This Day In Music History: April 21st, 2009 – Isis release final post-metal epic, “Wavering Radiant”

To be blunt, the world needs more bands as talented and groundbreaking as post-metal icons Isis. It’s honestly a shame they aren’t around any more to grace us with their presence, but who can complain about a band who helped bring and evolve post-metal to a wider audience – much like bands like Godflesh and Neurosis? After 5 full-lengths, perhaps the time was right to disband, having hit a highwater mark on 2004’s Panopticon.

Or, perhaps their final album Wavering Radiant, which was released on this day in 2009, was that pinnacle. Eventually becoming the band’s most commercially successful album, Wavering Radiant is a distillation of everything Isis had done to date – a true experience, if you will. While it’s difficult to say if it tops Panopticon or Oceanic in influence and scope, perhaps it’s the dissonant chords and haunting melodies halfway on “Ghost Key” that say more than words ever could – that Isis, even over a decade after their final album, are vitally important.

Editor’s Note: If you’ve never really dove in to the post-metal or sludge metal genres of music, Isis are the band you want to target. I can tell you from experience that hearing Panopticon and Wavering Radiant opened up a whole new world of music for my younger self, and are absolutely essential listens.