IRIST are your new favourite band.
They may officially hail from Atlanta, but these nations-uniting metallers look set to follow in the footsteps of some South American greats
WHEN SEPULTURA RELEASED
Beneath The Remains on April 7, 1989, they kicked open the gates for a global metal revolution, sending out a simple message that it didn’t matter where you came from: if your band kicked ass, it could conquer the world. Almost 31 years (and several thousand bands from every corner of the planet) later, that story is set to start afresh with the arrival of Order Of The Mind, the debut album by Atlanta, Georgia’s
Irist. If you’re wondering how Atlanta can possibly play a part in the global metal movement, just consider its contributions to the world in recent years have included the likes of Mastodon, Whores and Norma Jean, and that Irist’s members hail variously from Argentina, Chile and Brazil respectively (with a couple of local Atlantans for diversity).
“When I first met Bruno [Segovia, bass] in Atlanta there was a fairly thriving underground Latino metal and hardcore scene going on,” explains guitarist and founding member Pablo Davila. “The connection most people made was about heritage; it was Latinos making music and it didn’t matter if it was a ska band playing with a metal band or whatever. But over the course of a few years it all fell apart.”
Nonetheless, the existence of such a scene helped to sow the seeds for what would later become Irist, its members taking what they had learned playing in various bands in Atlanta’s Latino underground scene and applying them to an ambitious new project. Formed in 2015, things didn’t truly come together for Irist until they recruited Rodrigo Carvalho, their
SOUNDS LIKE: Ambitious, world-conquering
metal
FOR FANS OF: Gojira, Conjurer,
Fear Factory
LISTEN TO: Burning Sage
Brazil-born vocalist who had moved to the city with his wife. Despite earning a scholarship in the city some years prior, Rodrigo admits it wasn’t easy in the immediate aftermath of moving to the city. “At the time I knew nobody other than my wife. It can be very lonely in the cities, especially if you can’t get around. I became incredibly depressed, worried that I’d never find the right people.”
Scouring classified ads, Rodrigo eventually came into contact with a local band that just so happened to be in need of a vocalist. Already involved in the underground scene (including a side-project with Pablo himself), Rodrigo made a natural fit for Irist. But even in these early stages, the wheels were already in motion for the band to shoot for the stars, having established a connection with legendary A&R rep Monte Conner (the same man who’d signed Sepultura more than three decades prior).
“Joining the band was a bit like jumping on a moving train, basically!” jokes Rodrigo. “There was a lot of pressure; they had three songs ready to send but Monte had never heard me, so I had to put everything in to make sure things worked and all their hard work wasn’t wasted!”
THIS THREE-TRACK DEMO
went down a storm and the band were soon snapped up for a record deal with Nuclear Blast, securing not just funding for their debut record, but enough to fly thousands of miles across the ocean to record in the exotic environs of, erm, Southampton. Why there, of all places? Well, they were chasing the trail of another 21stcentury metal sensation in the making.
“Adam [Mitchell], our other guitar player, came across the last Conjurer album, which was recorded and mixed by Lewis Johns,” explains Pablo. “We were just trying to find someone who could capture the drum sound we wanted and we loved what he achieved; we pitched that to Monte and everything kinda worked out!”
Combining the ambitious heaviness of Gojira, the ferocious intensity of Conjurer and a small-dose of inspiration from 90s metal legends for reference, Irist have all the ingredients for a 21st-century metal phenomenon on Order Of The Mind.
Spread across 10 tracks, the record showcases the diversity and creativity of their sound, not easily traceable to any one band or subgenre of metal. “Even though we all like more or less the same bands, we each built a different relationship with music,” Pablo says. “In my case, metal was in the background a lot when growing up and I got a lot more exposure to traditional stuff my parents listened to. We wanted to take all these different styles and textures and have everything come together and become one mass.”
“I think for South American teens it’s not uncommon to have a very similar background,” agrees Rodrigo.
“You grow up listening to traditional folk, but also like metal. Folk is so much part of your culture and identity that it’s always there.”
While these influences aren’t so overt as in, say, Roots or newer bands like Alien Weaponry, there’s no denying that a deep sense of pride and identity exists at the heart of what
Irist do, accentuated by Rodrigo’s lyrics,
“ATLANTA HAD A THRIVING LATINO METAL SCENE!”
which speak of triumphing over adversity (“based on a mix of personal experience and life in general!” he says). With an overarching message of triumph and behemoths like Nuclear Blast already on board, it’s fair to say Irist could very well be the next global heavy metal sensation.
“Monte is responsible for signing one of the biggest reasons I do this!” exclaims Pablo. “I think because we come from Brazil and other South American countries, it strikes up memories of finding Sepultura – it feels like coming full circle!”
ORDER OF THE MIND IS OUT NOW VIA NUCLEAR BLAST