Isis
Panopticon
(Ipecac)

The Panopticon is a prison concept conceived by Jeremy Bentham in 1787 with his publication of The Panopticon Letters. The Panopticon is based on self-control: a cylindrical prison tower with all rooms on the outside wall, backlit from floor to ceiling so the prisoners cannot hide, even in silhouette. There is a central observation tower, inside which the prisoners cannot see. Because the prisoners cannot see when they are being watched and when they are not, they must assume they are constantly under supervision, thus imposing a self-control stronger than visible guards would be able to achieve. At least, that’s the concept.

This isn’t the only recent time the Panopticon has shown up in pop culture. The Panopticon as a metropolitan concept is currently being beta-tested in London and Los Angeles through the use of omnipresent street cameras - this was referenced by Ice Cube a decade ago. It was featured in two Playstation 2 games from 2004: in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, one of the boroughs of Los Santos, their parody of Los Angeles, is named "The Panopticon," and Silent Hill 4: The Room has a level that takes place in a circular prison tower with internal observation rooms.

So what does all this have to do with the new Isis record? The heck if I know, the vocals sound like Cookie Monster with a headcold, so who knows what they’re actually singing about. Even when the vocals are toned down, they’re too buried in the mix to make anything out. There are no choruses, so if the song titles even appear in the lyrics, it’s impossible to tell. But most of the album is instrumental anyway. Using the familiar ‘90s concept of light and shade stolen from Led Zeppelin, Isis alternates between clean, chorused, sparsely picked guitar and bass to distorted, barely discernible riffs and the aforementioned growling, some of pretty well off-pitch.

Panopticon is a mood record, with simple, repetitive guitar riffs and no solos, intense drumming or typical metal guitar harmonization. The songs are all between six and ten minutes long. It’s more of an art rock album that happens to have a few grindcore elements in it than a traditional or even modern metal album. It’s nothing like Lamb of God or Mastodon – think sleepy Deftones with vocals a few octaves down. I’ll call it a moody, relaxing art metal record with grindcore vocals, and recommend it, but only if you already have a taste for that sort of thing.

-Mario


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