Customer Reviews

Wrath

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Being an enormous fan of the previous album (Awakening), my expectations for Wrath were astronomical. That is the only reason I felt the slightest bit let down by it initially. However, with each listen I like it more and more (which is exactly how Awakening was for me too) and now I absolutely freakin' love it! It does use significantly more guitars, which may at first seem offputting to synth purists, but soon you realize that those classic Iris melodies are all still there, and in top form, and the guitars don't take away from any of the brilliance. The one track that reigns supreme in my eyes is the wonderful, vengeful "Hell's Coming With Me." It's one of the darker and faster tracks from this album. I love it - it makes me want to go kick the butt of someone who's done me wrong. On the opposite end of the spectrum is my definite least favorite, "Guide On Raging Stars." Sadly, I think the music in this track is beautiful, but vocally it's disappointing - especially the bridge, which is strange and discordant and just doesn't sit right with me. Despite these things, though, I still like the song a lot and wouldn't even consider skipping over it. Other favorites are "No One Left To Lose," "It Generates" (which has an awesome, slightly creepy sampled outro that's one of my favorite moments), "Appetite," "Intercede Light," and the touching closing track, "Delivered One," which is musically reminiscent of Radiohead or even Death Cab for Cutie. The former three seem like the most obvious choices for singles, but the album really is great from beginning to end. It has much more consistency or flow than Awakening (which is neither a bad thing nor a good thing). I loved the diversity on Awakening, but I like that Wrath is somewhat thematic - almost conceptual. For those familiar with Iris, Wrath will not disappoint in the end. For those new to Iris, you NEED to own both Wrath and Awakening. Classics to the last drop. Iris is at the very top of their game, right alongside (and possibly even surpassing) genre-mates De/Vision, Mesh, Camouflage, and of course the one that started it all: Depeche Mode.

Sometimes a beautiufl voice manages to become the instrument that you need to here and you listen, noticing all the beauty it houses. The lyircs, the structure, the way that you can become those things for just a second; singers have a power that is really hard to understand but, in the presence of a great one, you sense something inside their words. That was what I thought about Iris when I first heard then, and it is what I still think about them as I listen to their album. Even with a beat that I have grown to know and a sound I have come to recognize, I am still moved by the albums. And, really, I hope that counts for something.

OnWrath, the formula for what Iris does is quite the same and, really, I don't know what should change. The singing is the thing that is touching and it stands in the limelight, and the instrumentation is a growing accompanyment of electronics that seems to grow a little bit with each album. Most of the songs are not some dancefloor fads but are electronic in nature, and most of them are not heavy with beats but are something you could move to. I personally like that and, with time, I have found that all the Iris albums have grown on me. That says a lot considering the fact that Good music changes except for those occasion pieces that have some sort of inner meaning.

If you need another reason to buy, I don't think I have it. you can listen to the songs and see what you think, and I suppose you should. you, after all, are the one critic that matters. Everyone else is simply a voice screaming opinions in a wilderness of thought.

After waiting about 2 years for a new album , it does not disappoint! After listening to this album I have to say that it continues right where Awakening left off. Wrath is more edgier with added guitars to the music. I would love to see a re-mix album of Wrath done by Iris , however with SYNTHS ONLY PLEASE!

The dymanic dual deliver the gods for the 3 time. After their last album (awakening), i fell in love with them . I really couldn't wait for them to release this one , and they didn't disappoint. I have to admit that I needed a couple of good listenings before realising how good this album is , but finally it hit me. These guys are really good. Highly recommended to anyone who appriciates good music.

All the songs are pretty good. One of my favorite is track 9 (Intercede Light)
I think this album is one of their best albums so far.
If you liked Awakening, Disconnect & Reconnect you'll definately like this one.
T

Iris' third album, Wrath, proves the band is here to stay for the long run. It is their best album yet, with a coherent, edgier feel, yet it still maintains true excellence in melody. The album can be listened to straight through without skipping a song. They're all great. My favorites are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8, but they're all great. Track 8 is their edgiest/roughest track ever produced, and I love it. When Reagan sings, "Ain't gonnnna beeee pretttty!" it's sick. Awesome. There's no point going into the album song for song, because they're all standouts. Once again, a true five star masterpiece of lushness, melody, maturity, great vocals, edge, and a spirit that's TRUE. You believe it. Nothing fakely produced. The album is REAL and it grabs hold and never lets go, stirring deep emotions within. With this album, they prove further to me that they're currently the best in their genre. If you love this CD, also check out Cause and Effect, Mesh, Michigan, Wideband Network, Strange Angels, Camouflage, Null Device, De/Vision, Infam, Distain!, and Beborn Beton.

The CD is pleasant synthpop, but I think this is the least interesting of my Iris CDs. Awakening is excellent, whereas this one is good, but not great. No song stands out in your mind or has you humming it late, there is nothing "catchy". Usually, when I get a new CD I listen and pull off a few songs for a playlist on my ipod. I was hardpressed to find a song I really wanted.

