The new work from Mike Gallagher of Isis finds him using a subtle touch with sparse guitars and hazy drones to create instrumental atmospherics with a dramatic edge. While it works great as background music, there are also plenty of nuances to reward attentive listening.
"Allusions" begins the album with a low-end pulse and sustained notes while a clean, minimal electric guitar plays. Other textural sounds make themselves known as the guitar slowly takes on a central role. Most of the songs here don't stray too far from that formula, but neither do they all sound the same. "It Darkens His Door" uses subdued distorted riffs, while "Equilibrium" takes a more delicate approach. The best tracks are the last two. "The Night Splits, Wide and Open" uses epic builds to achieve a dramatic conclusion, and "And It Falls by the Gallons" uses bouts of churning, sputtering distortion to cathartic effect. The most ordinary song is "Ruminations of Before." It's not a bad track by any means, but it is a little boring compared to the others.
I like this album better than Nova Lux. The compositions are structured a bit more cohesively yet still retain a unique mood, one that never fails to immerse me completely.
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