IRIST. A word that’s not a word. Contained inside, however, are words—rist, iris, and stir—that hold not just heavy meaning but are powerful descriptors that define the boundless potential of extreme metal’s newest and brightest hopeful. Rist is to carve a rune (or symbol) into stone. The concept of permanence and longevity is rife throughout IRIST’s debut album, “Order of the Mind”. The recently formed quintet have, in effect, crafted a debut that will withstand time. An iris can refer to a mechanism that controls light received or a flower that has, since time immemorial, represented courage and wisdom. Indeed, there’s nothing but courage on display by three of IRIST’s five members who travelled from their South American homelands to arrive at, live in, and form a band in Atlanta. To stir is entirely musical. The thrum of heavy emotion imbued into and emanating out of singles ‘Burning Sage’, ‘Creation’, and ‘Severed’ is above and beyond the outfit’s mere five years together. At once a representative of contemporary anxiety and old-fashioned aggression, “Order Of The Mind” is hewn from the very same things that made SEPULTURA’s “Chaos A.D.”, MACHINE HEAD’s “Burn My Eyes”, MASTODON’s “Crack The Skye”, and GOJIRA’s “The Way Of All Flesh” so timeless and irrepressibly great. In short, IRIST’s debut, “Order Of The Mind”, is a must-hear.