No one ever showed more promise than Andrew Sega, a.k.a. Necros. In the nineties, as part of the underground, amateur "demoscene," he sequenced a handful of amazing, transcendental electronic tracks, as good as the best work by professional, multi-platinum-selling techno artists. Around 2001, he broke from the scene, started his own record label, and forged a professional career. But at some point, he met vocalist Reagan Jones and joined his neo-synth-pop band Iris as producer and composer. This soon became his main project, crowding out his solo output under the name of The Alpha Conspiracy.

Wrath is the third Iris album, and the second with Necros on board. Unfortunately, it doesn't show a lot of Sega's talent. It's not bad, per se, but it's definitely not as good as Awakening, the previous Jones/Sega Iris album. The press copy played up the "guitar" elements on Wrath, but these are pretty minimal. The straightforward rhythm-guitar chug in the bridge of "It Generates" is about as far as the guitars go. There is one exception -- the admittedly breath-taking synth-metal combo in "Hell's Coming With Me," which sounds much harder than any other song. Everything else, though, sounds like a more generic version of Awakening.

Jones is still a competent, even appealing singer, but his lyrics (or who knows, maybe they co-wrote them) have gotten worse. In my review of Awakening, I pointed out their awkward phrasing and extremely vague sentiment, but at least it seemed like they were about recognizable personal problems, like romantic angst. Wrath doesn't even have that degree of believability -- now, Jones turns himself into a fantasy-videogame hero, opening the album with the lines, "I'm crawling with fever / I'm sinking in deeper / I've reached but the water's no good / and so I'm gonna carry on." Note that ungainly wording, "I've reached but." He means that he's reached a source of water, but can't find a way to fit that into the meter, so he just omits what he's reached. What has he reached? Why is he exiled to this barren land? What is it a metaphor of? Well, extremely vague metaphors of struggle are Iris' stock in trade, a bit like recent Lacuna Coil. There is very little that is recognizable as actual human emotion on Wrath.

"It Generates" begins with the line, "We all dine / then we all die." I think he means something like, "we all go about our daily routine, doing routine things such as eating dinner, and then we inevitably die," but for rhythmic purposes, he condenses the "daily routine" part into the single word "dine," which just sounds bizarre. The chorus goes, "It generates your life / it generates your low / it found a way inside / it left a gaping hole." What is "it," and why is it leaving "holes" when that is clearly the province of Nine Inch Nails songs? We may never know. In "Imposter," he sings, "well it won't change to indict / but this whole thing, it ain't right." Again, what he means by the first line is something like, "even if I were to openly expose your trickery and verbally indict you for your crimes, it wouldn't accomplish anything -- but don't fool yourself, I know exactly what's going on." But "it won't change to indict" sounds really clumsy. And so on, in every song.

Necros doesn't do a lot to help. His production still sounds clean and expansive, but the songwriting is consistently weaker than on Awakening. Some songs have throwaway intros that sound more interesting than the songs themselves. The weird, wispy keyboards at the beginning of "It Generates" do a lot more to push the boundaries than the pedestrian rhythm-guitar later in the song. If the whole song had that odd, arid sound, then maybe it might have helped the lyrics have more of an effect. Instead, though, the snappy-but-undistinguished synth-pop just makes the already vague lyrics sound even more generic. Awakening also suffered from this to a degree, but had many anthemic, explosive choruses, in "Whatever," "Sentimental Scars" and "Sorrow Expert."

The only time Wrath really shines is on "Hell's Coming With Me," which might be an indication of what they really had in mind with this guitar idea. It veritably tears out of the speakers with a powerful synth-echo riff, followed by a heavy, grinding counter-riff on the guitar. Reagan Jones preens all over the song with threats of violent revenge, which is a bit funny when combined with the mannered archaism, "I've come to prepare the way and send you to your maker." But, as it turns out, that's all right as long as there's a good heavy groove going. This song shows what Iris could have been -- Sega's production talents funneled into a more mainstream sound -- and it's a good candidate for their best song ever. Too bad the rest is so patchy.

There's certainly an audience for this kind of thing. Iris has its share of fans and is actually fairly successful on the indie scene. But when I compare any song on Wrath to "Amber Poison," "Martian Lovesong" or "Point Of Departure," I can't help but feel that there was a missed opportunity somewhere.

I am a big fan of synthpop and techno. I happened across Iris while looking into the new Amazon MP3 downloads section. I played a few of the sample songs and as I jumped through each one, they just kept getting better. Iris has a sound that, to me, feels like a blend of rock, synthpop, with a hint of late 80's alternative. I bought both of their CDs (as MP3s); they do have a third (actually their first) CD, but that one had a different sound from the later two. Worth a listen and a purchase.

Disconnect is one of my fave albums ever, so hopes were extremely high for this one, which is why I m all the more disappointed with Wrath- it just sounds so generic, like a million other Depeche Mode wannabes. The production has nothing of the shimmering quality of their Debut, it sounds clunky and heavy, and it is not helped by the unmemorable songs; like other people said in their reviews, I m hard pressed to find even one song that I like.
I wish Iris all the success in the world, they have the potential to be an amazing band, and an important one to boot, but this direction just seems wrong- they went from being really special and unique to "just another synthrock band" in the space of an album.