Isis

Isis helped invent post-metal, taking the crushing weight of Neurosis and the Melvins and stretching it into long, slowly unfolding pieces. Co-founded in Boston in 1997 by Aaron Turner, who also ran Hydra Head Records, they began as pure sludge and noise on early EPs like Mosquito Control and The Red Sea.

Oceanic is where their tidal dynamics came into focus: clean, chiming guitar passages swelling into walls of distortion and Turner's guttural roar, then ebbing away again. Panopticon, In the Absence of Truth and Wavering Radiant refined the formula with more melody and more space.

They split in 2010. Turner has since led Sumac and, in 2026, joined Neurosis as vocalist, while other members formed Palms with Deftones singer Chino Moreno.