Isles & Glaciers – The Hearts Of Lonely People

Isles & Glaciers

The Hearts Of Lonely People

Equal Vision Records

March 9th 2010

The storm that has become to be known as Isles & Glaciers all started this time last year with a video from Alternative Press Magazine. The video announced a new “supergroup” featuring members ranging from Chiodos, Emarosa, Pierce The Veil, The Receiving End Of Sirens and Underminded. Shortly after the announcing, Isles & Glaciers went on hit radio station 89X in Detroit, Michigan and premiered three songs titled “Clush, Empty Sighs and Wine and Hills Like White Elephants”. Needless to say, someone recorded these songs and leaked them on the internet and the kids swarmed to get their hands on them.

Not even a few months later, after Isles & Glaciers announcing they would be playing their first (and only to date) show at SXSW. This performance was plagued with battling for the spotlight on stage, and bad sound mixing. The kids at the show seemed to enjoy it immensely and seemed to know the words due to the leaking of the songs. Sadly, this is the last we’d hear about Isles & Glaciers for a while. After months and months of intense anticipation, a lonely tweet popped up on I&G twitter, it read “The EP is tracked!”. Up until last month’s press release about the release date and tracklisting, the band didn’t say a word.

Finally, Isles & Glaciers comes to fruition, and it was worth the wait. This seven track EP features the three leaked songs, two instrumentals and two songs unheard by the public. “Viola Lion” is nothing short than musical brilliance, tranquil guitar riffs and ambient samples laying the foundation for “Viola Lion”. “Viola Lion” is a great example of the amazing vocal work of Craig Owens, Vic Fuentes and Jonny Craig. Each of them sound like they are at the top of their game and don’t plan on coming down anytime soon.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was disappointed with the two instrumental tracks on this EP. It seemed like they tried to make “Empty Sighs and Wine” longer with a recycled bit thats plays quite redundantly through the track, and removing a string of vocals for this bit to flow well. It’s a catch-22. This same “executive decision” is apparent in their single “Hills Like White Elephants”.

When listening to this album, one of the many thoughts racing through my head was how hard it would be to place Isles & Glaciers into a certain genre. It seems like they are trying to encompass everything that is good in certain genres and stick it in a blender. The soft sounds of pop, the rough edge of hardcore all while showing what sets this group of guys apart and what brings them together.

Almost every album released these days has their good and bad parts and fortunately the good outweighs the bad in this case. “The Hearts Of Lonely People” is some of Jonny Craig, Craig Owens and Vic Fuentes best vocal work to date. “The Hearts Of Lonely People” might be the only album we see from Isles & Glaciers but they set the bar to a new height and I doubt we will see anyone reach it anytime soon.

Written By – Ethan W.