ISIS Farewell Tour, East Coast Dates with Cave In & the Melvins

Let's not talk about Lost. What a disappointing finale to years of fanaticism and declaring it the best show on television. Obviously, we'll have to watch it all over again...


More important is the new of Isis coming to an end. "We've seen too many bands push past the point of a dignified death," the band stated, "and we all promised one another early on in the life of the band that we would do our best to ensure Isis would never fall victim to that syndrome." There's nothing wrong with admitting that you've reached the end of your creative project. Ring leader Aaron Turner is comparable to Jacob Bannon of Converge for this visual and sonic creativity as a powerful presence and the figurehead for Isis. While the latter band is still going strong, it's highly likely that the members of Isis will reinvent themselves into something much greater. Together for the last 13 years, Isis is best known for its run with Ipecac records, which was partially founded by Mike Patton (you know who he is, c'mon). He claims that Isis was "a major part of our label's foundation." Oceanic is definitely their best record on the label.

But with the bad news there is some good, and it is that Isis will embark on a final North American tour from late May through late June. Dates below. DO NOT MISS THIS TOUR.

May 26 @ The Casbah, San Diego, CA
May 29 @ Wow Hall, Eugene, OR
May 30 @ Capitol Theatre, Olympia, WA
May 31 @ Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver, BC
Jun 1 @ Neumo’s Seattle, WA
Jun 2 @Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
Jun 4 @ Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
Jun 5 @ The Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA
Jun 12 @ Bonnaroo Festival, Manchester, TN
Jun 14 @ 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA
Jun 16 @ 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
Jun 17 @ Theater Of Living Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Jun 18 @ Webster Hall New York, NY
Jun 19 @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Jun 20 @ Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA
Jun 21 @ Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA
Jun 22 @ Port City Music Hall, Portland, ME
Jun 23 @ Club Soda, Montreal, Quebec

Metal Essentials: At The Gates 'The Flames of the End' DVD Box Set

The entirety of this past weekend was filled with Unsound moments, but before the mayhem began on Friday evening I attended a screening for what will be part of the forthcoming At The Gates box set. The first disc is comprised of 'Under a Serpent Sun: The Story of At the Gates,' which was filmed and directed by founding member Anders Björler, who was in attendance that afternoon. With a band lifespan that only existed from 1990 to 1996, the documentary was rich with information of the growth of metal in and around Gothenburg in the late 80s. Dropping names like Grotesque (which would later evolve into At the Gates) and Dark Tranquility, members of the band talked about Cascade fanzine and the bus route surrounding Billdal that united all of these factors and formed their underground community.



A great deal of attention is given to Alf Svensson, who left the band in 1993 to open his own tattoo shop. He went on to form Oxiplegatz, which is a music project I'm now in the process of hunting down. There was also mention, towards the end, of twin brothers Anders and Jonas Björler's involvement with The Haunted, which is definitely one of the best bands to come out of the Swedish metal scene. Overall, the screening was just a taste of the box set's entirety, and it looks to be an impressive collector's item for any fan. Though Anders lived through the entire experience, making a documentary years after his band's existence is no small feat and it was well executed because of its constant flow of history and portrayals of each member's down to earth personalities.

From Noisecreep: "The set will be limited to just 300 copies, and will include the forthcoming three-DVD set, 'The Flames of the End,' which boasts a new two-hour documentary and a live DVD of At the Gates' iconic performance at the Wacken Open Air festival in 2008. The set will also feature a collection of rare and archive footage of the band playing around the world from 1991 to 2008."

Definitely worth pre-ordering, which you can do here.