EP Review: Ishtar Terra - Isolator
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
This 5 song EP from Londoners Ishtar Terra, goes off like a bath bomb with opening track and first single “Blue Light Squalor” as it’s fizzing from the beginning and just begging you to dive in. It kicks off with an almighty riff from Keiran Dhanjal and then joined in unison by some pulverising drums from Arun Dhanjal. It’s a relentless pace from the quartet and shows no sign of letting up.
The band describe their music as fast, heavy and dynamic, with infectious grooves (no, not the Mike Muir led band) dissonant riffs and teeth grinding screams from vocalist Charlie Webb. One thing that is clear, is the rhythm section provided by bassist Adam Kingsley and drummer Arun, are audible in the mix, which always makes the music more pleasurable for me.
Second song “A Day in the Death” is another heavy hitter incorporating different genres and crossing boundaries of hardcore, post and death metal. The riffs come at you rapidly but it’s the drumming that steals the show on this one with the intro and outro guitar riffs also being enjoyable to listen to.
“Sins of the Father” begins with a guttural roar from Webb, before the riff kicks in and it all feels a bit chaotic, but in a controlled way, again crossing boundaries before the best song on the EP “Slaughtering a Racist” comes along to rip your face off. It is nonstop aggression, and will no doubts lead to some pain in the most pits for those who dare to enter. Everything on this song just works perfectly, and the riff throughout the song is excellent, with that bass sound coming through loud and clear and gives real depth to the song.
The EP is wrapped up with “Ouroboros” and again has an unstoppable riff ably assisted by a stinging rhythm section. This has much more of a hardcore feel to it, with a slower break midway through with added heavier parts later in the song but it doesn’t detract from that feeling that Ishtar Terra are not just full of bark, but they bite, and bite hard.
