Isis – ‘CLearing The Eye’ DVD Review

George Orwell once wrote something along the lines that the less money you had, the less you cared about spending it. The same seems to be true of artists, that the more obscure they are, the more generous they become. This DVD from ISIS seems to be a case in point, featuring a wealth of live material, an interesting promo video, a photo gallery and a discography, this is a generous offering from a very special band. 

Split into two sections, the live material is uniformly excellent in the audio department, but visually less enthralling. The first section is a selection of seven tracks from various venues, and of varying quality. The tracks from the Troubador, in LA, for example, are pro-shot and interesting to watch, while the tracks from CBGB’s are filmed from a static camera, somewhere near the back of the venue, and so offers little in the way of excitement. That said, the choice of tracks is inspired including fan favourites such as ‘Celestial’, ‘Weight’ and ‘Gentle time’ as well as a couple of rarities. The second section is a full performance shot on tour in Australia and offers professionally shot footage, a set list that makes you wish like hell you’d been there (drawn largely from ‘Panopticon’) and a blistering audio mix. This section forms the real meat of the DVD and it doesn’t disappoint. 

On top of this you get a well-shot and interesting promotional video which recalls Massive Attack’s creepy ‘Angel’ promo video,  a rather odd photo gallery (with lots of shots from the band themselves) and the aforementioned discography which, while far from complete, covers a large amount of ISIS related activity. To compliment the package you get a booklet with track-by-track liner notes from the band as well as song lyrics for the featured music. 

While this DVD is not really for the curious, for fans of the band this is an essential purchase, which documents just how powerful ISIS are in the flesh. Readily available from internet stores (I tracked a copy down at Amazon) this is a little treasure for art-metal fans to drool over.