ISLE OF THE CROSS — Excelsis (review)

ISLE OF THE CROSS — Excelsis album cover

Album · 2020 · Progressive Metal

3.5/5 · 2020-10-12
siLLy puPPy

In many ways modern metal is vying to usurp classical music and opera as the most advanced and sophisticated musical expression ever heard by humankind and while early metal like Judas Priest or Black Sabbath may not take things to that level, so many contemporary bands certainly are. One such case is the brand new band ISLE OF THE CROSS which apparently comes from Sonora, CA in the USA and only formed a couple years ago in 2018. The band is led by the creative mastermind Je Schneider who is the lead songwriter, producer, mixer and master engineer. He is also the lead vocalist and hires a few extras to help out.

Along for the ride on EXCELSIS the band’s first and so far only release are Eric Gillette (guitar), Eric Castiglia (additional vocals) and Diane Lee also adding extra vocals. It’s unclear who plays bass, keyboards, drums and all those extra sound effects but i’d bet it’s Schneider who is actually a one-man band with a few guests helping out. Whatever the case, EXCELSIS takes on an epic one hour progressive journey through various metal styles that reminds me a bit of a heavier and choppier version of Ayreon in how things are strewn together. The album has twelve tracks including the two-part “The Wolf” and three-part “The 9th Circle.”

I’ve been reading that the band’s main influences are Opeth and Symphony X but ISLE OF THE CROSS doesn’t sound like either really however the progressive nature of the album will find a plethora of influences on board. Yes there are death metal riffs and choppy industrial black metal grinding as well but for much of this album it’s based on symphonic metal that relies on atmospheric keyboards that can accompany rampaging metal bombast or act alone with brief moments of ambient non-metal etherealism. There are even choirs that begin with the opening “Sacrifice” which immediately makes the album sound like one of those metal opera deals that Arjen Lucassen from Ayreon is so famous for.

Add the orchestral arrangements and the biblical influences and you have a bona fide progressive behemoth that wends and winds all over the place but as far as the metal elements go it’s pretty much a chugfest that becomes a little tedious over the album’s one hour span. EXCELSIS in all its excesses seems to be a vision not matched by the performances at hand and although this is by no means a throwaway album in the end i’m left unsatisfied thinking that the whole thing could’ve been thrown together in a much more cohesive manner that offers a bit more variety over the chugfest rampaging riffs or the choir soaked symphonic orchestrations. Add to that a touch of cheesiness in the female vocals with the slower metal that sounds like the worst possible ballad and well, you get the picture.

Not a bad debut but lots of room for improvement. While the progressive touches in the songs are nice and the no particular tracks is bad per se, the true problem arises in the fact that the arrangements just don’t jive well together and there needed to be more emphasis on the sum of the parts approach instead of just a wankfest that leads to random circuitous cul-de-sacs. Whatever the case, i can tell that there is latent talent lurking in these parts and ISLE OF THE CROSS is certainly a band to watch out for as the juggling act of disparate genres has just begun but sadly too many bowling bowl pins were dropped in this particular performance. We haven’t made it to Cirque du Soleil level yet.