make our music available for as long as there are people who wish to hear it.”
Watch a video for Isis’ slow-burning “20 Minutes / 40 Years” from its excellent 2009 album, “Wavering Radiant,” after the jump.
-- Chris Barton
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