As announced last week with great sadness, Isis are calling it quits. The band's label has now announced the details of the band's latest release, a split CD with Melvins. Here's the official Hydra Head press release:

"The long running and the longer running. The finite and the perpetual. Two of the last studio tracks from a band now in their final days, and two songs from a band who will potentially outlive us all. Isis. The Melvins. If you enjoy music of the heavier variety and haven't heard either of these aural entities you are also probably unaware of other modern developments such as disposable contacts, the internet, and Snuggies.

As mentioned above the two Isis songs featured on this split are amongst the last recorded output to be released by the band, and are (relatively) exclusive to this 12". The first, "Way Through Woven Branches" has previously only been available as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of their most recent full length Wavering Radiant. The second track "Pliable Foe", has never been released anywhere, and believe or not (at the time of this writing anyway), has managed to escape being sucked into the shadowy vortex of illegal internet file sharing. Both tracks were recorded during the sessions of the aforementioned Wavering Radiant album and continue along the trajectory established therein - in other words, long and winding strands of melody wrapped around jagged blocks of shuddering distortion. A fitting close to a continually evolving but coherently developed cannon of recorded works, and appropriately paired with one of their early and admitted influences, that being The Melvins.

The Melvins tracks featured on the flipside of this platter are culled from their latest full length album "The Bride Screamed Murder", albeit in highly altered forms from what appears there and are exclusive to this release. Remixed and reworked by the band themselves along with the help of ever nimble and able engineer and ally Toshi Kasai, these tracks are prime examples of The Melvins persona as we've come to know it - alternately jarring, tuneful, heavy, and bizarre. While the album versions of these tracks may fall further on the side of the "heavy" and "rocking", on display as presented here is the dadaist/trickster tendencies of the band which has frustrated and delighted fans in equal measure since (very nearly) the beginning of their existence. Never content to let the listener settle into a comfortable groove, the will to disrupt and dismay may prove satisfying for some and confounding for others. In any case, if you know and love The Melvins (like we do) these songs will be another must have addition to their ever growing library of aural curios."


Melvins/Isis Split [cover art] tracklist:

[Melvins:]
01. Pig House (Alt. Version)
02. I'll Finish You Off (Alt. Version)

[Isis:]
01. Way Through Woven Branches
02. The Pliable Foe

Source:	hydraheadlines.blogspot.com
Band profile:	Isis