Review: Iris Divine – Karma Sown
Apr 19
Iris Divine – Karma Sown (Prog Metal/Hard Rock; Laser’s Edge Records)
Released March 31st, 2015
The progressive side of metal has had a burgeoning popularity of late, with more less-than-straightforward acts seeing their albums in year-end lists than ever before and prog groups attracting even some level of mainstream acknowledgement (though keep in mind, we’re still talking about metal here, so ‘mainstream acknowledgement’ generally means little more than hearing a Mastodon song on the radio during daylight hours). With that growth we are being blessed with a little more variety beyond the masturbatory twiddlings of Dream Theater on one end and the ‘we should sound more metal but still have a god-awful singer like Dream Theater’ mantra of Periphery-esque bands on the other end. Instead of a generation of open-minded musicians influenced primarily by Rush and Yes, we are now living in a generation of open-minded musicians primarily influenced by Tool and Alice in Chains. It is perhaps with the debut album Karma Sown from Virginia natives Iris Divine that we see this fact most clearly.
With the first track, ‘The Everlasting Sea’, the band starts things off with no frills; launching the album with thick guitar riffing and a driving beat that sets the hard-rocking attitude for most of the record to come. And hard rock is a good identifier, as Iris Divine clearly embraces that part of their sound more so than the proggy tendencies while still keeping enough of the latter’s tricks to keep things interesting. For example, the opening track does some slight wandering structurally speaking, but by no means very far, while the vocal melodies clearly nodding to the power prog of Symphony X. And If the opener was an obvious nod to one influence, the following track, ‘Fire of the Unknown’ adds a completely new flavor to the mix by featuring a set of versus harkening to the clean ballads of Scandinavian power metallers (think Stratovarius or Sonata Arctica) that leap into gritty, grunge-fueled choruses that could nearly fit onto earlier Alice in Chains albums. Hell, add some higher nasal register to vocalist/guitarist Navid Rashid’s delivery during the meaty parts of the song and he’d be channeling Layne pretty decently. Other tracks, such as ‘Mother’s Prayer’ carry the soulful groove and crunch of King’s X and Living Colour, while still others carry the power ballad vibe of bands such as Fates Warning.
And speaking of things Doug Pinnick, it’s more than worth noting that while all three musicians in the group are obviously comfortable in their respective shoes, it’s a breath of fresh air not only to hear bassist Brian Dobbs so well in the mix but to hear a bassist taking that much of a lead in modern hard rock/heavy metal. In a three piece band it’s important to give each instrument its own space to fully explore in order to realize the sonic and song structure potential a larger group is capable. Iris Divine seems to comprehend the concept well, as everyone is giving their space both in terms of songcraft and in the production itself.
If there’s any bone to pick with Karma Sown at all–and to be honest, there hardly is–it is the fact that in this veritable mash-up of noticeable influences, Iris Divine’s style seems to lack an overall cohesion of them all. Each song can be categorized in reference to one or two spiritual muses, which is something I generally make it point to avoid in my reviews, though I’ve found myself unable to resist doing for this album (as the many name-drops can attest to). It would be nice to see a slightly more amalgamated and smoothed over style that incorporates all these nuances into a solidified palette. The band clearly has a direction of their own, I just don’t think it is being entirely realized on their debut; but if anything that just means a healthy anticipation is warranted for a sophomore effort sometime down the road.
While no wheels are being reinvented on Karma Sown, the album still features a fresh breath of modern prog metal and hard rock that is more than listenable for any number of spins. For a debut effort, Iris Divine are coming out of the gates strong with a style that blends a wide but complementary set of obvious influences into a signature sound which offers something different from the current crop of prog-metal progenitors. Which is no slight on the current scene at all; the metal community is blessed at the moment with some serious new talent in the field (Haken, Intronaut, Leprous, etc.) and newcomers Iris Divine are already contributing their fair share quite nicely.
8/10
