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Isthmus’s debut Land Bridge is a hell of a powerhouse though not quite a self-titled release. The Baltimore quartet combines the best elements of other recent single-named metal bands like Isis, Neurosis, Pelican, Mastodon, and Baroness while adding some mathier elements normally found in groups identified by longer monikers such as Behold…The Arctopus.

Land Bridge has a lot of ideas going on at once. It’s dense and it stretches from ambient noise into crushing riffs into melodic bliss. Most of the songs are efficiently instrumental; where there are vocals, they add rather than detract – a difficult feat for any band this technical.

The Perihelion suite, showcasing the band’s technical prowess while the exhibiting dynamic control of melody and feel, is worthy of its own EP. No, I don’t know why the band has three songs about early January and the location of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun. But all of the songs are fantastic and the ambient pieces break up the depth of ideas into more easily digestible packets of intense riffing.

Much like last year’s The Black Black by Solace, I can’t stop listening to Land Bridge. There is one glaring problem with this disc, though: it’s too short, even at 41 minutes. Fortunately, the sheer amount of ideas enable vast re-listens.

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