OWL COMPANY - 'Iris' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. One Last Time

2. Boogie Man

3. Rise

4. Antagonist

5. Shattered Dreams

6. Dawn of Days

7. Broken Paradigm

8. Disconnected

9. Forbidden

10. The Other Side

11. Shades

12. Door

13. Angel

The OWL COMPANY album 'Iris' came to me as the first review in a while that wasn't a Prog album. This album had my interest as soon as I found out it was mixed by the legendary Matt Wallace, but this is by no means the only thing that will draw listeners in. The single track "Rise" which has already been released with a video is an excellent Rock ballad with a spectacular twinkling guitar motif and rumbling thunderous bass and drums giving way to a huge chorus.

But 'Iris' is not a collection of carbon copies of that first single, this is an album of twists and shifting moods, at times galloping along then twisting through timing changes to half speed intensely powerful riffs, guitar solos seem to serve the song very well where they are used they do not sit in past their welcome nor do they intentionally fly off on an ego-driven tangent, the musicians here are all great at what they do but no-one is fighting for the limelight, they seem to all approach their performances with the goal of serving the song.

With excellent riffs scattered throughout and a keen eye on melody the album definitely held this listener's attention. The vocalist reminded me of Chris Cornell at times (particularly on the ballad "The Other Side") then at other times I got more of a Phil Anselmo vibe, all the while his own voice was the thing that shone through and that is certainly no bad thing.

I could go through the album picking highlights but then I feel like I might wind up just typing out the track listing adding notes like "excellent driving riff", "interesting tempo shift" "incredible vocal part" "expansive yet tight bass" so I won't do that, give the album a listen, heck give the single a listen if you like that the album is worth taking a chance on.

As a whole, this feels like a very well crafted album of contrasting moods with well thought out arrangements and great performances by the entire band throughout.