Given my recent theme of celebrating European tech-metal, it would be disastrous to overlook Ghost Iris. The Danish quartet take the polar opposites of heaviness and melodic to extremes, managing to offer you catchy, irresistible vocal hooks, but wrapped in brutally massive riffs that put you at risk of serious neck injuries. They stretch the possibilities of both sides so far that you can feel the tension build in each song they create and when the inevitable break comes, the payoff is always worth it.  

Ghost Iris manage between the four of them the range and depth of sound that  should be impossible without at least six  members. Quite how front man Jesper Vicencio is able to growl lower than the earth’s core in one breath, and project his voice to the heavens with an angelic melody in the next, is beyond me, but when it sounds this good, I’m happy to just leave him to it.

As well as showing how technically proficient they are with some seriously impressive musicianship, the video for ‘Save Yourself’ also shows off the band’s sense of humour, which endears me to them even more. Ghost Iris’ second album ‘Blind World’ is packed full of similarly heavy, yet melodic, tracks and is out on Friday 17th February.