In the Absence of Truth marks a significant shift in Isis’s evolution, embracing a more fluid, introspective, and melodic approach while retaining the band’s core sense of weight and emotional depth. Where earlier records built towering structures of sound, this album feels more organic and flowing, shaped by interlocking guitar lines, intricate rhythms, and a sense of movement that unfolds like shifting light. It is a patient and richly textured work, one that rewards deep listening and offers a nuanced emotional palette that stands apart from the heavier focus of earlier releases.
The album opens with Wrists of Kings, a spacious and hypnotic track built around clean guitar motifs and subtle rhythmic growth. The song slowly gathers intensity, layering gentle melodies with gradually tightening tension. Its pacing introduces the album’s central theme: the coexistence of fragility and power, woven together into a seamless whole.
Not in Rivers, But in Drops brings more urgency, built on percussive guitar interplay and a strong forward momentum. The rhythmic intricacy gives the track a sense of restlessness, while the restrained heaviness shows the band favoring atmosphere over sheer force. Dulcinea moves into a gentler, more meditative space, guided by warm tones and drifting melodic lines that build toward a controlled and focused crescendo.
The album reaches one of its most compelling points with Over Root and Thorn, where shifting patterns and layered guitars create a dreamlike sense of movement. The interplay between soft passages and heavier bursts feels natural and organic, showcasing a band comfortable exploring subtle emotional terrain. 1000 Shards continues in a similarly exploratory vein, with cyclical patterns and evolving textures that feel almost trance-like.
All Out of Time, All Into Space stands out as one of the most atmospheric moments on the record, drifting through delicate rhythms and spacious arrangements that allow the music to breathe. The track evokes a sense of suspension, as if floating between emotional states without fully landing in either. Firdous E Bareen continues this contemplative mood, building slowly from quiet tension into a more forceful and focused release, driven by layered instrumentation and carefully controlled dynamics.
The album concludes with Garden of Light, one of its strongest and most emotionally resonant pieces. It brings together everything the record explores: gentle beginnings, slow-building intensity, interwoven melodic lines, and a final ascent into grandeur without sacrificing subtlety. The track offers closure while leaving a sense of lingering openness, fitting for an album defined by fluid transitions and understated power.
Across In the Absence of Truth, Isis prioritizes atmosphere, texture, and emotional nuance over the crushing heaviness associated with their earlier work. The guitars interlock in delicate, spiraling patterns, the rhythms emphasize movement rather than sheer weight, and the overall mood feels introspective and illuminated from within. Instead of towering monoliths, the music resembles flowing architecture, shaped by patience and detail.
This album stands as one of the band’s most refined and mature statements. In the Absence of Truth shows Isis embracing melody, exploring vulnerability, and expanding their sound into new terrain without abandoning the depth, intention, and emotional clarity that define their work. It remains a beautifully constructed and deeply immersive record, offering a different but equally compelling perspective on what heavy music can express.
