In the Absence of Truth
Encyclopedia
In the Absence of Truth is the fourth full-length studio album by Los Angeles, California
-based post-metal
band Isis
, released by Ipecac Recordings
on October 31, 2006. Vinyl release was handled by Conspiracy Records.
The album expands upon the group's previous full-length, Panopticon
, further exploring lead singer Aaron Turner
's clean vocals (though his former techniques, which relied more on screaming and growling
are still present as well). Musically, the album is dynamic, ranging from extended musical ambience
to almost tribal drumming. Isis continued their lengthy songwriting; Absence is in fact Isis' longest record, at almost 65 minutes.
and others in Los Angeles
. Aaron Turner
later confessed that the album "suffered" due to this situation. Jeff Caxide
also felt discontent and dissatisfaction with the album, stating that In the Absence of Truth was “the kind of record I listen to and think ‘that could be better, and that could be better, and that could be better,’ and I think we all kind of felt that way”. Drummer Aaron Harris
felt that the band pushed themselves too far musically, too; having learned a wealth of new techniques prior to its recording, he says he “grew so much as a drummer [...] that it was overwhelming even for me.” He continues: “I think I was trying to show off a little bit [...] I think everybody was.” The eventual record proved dissatisfactory, with him opining that “some of it sounded a bit jumbled. I think a lot of things were happening that we didn't know what to do with.”
The release date was announced as October 31, 2006, shortly following the release of DVD
Clearing the Eye
and a collaboration with Aereogramme
entitled In the Fishtank 14
, both of which were released in September. To promote the album, Isis supported Tool
on a North American tour from August to September. Following the release, they went on a headlining tour of North America.
In celebration of Isis' tenth anniversary, the tracks "Holy Tears
" and "Not in Rivers, but in Drops
" were each released in single format in February and October 2008, respectively. Each release contains a live rendition of the title track, a remix, and a music video.
, and came in for criticism regarding certain aspects. For instance, a review in Q Magazine stated that the album uses "a powerful formula, but one the band perfected with their 2002 album Oceanic
", and Delusions of Adequacys Joe Davenport felt that "In the Absence of Truth finds the band both spinning its wheels and running out of ideas".
However, some reviews viewed that similarity as positive, and perceived it more as progression and evolution than repetition. Stylus Magazine
repeated similar sentiments as those of the previous reviews, but did not feel that re-using a successful formula was a burden, Cosmo Lee saying "it's not Isis' fault that they sound unoriginal these days. All you have to do is pick up a copy of Decibel, open it to any page, and you’ll find someone counting the group as an influence [...] The songs are still long, the rhythms are still organic, and in general Isis still sounds like Isis". Despite having said this, the review is still very positive. PopMatters
repeated the views of Lee, stating Isis are "a band knowing how to execute the formula to near-perfection", and Thom Jurek of Allmusic expanded upon that point further, stating "this set is not a brave leap [...] but a further look up the holy mountain to a new plateau, a hike to sacred ground". Drowned in Sound
reviewer Mike Diver, however, viewed the album differently; that Isis have "pushed themselves on this album, striving to achieve something honestly different to what was released before it". An IGN
review described it as "unique and free from boundaries", and it has been labeled as "Isis' masterpiece", as well as their "most compelling work to date". Writing for Alternative Press, Aaron Burgess states that "save for the brief distorted squalls of "Garden of Light" and the pummeling metallic grooves of "Not In Rivers, But In Drops," there's barely anything keeping Isis tethered to the rigid "post-metal" genre they helped inspire".
The sound of the album drew complimentary comparisons to Tool
and Godspeed You! Black Emperor
, being praised for its subtlety and gradual evolution of structure. However, some critical responses to the similarity with Tool were not so positive, with Joe Davenport arguing that "In the Absence of Truth plays out like some mediocre hybrid of Tool and Panopticon". Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork Media
posits that "the set's so finely wound that on the first few listens it seemed like the steady diet of Tool had perhaps transformed Isis into an emaciated, innocuous version of their older selves". However, he continues to suggest that the album "just require[s] close (and repeated) listening to initiate an unravelling". Tracks selected as stand-outs include "Not in Rivers, but in Drops", "Garden of Light", and "Dulcinea", specifically praising the climax of the piece. "Holy Tears" is labeled as revealing the "true, outward strength of Isis", and is selected as "a beacon of light in the darkness" in a generally scathing Delusions of Adequacy review.
