Isis' first official release, this 1999 EP shows off a few different facets of the band's hardcore/doom/sludge/metal style, which at this stage was already pretty impressive despite not yet having fully developed to the point it would on subsequent efforts.
From the hateful screaming and dense guitar/bass sludge of "Charmicarmicarmicat Shines to Earth" to the pummeling riffs and downshifting grooves of "The Minus Times" and on through the discordant guitars and more stretched-out song structure of "Red Sea," the band's influences (some of which are plainly acknowledged in the liner notes) show through pretty clearly: the Melvins, Earth, Bastard Noise, Eyehategod, Soilent Green, Neurosis, Coalesce, etc.
That it is to say, Isis is drawing on a who's who list of underground heavy-music gurus, and if this EP feels a little bit more like them "doing their homework" than a later album like Celestial does, it still outshines the work of many of their peers.
The CD version of The Red Sea contains 21 minutes of additional, non-filler quality material taken from a 1998 demo, bringing the disc's total length up to 36 minutes.
Thus, the CD is an especially good deal for Isis fans, though it should be of some interest to fans any of the above-mentioned groups, too.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Minus Times | Isis | Play | 05:25 | 12 MB | 39 MB |
| 2 | Red Sea | Isis | Play | 07:17 | 16 MB | 51 MB |
| 3 | Smiles and Handshakes | Isis | Play | 06:02 | 13 MB | 41 MB |
| 4 | Catalyst | Isis | Play | 04:26 | 10 MB | 30 MB |
| 5 | Ochre | Isis | Play | 04:40 | 10 MB | 32 MB |
| 6 | Charmincarmicat Shines To Earth | Isis | Play | 02:23 | 5 MB | 14 MB |
| 7 | Lines Across Eye | Isis | Play | 05:52 | 13 MB | 40 MB |
| 8 | Hand Of Doom | Isis | Play | 08:36 | 19 MB | 57 MB |
| 44 mins | 102 MB | |||||
| 44 mins | 308 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kurt Ballou | Engineer, Producer |
| 2 | A. Harris | Drums |
| 3 | Mike Hill | Engineer, Producer |
| 4 | Isis | Mastering, Primary Artist, Producer |
| 5 | C. Mereschuk | Noise |
| 6 | Dave Merullo | Mastering |
| 7 | Grail Mortillaro | Photography |
| 8 | J.B. Randall | Electronics, Vocals |
| 9 | Aaron Turner | Guitar, Layout Design, Vocals |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |