siLLy puPPy One of the many examples of a band getting together in a remote region and recording a single release and then disappearing from the scene. This band ISOTOPES emerged out of the Okeefenokee Swamp and settled in the small town of Waycross, Georgia in 2012 before dropping this sole five track EP onto the world in 2014.

While virtually nothing can be found about this band, it has been established that the members are Henry Deane (vocals), Brandon Hardee (guitar, vocals), Terryn Mock (bass, vocals), Logan Inman (guitar) and Austin Lane (drums) thanks to the scant info given on the band’s Bandcamp page. The EP is only 24 1/2 minutes long in duration so not a very big chunk of music for a band to put out and it’s a mystery if they’ll ever follow up.

This music is an angsty form of djent guitar fueled progressive metal with choppy time signature rich guitar riffs, jazzy drum workouts, nice reverb-rich distortion and angry shouted vocals that are more in the vein of metalcore or grindcore while the music dishes out melodic yet prog-fueled musical accompaniments. The bass is cool sounding as well with nice bantering counterpoints beneath the independently operating guitar and drums.

This is really a decent slice of djent prog metal here. There are occasional clean vocal parts which at times remind me of bands like Intronaut or even Cynic and they sometimes alternate with the screamed angsty ones. The production is excellent with perfectly mixed metal bombast mixing with the cleaner soft passages and music while not the absolute most original in the universe is still excellently performed as all the musicians sound like seasoned veterans in firm command of their craft.

Overall this is a great album! The mix of core fueled rage with sci-fi space metal sounds is perfectly balanced and while certain core styles of metal can get boring really quickly, ISOTOPES does a great job of balancing it out with varying tones, timbres, tempos and mood shifts accompanied by nice progressive complexities without drifting off to far to derail the overarching continuity. To make it even more satisfying is the stellar production and mixing job. OK guys, where the hell are you? Did an alligator drag you back into the swamp? Make boots outa him and get back to the recording studio!