It’s been a few weeks of relative calm and peace in my world, that has been, up until this point, a year of real ups and downs across the board. Reviewing for this esteemed website, Ave Noctum, has, at times, represented a safe harbour, an inlet against the back breaking headwinds and malcontent that has seemingly manifested itself from nowhere. It may be a combination of things that has coalesced into something slightly more impactful, but writing has given me somewhat of a break from that, and having been away from my metaphorical quill, parchment, and ink, it’s with a contented sigh and a cracking of knuckles, that I dive back into the pool of new music after existing on a steady diet of music that is at least twenty or so years old. And that is the thing, having the chance to experience something new, exhilarating, fresh and in your face. And so, to Atlanta’s (via Argentina and Chile) Irist and this their follow up EP to 2020’s album ‘Order of The Mind’ which cultivated quite the cavalcade of hyperbolic reviews and frenzied mob of scenesters throwing themselves at the band as if heralding the second coming of Christ. Listening to that album, you can see what got the metal community and major labels all in a tizzy. It’s all crisp, razor-sharp metallic riffs, undercut with propulsive double bass drums with staccato metal roaring vocals, courtesy of singer Rodrigo Carvalho. It’s as fresh smelling as a recently mown lawn or a freshly painted door.
It may be a controversial statement to make but make it I shall, if you’re going to ape, copy or be influenced by a band or bands, pick those that sit astride their chosen genre like Jabba The Hut. Not as in a fat, slug like creature, with a predilection for dropping people into pits, eating bugs and ogling young girls in gold bikinis, no, more in that they are masters (and mistresses) of all they survey, being the champions and scene leaders that they are. It is unavoidable that comparisons to a couple of bands, loom large in the room (for the avoidance of doubt said room is this review) like a pissed off elephant that has missed his tea. Before I do though, I feel somewhat of a fraud. I have to be honest that I have read through numerous articles and reviews of Irist, in the interests of research and the same couple of bands pop up time and again like a teenage boy’s erection. And listening to both their first album, and even more so on this EP, it’s not just French tech metallers Gojira that are referenced but also genre bucking space metal overlords Mastodon. I can certainly hear they influences within this bands DNA. There are also elements of post metal and alt rock influences at play here, certainly on both ends of the heavy scale. You can hear hints of Pelican, ASIWYFA and The Ocean here and there, where the music stretches itself out in its less metallic moments, which allows the musical ashes envelop you like a Pompei firestorm, creating an ethereal plane of which to soak yourself in its pervasive sandy, wind-blown vignettes.
But in the EPs heavier moments, the percussive thudding double bass and chugging guitars are underpinned by the judicious use of the ride/bell cymbals, punctuating the growling staccato vocals, that has to be said, is about as close to plagiarism as it can be. Close your eyes and I would ask you to take the Pepsi challenge as to who are you listening to here, Irist or Gojira? Now, this may seem like this album is ripe for a slagging, and on paper it should be, but there is something to this band, that is compelling, intriguing, and new. There is enough in Irist’s locker that allows them to escape criticisms of their obvious hero worship and elevates this collection of songs into the interesting bucket rather than being consigned to the bin marked, hackneyed, derivative nonsense. There are moments here that recall early Fear Factory in the syncopated drums, riffing and the robotic, metallic vocal effects dressed in with a side salad of eerie samples and washes of keyboards. It may lack the immediacy and metallic mayhem of say Fear Factory, but it does show a band with more than one string to their bow, and for that they should be commended.
This is an interesting collection of songs from a band, that are obviously being touted as the next big thing and with the various instruments and accoutrements of a major label behind them, you’d be expecting Irist to be popping up on some fairly major support slots shortly and on the basis of their debut album and this EP, I would encourage you to get into the venue early and check them out.
(8/10 Nick Griffiths)
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