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Featuring current and former members of various Boston bands, Isolant have resurrected the "industrial crust" sub-genre from the dead. Taking influences from Godflesh, Pitchshifter, Coil and mixing it with a thick late 1980s UK crust influence of bands like Deviated Instinct, this EP represents a resurrection of the long dead style. From selecting an IBM Selectric font for the back cover text to retain the feel of the time period, to using Pantone spot-ink printing to achieve that '80s hue, to the skillful mastering of Carl Saff for maximum loudness, no detail was spared in the process of making this EP and capturing the spirit of the industrial crust style.
Our take: Social Napalm Records’ first release after Savageheads’ phenomenal LP from last year is a total left-turn musically. The label’s description refers to Isolant as “industrial crust,” and in a lot of ways it sounds like some strange fusion of Ministry and Amebix, borrowing the former’s layers of harsh, distorted percussion and the latter’s epically chugging riffs. However, what sticks out to me about Oblivion is how stretched-out and psychedelic it is. Its seven-plus minute songs never seem in a hurry to get anywhere, but they’re constantly morphing and developing, fading from quiet and meditative passages into huge crescendos, making the music seem almost geologic in scale. While those crust elements are present on Oblivion, I think the people who enjoy it most will be those who appreciate its wideness of scope, who find as much pleasure in droning as thrashing.
Our take: Social Napalm Records’ first release after Savageheads’ phenomenal LP from last year is a total left-turn musically. The label’s description refers to Isolant as “industrial crust,” and in a lot of ways it sounds like some strange fusion of Ministry and Amebix, borrowing the former’s layers of harsh, distorted percussion and the latter’s epically chugging riffs. However, what sticks out to me about Oblivion is how stretched-out and psychedelic it is. Its seven-plus minute songs never seem in a hurry to get anywhere, but they’re constantly morphing and developing, fading from quiet and meditative passages into huge crescendos, making the music seem almost geologic in scale. While those crust elements are present on Oblivion, I think the people who enjoy it most will be those who appreciate its wideness of scope, who find as much pleasure in droning as thrashing.