Taking to the stage promptly at 12:50 pm, the Boston quintet tore through a 40-minute set of heavy sonic opuses with enough force to shift many of the large mountains surrounding the gorgeous grounds of the Naeba Ski Resort. Had guitarist and vocalist Aaron Turner screamed any louder, we may seen a few crumble to the ground.

Concentrating on material from 2004's epic Panopticon, Isis took their time building up their densely woven art metal. Equal parts shoegaze and hardcore, each of the half-dozen tracks presented started off slowly. Mixing spacey interludes with bit of noise, Turner would step to the mic and unleash a round of vicious, blood-curling growls as each song reached its peak. On cue, his bandmates would join in with a blistering round of hard, aggressive music. With the veins in his neck looking like they were ready to explode at any moment, he barked out his lyrics as the large crowd nodded in approval.

Initially I was a little worried about the band playing so early in the day in such a bright, spacious area. Isis took my fears, stamped the shit out of them, and then beat me over the head with the battered remains as they launched into the fantastic "Backlit." Playing with remarkable intensity, the guys had little trouble reaching the sun-basking bodies sprawled throughout the entire field with their earth-shattering noise. Rocking out on stage, their massive walls of swirling noise brought smiles to the faces of all of the awestruck spectators in attendance.