ISAAK – HEY

 

 

ISAAK – HEY
Heavy Psych Sounds – 2023
Rock, Stoner, Punk, Metal
Rated: *****

We’ve all been there at one point in our lives. Zonked out in front of the television. Late a night, waiting for the fried stuff to be ready. Drinking that final drink. Or nursing one of those king hell hangovers, hoping that it will lift, if you just sit completely still and stare at that coma inducing screen in front of you. And for some weird reason, it is always stuck on tell sell or whatever home shopping network was available in your neck of the woods. And among the adverts, a wonderous knife that would slice and dice through everything, whatever stands in its way. And when you hear those cutting riffs, that high energy, fast paced, speed inducing rest of the new ISAAK album, you get why this is that first opening intro track. Off center to what the new HEY album brings you; it sets you up for that majestic run through the stoner rocking, stoner metal landscape. Formed around 2007 on the outskirts of Genua as Gandhi's Gunn, they renamed themselves ISAAK around 2012 and re-released the final Gandhi's Gunn eight-track album The Longer the Beard, the Harder the Sound a year later with four added tracks, two of which were covers. Vocalist Giacomo Boeddu and guitarist Francesco Raimondi are still present from that line-up, but bass and drums are provided by a new tandem. But even so, those punky stoner metal beginnings are still there for you to enjoy and still doused in a lovely layer of fuzz. And as with wine and age, there is more maturity in every composition. Just listen to spacious, dark, alt-rock third track Except, featuring Fabio Cuomo from Gotho, Elder and Fabio Cuomo’s own solo project and Bernardo Russo from YALDA and Berna. Seasoned in subject, the restraint in delivering the riffs and energy, shows the new line-up knows all about control and layering. For those harrowing howls sit exactly right in the mix, the subdued vocals later on as well. A wonderful composition start to finish, followed by the more speeding, barreling train track Rotten. Still retaining melodic parts, it’s that highly determined delivery that will hook you first, before getting you high with that big rise during the ‘choruses’. As ISAAK has always put a cover song on their previous albums, to honor their early influences, there is nothing unusual about the fact that we hear a song by punk band The Wipers this time around. ISAAK brings Over The Edge into the 21st century and gives it a new spotlight for this heavy rock generation, and they do that exactly right! Intense and groovy is Dormouse, grungy and monstrous is Fake It Till You Make It, where every hard rocking section seems to his own very slick energy. By the time the brooding, moody, almost prog sludge approaching final track Goodbyes Are Always Very Sad rolls over you, you cannot wait to hear that second, the title track HEY again with its boisterous huge high adrenaline push and explosive sound. And yes, before you do that, you will head off into the kitchen, get that knife out and make yourself another caprese sandwich or something else you can slice and dice like a maniac. Cause you just can’t stop eating… everything ISAAK!

(Written by JK)

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