Celestial is the debut album by American post-metal band Isis, released in 2000 by Escape Artist and Hydra Head Records. It is their third "official" solo release and first full length.
A year later, Isis released SGNL>05, an EP designed to act as an extension to Celestial; its tracks were all directly culled from the Celestial recording sessions.[4] Frontman Aaron Turner describes them as being “part of the same whole”, separated from each other because releasing a double album for the group's first full-length may have been overbearing for listeners.[5]
In addition to the regular CD and vinyl LP editions, Celestial is available in a double release, coupled with its sister EP, SGNL>05. On June 5, 2013, it was announced that Celestial would be re-issued by Ipecac Recordings with new artwork from Turner, as well as the audio having been recently remastered by James Plotkin.[6]
Themes
Turner has acknowledged that the album deals with the erosion of privacy as technology advances, in a similar vein to 2004's Panopticon; however, he states that the theme is dealt with in a “more primitive way” on Celestial.[7] Towers are described as ‘thematic’ material by Decibel's Joe Gross.[8]
Celestial was named the 53rd-finest metal record of the decade by Decibel, stating that "it's seen as a transitional record between the band's early work and the post-metal benchmarks such as Oceanic, but Celestial holds up in ways different from their later work [...] the elements of the greatness are present, but rawer, more direct."[8]Rock Sound placed it at #3 in their rundown of their top albums of 2001[18] and Metal Hammer named it one of the 20 best metal albums of 2000.[19] In 2011, William York, writing for AllMusic, described the album as Isis' best, and argues that the record needs to be “given time” – that it eventually develops an “almost epic feel”.[9]
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