Iris North

My formal position is: editor and music reviewer. I joined the PlanetMosh army in 2012. I enjoy extreme metal, 'shred' guitar, hard rock, prog rock, punk, and... silly pop music!

Joe Satriani – Unstoppable Momentum

What can be said? Joe ‘Satch’ Satriani has been at this music composing and recording game for longer than many of the readers of this review will have been alive. Many musicians cite Joe Satriani as one of their core influences, due to his consistently high-quality musical output across decades. …

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Ultra-Violence – Privilege To Overcome

I love underground music, if it brings out some obvious talent, and especially if it’s from outside my home country – the USA. Turin, Italy’s Ultra-Violence (yeah, like Death Angel, or A Clockwork Orange, your choice) seems to fit that bill. Their newest, Privilege To Overcome, is a long-playing album …

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Serenity Broken – Commercial Suicide

A pan-European effort is presented here: an English vocalist, a Greek band, a Finnish producer. Right out of the starting gate, Greece’s Serenity Broken impressed me, by including links to 32 reviews and 21 interviews (many with major publications within Greece, such as Metal Zone or Rock Overdose) in their …

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Tracer – El Pistolero

El Pistolero means literally, the gunman. More figuratively, it’s taken to mean “a pistol”: someone with a quick fiery temper, who’s unpredictable, or has an angry streak. With that in mind, I eagerly popped Tracer‘s new one in the CD player, hoping for an album with hints of unpredictability or …

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Revel In Flesh – Manifested Darkness

Revel In Flesh is a very young band, with their first album Deathevokation released only in 2012. Their second album, Manifested Darkness, is being released by underground label FDA Rekotz in 2013. I remember when Entombed‘s Left Hand Path came out… and turned the death metal world on it’s ear. This …

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Whitechapel – The Somatic Defilement

Whitechapel are a fairly young band, forming in 2006. They are a death metal band, with four releases under their belt, from Knoxville, Tennessee. The band have returned with their newest offering, for Metal Blade Records: the re-release of The Somatic Defilement (their 2007 debut album), which has been re-mastered. Overall, the record …

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Howl – Bloodlines

Howl are an extreme metal quartet from Providence, Rhode Island. The band formed in 2006, so they are fairly ‘new’ or ‘young’. Howl signed with Relapse Records in 2009, releasing their first full-length effort, Full of Hell, in 2010. Their second album, Bloodlines, is slated for release by Relapse Records …

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Flotsam And Jetsam – Ugly Noise

Flotsam And Jetsam are stalwarts in the thrash metal sub-genre, having formed under the direction of drummer Kelly David-Smith in the very early 1980’s. These Phoenix ‘bangers hardly need introduction. This was, at one point in time, a crowd-financed album, and the quality of the output seems to be a …

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Hypocrisy – End Of Disclosure

Peter Tägtgren‘s Hypocrisy have returned! The stalwart extreme metal band’s twelfth studio release, titled End Of Disclosure, has been released through Nuclear Blast. This album brings fiery new songs to listeners and fans across the globe. Similar to many top-tier rock releases, this melodic extreme metal record has a variety …

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Centurian – Contra Rationem

Centurian seem fury incarnate. The band was founded in 1997 by Rob Oorthuis (guitar) and Wim van der Valk (drums). The intent was to create death metal “based on memorable riffs, one-foot blast beats and lyrics that celebrate Choronzon333”. Seth van de Loo (vocals) then joined the band. In 1998, …

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Integrity – Black Heksen Rise

It was irresistible to review this former Cleveland (Ohio) band’s latest release, as part of my PlanetMosh debut. Beginning in 1988, Integrity purveyed a kind of raw hardcore punk to local audiences. First signed to Victory Records, Dwid and his band began to release their music to the masses, prior …

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