New release! Iris Divine - Mercurial
Iris Divine released their latest album recently and it’s another MUST LISTEN. I had the honor of playing percussion on it again and even got an arranging and engineering credit!
Here are some of the reviews coming in:
“The focus on delivering the right riff and rhythm section combination…keeps Iris Divine away from being a mere ‘technically brilliant’ band only for the musician set – logical songwriting skills are paramount.” Dead Rhetoric
“An Iris Divine album always gives you a unique experience, but this time it comes with genuine bounce and swagger. This is an enjoyable album, taking the band in a more commercial direction, and another definite for the playlist. 9/10 Powerplay Magazine
"The musicianship from a trio is quite impressive...Brian Dobbs is also a monster on the bass guitar, playing with the fluidity of Geddy Lee and the ferocity of Les Claypool...an intelligent and sophisticated sense of songwriting. The production is also top notch. You don’t want to miss this one." Metal Temple
Navid was more than happy for me to come up with whatever ideas I had after listening to all the demos. A lot of the guitar and keyboard lines translated easily to mallet percussion (glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, and/ xylophone) in my head. The industrial aspects conjured up concert bass drum hits, brake drum clangs, thundersheet wallops, and gnarly sounding effect cymbals. We also experimented with cowbell, rototoms, darabuka, djembe, hand claps, gas can, shakers, bell tree, concert toms, a jazz ride cymbal, extra snare drums, vibraslap, and I’m sure a lot more. Some of the instruments like vibraphone, marimba, and glockenspiel play in unison or in harmony with the keys and/or guitar (the breakdown of “Sapphire” especially), some instruments play their usual role (cowbell and shaker) and some add texture and impact (bass drum, effect cymbals, thundersheet etc).
The idea was to at least HAVE the options to bring into the mixing stage and then cut the fat off. A lot made it, a lot didn’t. Of course the end result is tasteful as a lot ended up being superfluous anyway.
Here is an example of the mallet parts in “Sapphire”-
And here it is in context with the bass, keys, and guitar-
Some more pics-
Here are all the pertinent links. I hope you check out this great new album!
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3agYpE1
Apple: https://apple.co/3sQ9iTt
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/en/album/312597437
Youtube: https://youtu.be/E5Za-QWwtMY
Bandcamp: https://irisdivine.bandcamp.com/
CDs and T-shirts: https://irisdivine.bigcartel.com/
CDs outside of North America: https://www.layered-reality.com/.../iris-divine-mercurial/