Decibel
placed the album thirteenth in its top albums of 2006, as well as facetiously awarding Tool the "Isis Rip-off Band of the Year" award.
The album features no printed lyrics, but it seems likely to connect with Isis's past legacy of concept albums, wherein some of the lyrics (such as "She was his queen" from "Dulcinea") relate to past themes. Turner has confirmed the presence of a concept: "I won't say what the concept is, but I can give you some clues about what inspired it: Hassan-i-Sabbah, the Islam
ic mystic cult leader,[ Miguel de Cervantes'] Don Quixote, [ Mark Z. Danielewski's
] House of Leaves
, and[ Jorge Luis Borges'
] Labyrinths
." However; from repeated explanation of what inspired Oceanic
and Panopticon
, his stance changed. "Through explaining the last two albums time and time again, I just started to become weary of the topic, and I started to feel like I was losing my connection to the music and the lyrics simply from having repeated it so many times. And for me, personally, it's really important to maintain that connection as much as possible. I feel there's a lot of emphasis these days placed on explaining everything in such a fashion that there's really nothing left for the listener or reader to explore themselves. It's all spelled out. So it's interesting to leave some of that stuff open-ended so they have do to a little bit of legwork themselves." Drummer Aaron Harris explains this further, saying that the album is based “on personal perception of anything [...] and what's true and what's not true.”
Gitta Sereny
's book on Nazi Minister of Arms, Albert Speer
, also inspired Turner; to him, it illustrated how society has a “tendency to portray the enemy as very one-sided and one-dimensional.”
The album takes its title from a quote often attributed to Hassan-i-Sabbah: "Nothing is true, everything is permitted". When it comes to how this quote relates to the album's concept, Turner is again reluctant to reveal too much. "I'll just say that much of working on this record, for me, was about the power and nature of perception, and the ways in which it affects our behavior and the way we see the world," he says. "I'll just leave it at that, and people can draw their own conclusions."
Track titles explicitly reference Hassan-i-Sabah's garden Firdous e Bareen
, and Dulcinea
, a character in Don Quixote. In relation to Dulcinea, Turner does allow a hint at the meaning: "That is just toying with the idea of perception, and the very thin line between illusion and reality", he says.
The cover artwork is described as "somewhat representational", but that the gauze-like strips don't "necessarily indicate one specific object or another". However, Turner having previously stated that "the songwriting and the artwork come from the same place". It is "sort of at the heart of what [he] was writing about. And also, there's a progression of ideas from this very tightly bound, opaque mass into something that eventually starts to split up and open up and evolve into nothingness."
The band released lyrics from certain tracks ("Dulcinea", "Garden of Light") on T-shirt designs, and in 2009 all the album's lyrics were made available on their official website.
Other personnel
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
-based post-metal
Post-metal
Post-metal is a music genre, a mixture between the genres of post-rock and heavy metal.Hydra Head Records owner and Isis frontman Aaron Turner originally termed the genre "thinking man's metal", demonstrating that his band was trying to move away from common metal conventions...
band Isis
Isis (band)
Isis was a Los Angeles, California-based post-metal band, founded in Boston, Massachusetts, with a career spanning from 1997 to 2010...
, released by Ipecac Recordings
Ipecac Recordings
Ipecac Recordings is an independent record label based in California. It was founded on April 1, 1999 by Greg Werckman and Mike Patton Ipecac Recordings is an independent record label based in California. It was founded on April 1, 1999 by Greg Werckman (ex-label manager of Alternative Tentacles,...
on October 31, 2006. Vinyl release was handled by Conspiracy Records.
The album expands upon the group's previous full-length, Panopticon
Panopticon (album)
Panopticon is the third full-length album by Los Angeles, California based post-metal band Isis, released by Ipecac Recordings in 2004. The album's title is derived from philosopher Jeremy Bentham's panopticon prison ideal and philosopher/historian Michel Foucault's later allegorical appropriation...
, further exploring lead singer Aaron Turner
Aaron Turner
Aaron Turner is a musician, singer, graphic artist, and founder of label Hydra Head Records. He is most widely known for his role as guitarist and vocalist for the post-metal band Isis, while also participating in several other bands and projects such as Old Man Gloom and Lotus Eaters.Though raised...
's clean vocals (though his former techniques, which relied more on screaming and growling
Growling
Growling or growl is a low, guttural vocalization produced by predatory animals as a warning to others, as a sign of aggression, or to express anger. Low or dull rumbling noises may also be emitted by human beings when discontent with something or angry...
are still present as well). Musically, the album is dynamic, ranging from extended musical ambience
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
to almost tribal drumming. Isis continued their lengthy songwriting; Absence is in fact Isis' longest record, at almost 65 minutes.
