Isobel Rain's debut album Taphos adds to the rich tapestry of thought around death, hoping to approach it from a new perspective. It is a largely genre rejecting work; while it pulls elements from Isobel’s love of progressive rock and metal as well as ambient music and post-rock, its ultimate goal is to serve its own story and message, while asking its listen to pose their own questions and beliefs.
Taphos was entirely written, performed, recorded, and mixed by Isobel Rain between the spring of 2022 and the end of 2024. It was mastered by Owen Goertz at Poised Studios. The album cover painting was done by Margaret Alpen, and edited by Isobel Rain.
Taphos is a conceptual work that reflects on the cycle of life and death, as well as the continuous nature of the energy that flows through everything, forever and always. While the album follows the story of one passage from life to death and back again, it reflects the cycles of every element, sentient and not. Existing on both a spiritual and physical level, the energy woven into everything and everyone will never cease. In this way, death is not a barrier, but simply the end of our role as our energy's torch bearer. As our bodies fade, that energy is taken up by those around us- by our family and friends, but also by the fungi and bugs, or maybe the fire, that consumes us. They take their turn, then pass it on when they go.