Avant-garde metal entity An Isolated Mind—the work of one Kameron Bogges—popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, in March 2019 with debut album I’m Losing Myself. Created as a reflection of Bogges’ struggle with bipolar disorder, An Isolated Mind twisted a black metal base into a fusion of rage, grief, sadness, fear and every other negative emotion, liberally pulling from genres of music like goth, post-rock, ambient and drone.
I’m Losing Myself isn’t meant to stand on its own, however. It is the conclusion to a trilogy, prefaced by two EPs. The first, entitled Part I: Olanzapine Dreams, is available for streaming now and will be officially released on January 5. Bogges takes a much more subdued approach on Olanzapine Dreams, eschewing vocals and instead opting for a buzzing, spaced-out post-rock-driven atmosphere. According to Bogges, the EP was recorded immediately after hospitalization for severe mental illness. The thick, hazy soundscapes that An Isolated Mind summon are like the sonic equivalent to the days after a mental breakdown: calm, quiet and murky.
The second EP, 314413, is only available on tape. Bogges explained in a Facebook post that he recorded the EP, a single track, immediately prior to hospitalization; by keeping it exclusive to a tape, Bogges explains that it keeps An Isolated Mind as far removed from reality as possible.
Regardless of stance on the cassette revival and physical media, An Isolated Mind is one of the most interesting extreme metal projects to appear in 2019. Stream I’m Losing Myself and Olanzapine Dreams via Bandcamp below; physical orders can be placed here.