Recording and release
Details regarding the album were sparse; completion of the album was announced via a blog post on July 8, 2006. While the record was in the writing and recording stages, some band members were based in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and others in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Aaron Turner
Aaron Turner
Aaron Turner is a musician, singer, graphic artist, and founder of label Hydra Head Records. He is most widely known for his role as guitarist and vocalist for the post-metal band Isis, while also participating in several other bands and projects such as Old Man Gloom and Lotus Eaters.Though raised...
later confessed that the album "suffered" due to this situation. Jeff Caxide
Jeff Caxide
Jeff Caxide is an American bassist, best known for his time with post-metal band Isis, of which he was a founding member and present until its dissolution in 2010. He was also a founding member of Red Sparowes, but left after the release of their first full-length. He also contributed to...
also felt discontent and dissatisfaction with the album, stating that In the Absence of Truth was “the kind of record I listen to and think ‘that could be better, and that could be better, and that could be better,’ and I think we all kind of felt that way”. Drummer Aaron Harris
Aaron Harris (Isis drummer)
Aaron Harris is an American drummer, best known for his career with Los Angeles, California-based post-metal band Isis. He was with the band from its inception in 1997 to its dissolution in 2010...
felt that the band pushed themselves too far musically, too; having learned a wealth of new techniques prior to its recording, he says he “grew so much as a drummer [...] that it was overwhelming even for me.” He continues: “I think I was trying to show off a little bit [...] I think everybody was.” The eventual record proved dissatisfactory, with him opining that “some of it sounded a bit jumbled. I think a lot of things were happening that we didn't know what to do with.”
The release date was announced as October 31, 2006, shortly following the release of DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
Clearing the Eye
Clearing the Eye
Clearing the Eye is the first DVD release by the Los Angeles post-metal band Isis. It features live videos , the "In Fiction" music video, photo galleries, lyrics for all songs featured, a complete discography, and a 20 page booklet.The DVD was originally to include a full documentary of the band,...
and a collaboration with Aereogramme
Aereogramme
Aereogramme were a Scottish alternative/post-rock rock band from Glasgow, consisting of Craig B. , Iain Cook , Campbell McNeil and Martin Scott...
entitled In the Fishtank 14
In the Fishtank 14
In the Fishtank 14 is a collaborative EP from Isis and Aereogramme. It is the fourteenth installment of the collaboration project by Konkurrent, and was released in September 2006...
, both of which were released in September. To promote the album, Isis supported Tool
Tool (band)
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...
on a North American tour from August to September. Following the release, they went on a headlining tour of North America.
In celebration of Isis' tenth anniversary, the tracks "Holy Tears
Holy Tears
"Holy Tears" is a single by American post-metal band Isis. It was released in 2008 by Ipecac Recordings on CD and vinyl format, the latter limited to 2000 copies. It is their first ever single, taken from their 2006 album In the Absence of Truth...
" and "Not in Rivers, but in Drops
Not in Rivers, but in Drops
"Not In Rivers, But In Drops" is a single by Los Angeles, California-based post-metal band Isis, released in 2008 on Ipecac Recordings. It is their second single, taken from their 2006 album In the Absence of Truth...
" were each released in single format in February and October 2008, respectively. Each release contains a live rendition of the title track, a remix, and a music video.
Reception
Overall, the album garnered mixed to positive reviews, receiving a 70% score on MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, and came in for criticism regarding certain aspects. For instance, a review in Q Magazine stated that the album uses "a powerful formula, but one the band perfected with their 2002 album Oceanic
Oceanic (Isis album)
Oceanic is the second full-length album by American post-metal band Isis, released on September 16, 2002 by Ipecac Recordings.On July 23, 2006, Isis performed Oceanic in its entirety at KOKO, Camden Town, London as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties curated Don't Look Back series. This performance...
", and Delusions of Adequacys Joe Davenport felt that "In the Absence of Truth finds the band both spinning its wheels and running out of ideas".
