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Ghost Iris

Apple Of Discord

Written by: PP on 16/03/2021 19:38:05

Ghost Iris is gearing to release their fourth album in the coming months, which is how I discovered we somehow missed reviewing their third album "Apple Of Discord" when it was originally released two years ago, which should be almost criminal for a Danish magazine consider the band originates from Copenhagen. Better late than never, because to build a proper frame for how the band has evolved, it's best to uncover their full story before taking on their new effort, so here goes.

"Apple Of Discord" essentially picks up from where "Blind World" left off in 2017. It delivers djenty, progressive metalcore packaged in easily-accessible, sub-four-minute slices of technical intricacy, modern ambiance, and international class in the vein of TesseracT, The Contortionist, or even the original thall masters, Vildhjarta. The songs are characterized by thick growls contrasted by higher pitch cleans, and plenty of down-trodden, bass-heavy breakdowns as is customary to djent in general, encompassed in pitch-perfect production that deserves high praise throughout.

Not content at just brutalizing the soundscape and mixing it up with technical fretwork, Ghost Iris also ensure variety to make the record stand out. For instance, "Final Tale" is immediately catchy despite following a textbook djent formula, but where the band excels is on a song like "Heaven Was Pure Hell" or "Beauty In Expiration", both lofty, floating, atmospheric pieces where singer Jesper Vicencio's vocal range is on full display. The way he switches from guttural growls to emotionally charged, post-hardcore-esque cleans feels effortless and therefore convincing, resulting in infectious hooks that compete with the very best available in the genre.

There's no reason why you'd skip over a Ghost Iris song to go for one by Periphery anymore in the same genre, that's how professional these boys sound anno 2019. If anything, "Apple Of Discord" cemented Ghost Iris as undoubtedly the best -core band in Denmark right now, and also cautiously suggests, based on how consistent they have been throughout three albums so far, that they just might be the best metal band in Denmark right now aside from Møl.

Download: Heaven Was Pure Hell, Final Tale, The Devil's Plaything, Beauty In Expiration
For the fans of: The Contortionist, Periphery, TesseracT, The Safety Fire, Vildhjarta
Listen: Facebook

Release date 22.02.2019
Long Branch Records