However, some reviews viewed that similarity as positive, and perceived it more as progression and evolution than repetition. Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine
Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....
repeated similar sentiments as those of the previous reviews, but did not feel that re-using a successful formula was a burden, Cosmo Lee saying "it's not Isis' fault that they sound unoriginal these days. All you have to do is pick up a copy of Decibel, open it to any page, and you’ll find someone counting the group as an influence [...] The songs are still long, the rhythms are still organic, and in general Isis still sounds like Isis". Despite having said this, the review is still very positive. PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
repeated the views of Lee, stating Isis are "a band knowing how to execute the formula to near-perfection", and Thom Jurek of Allmusic expanded upon that point further, stating "this set is not a brave leap [...] but a further look up the holy mountain to a new plateau, a hike to sacred ground". Drowned in Sound
Drowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
reviewer Mike Diver, however, viewed the album differently; that Isis have "pushed themselves on this album, striving to achieve something honestly different to what was released before it". An IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
review described it as "unique and free from boundaries", and it has been labeled as "Isis' masterpiece", as well as their "most compelling work to date". Writing for Alternative Press, Aaron Burgess states that "save for the brief distorted squalls of "Garden of Light" and the pummeling metallic grooves of "Not In Rivers, But In Drops," there's barely anything keeping Isis tethered to the rigid "post-metal" genre they helped inspire".
The sound of the album drew complimentary comparisons to Tool
Tool (band)
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...
and Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a Canadian post-rock band which originated from Montreal, Quebec in 1994...
, being praised for its subtlety and gradual evolution of structure. However, some critical responses to the similarity with Tool were not so positive, with Joe Davenport arguing that "In the Absence of Truth plays out like some mediocre hybrid of Tool and Panopticon". Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
posits that "the set's so finely wound that on the first few listens it seemed like the steady diet of Tool had perhaps transformed Isis into an emaciated, innocuous version of their older selves". However, he continues to suggest that the album "just require[s] close (and repeated) listening to initiate an unravelling". Tracks selected as stand-outs include "Not in Rivers, but in Drops", "Garden of Light", and "Dulcinea", specifically praising the climax of the piece. "Holy Tears" is labeled as revealing the "true, outward strength of Isis", and is selected as "a beacon of light in the darkness" in a generally scathing Delusions of Adequacy review.
Decibel
Decibel magazine
Decibel is a monthly heavy metal and extreme music magazine published by the Philadelphia-based Red Flag Media. Since October 2004, Decibel has featured a plethora of extreme metal bands and musicians. Its sections include Upfront, Features, Reviews, Guest Columns and the Decibel Hall of Fame...
placed the album thirteenth in its top albums of 2006, as well as facetiously awarding Tool the "Isis Rip-off Band of the Year" award.
Themes
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic mystic cult leader,
Mark Z. Danielewski
Mark Z. Danielewski, born March 5, 1966 in New York City, New York, is an American author, best known for his debut novel House of Leaves...
House of Leaves
House of Leaves is the debut novel by the American author Mark Z. Danielewski, published by Pantheon Books. The novel quickly became a bestseller following its March 7, 2000 release. It was followed by a companion piece, The Whalestoe Letters...
, and
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
Labyrinths
Labyrinths is an English-language collection of short stories and essays by Jorge Luis Borges.It includes "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius", "The Garden of Forking Paths", and "The Library of Babel", three of Borges' most famous stories. Many of the stories are from the collections Ficciones and El...
." However; from repeated explanation of what inspired Oceanic
Oceanic (Isis album)
Oceanic is the second full-length album by American post-metal band Isis, released on September 16, 2002 by Ipecac Recordings.On July 23, 2006, Isis performed Oceanic in its entirety at KOKO, Camden Town, London as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties curated Don't Look Back series. This performance...
and Panopticon
Panopticon (album)
Panopticon is the third full-length album by Los Angeles, California based post-metal band Isis, released by Ipecac Recordings in 2004. The album's title is derived from philosopher Jeremy Bentham's panopticon prison ideal and philosopher/historian Michel Foucault's later allegorical appropriation...
, his stance changed. "Through explaining the last two albums time and time again, I just started to become weary of the topic, and I started to feel like I was losing my connection to the music and the lyrics simply from having repeated it so many times. And for me, personally, it's really important to maintain that connection as much as possible. I feel there's a lot of emphasis these days placed on explaining everything in such a fashion that there's really nothing left for the listener or reader to explore themselves. It's all spelled out. So it's interesting to leave some of that stuff open-ended so they have do to a little bit of legwork themselves." Drummer Aaron Harris explains this further, saying that the album is based “on personal perception of anything [...] and what's true and what's not true.”
Gitta Sereny
Gitta Sereny
Gitta Sereny is an Austrian-born biographer, historian and investigative journalist whose writing focuses mainly on the Holocaust and child abuse. She is the stepdaughter of the economist Ludwig von Mises....
's book on Nazi Minister of Arms, Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
, also inspired Turner; to him, it illustrated how society has a “tendency to portray the enemy as very one-sided and one-dimensional.”
The album takes its title from a quote often attributed to Hassan-i-Sabbah: "Nothing is true, everything is permitted". When it comes to how this quote relates to the album's concept, Turner is again reluctant to reveal too much. "I'll just say that much of working on this record, for me, was about the power and nature of perception, and the ways in which it affects our behavior and the way we see the world," he says. "I'll just leave it at that, and people can draw their own conclusions."
Track titles explicitly reference Hassan-i-Sabah's garden Firdous e Bareen
Firdous e Bareen
Firdous e Bareen was the name of the ancient Persian garden, supposedly located in the fortress of Alamut, in the Elburz mountains of Northern Iran, in which Hassan-i-Sabah and his band of Nizari Ismaili Shiite Hashshashin took refuge.According to some accounts, this Paradise garden, imitating...
, and Dulcinea
Dulcinea
"Dulcinea del Toboso" is a fictional character who is referred to in Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quixote. Seeking the traditions of the knights-errant of old, Don Quixote finds a true love whom he calls Dulcinea. She is a simple peasant in his home town, but Quixote imagines her to be the most...
, a character in Don Quixote. In relation to Dulcinea, Turner does allow a hint at the meaning: "That is just toying with the idea of perception, and the very thin line between illusion and reality", he says.
The cover artwork is described as "somewhat representational", but that the gauze-like strips don't "necessarily indicate one specific object or another". However, Turner having previously stated that "the songwriting and the artwork come from the same place". It is "sort of at the heart of what [he] was writing about. And also, there's a progression of ideas from this very tightly bound, opaque mass into something that eventually starts to split up and open up and evolve into nothingness."
The band released lyrics from certain tracks ("Dulcinea", "Garden of Light") on T-shirt designs, and in 2009 all the album's lyrics were made available on their official website.
Track listing
Personnel
Band members- Jeff CaxideJeff CaxideJeff Caxide is an American bassist, best known for his time with post-metal band Isis, of which he was a founding member and present until its dissolution in 2010. He was also a founding member of Red Sparowes, but left after the release of their first full-length. He also contributed to...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Aaron HarrisAaron Harris (Isis drummer)Aaron Harris is an American drummer, best known for his career with Los Angeles, California-based post-metal band Isis. He was with the band from its inception in 1997 to its dissolution in 2010...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Michael GallagherMichael Gallagher (Isis guitarist)Michael Gallagher is an American guitarist, best known for his work with post-metal band Isis. He joined them in 1999 for their debut LP Celestial, having previously been a member of Cast Iron Hike...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - Bryant Clifford MeyerBryant Clifford MeyerBryant Clifford Meyer is a keyboardist, guitarist and vocalist, best known for his tenure with Los Angeles, California-based post-metal band Isis. He was with the band since its debut full-length, Celestial, in 2000. Previously, he was a formative member of Boston-based rock band The Gersch...
– electronics and guitar - Aaron TurnerAaron TurnerAaron Turner is a musician, singer, graphic artist, and founder of label Hydra Head Records. He is most widely known for his role as guitarist and vocalist for the post-metal band Isis, while also participating in several other bands and projects such as Old Man Gloom and Lotus Eaters.Though raised...
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, guitar and hand-drawn artwork
Other personnel
- Matt BaylesMatt Bayles-Information:Bayles is known for his work with bands such as Isis, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Botch, Mastodon, The Fall of Troy, Minus The Bear, Burnt by the Sun and Norma Jean....
– audio engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, audio mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
and productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... - Ed Brooks – mastering
- Jason Hellmann – website designWeb designWeb design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...
- Mike Gerlach – assistant engineer
- Greg Moss – live sound
- Caleb ScofieldCaleb ScofieldCaleb Scofield is a bassist and singer mostly known for playing bass & contributing vocals in the alternative metal band Cave In, and is now most active with his own sludge metal band Zozobra. Caleb is also a part of the sludge band Old Man Gloom. He currently lives in Boston with his wife and...
– additional vocals on "1,000 Shards" - Charley Turner – additional vocals on tracks "Not in Rivers, but in Drops" and "Holy Tears"
- Troy Ziegler – additional percussion and acoustic guitar on "Firdous e Bareen"
Chart positions
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical... |
6 |
| US Billboard Top Independent Albums | 20 |