Dreams and visions have long inspired creative expression for ancient civilisations. The ritual trance, dance and journey to the underworld in all cultures was once deeply revered. Allowing oneself to become intoxicated by sensation to the point that it truly becomes the vessel of creativity is a bold and dangerous move.

Narcotics can open our eyes, break down barriers and allow us to melt into our own matter. I remember a night in Berlin watching a man so absorbed in ritual all I could see under the black hood were the whites of his eyes. 
Many musicians begin the shamanic dance, embracing drugs as a gateway to perception. However few manage to master the tempests of oblivion without becoming fucked.

 From his grandmother’s piano and the isolation of distant Auckland to the cemetery of Ross Bay… one voice has always been his guiding light… Vassafor!

What is the Vassafor demon made of, what is the space between the stars?

“It is dark matter… śūnya. The idea of anti-matter. Unlife. Bleached white sterility. The affinity with bones is the symbolism of not living inside time. We want to exist outside time… we want to transcend.”

Rites of ascension… in a dream… a robed figure on … Read More

Making it to three decades for any band is a rarity, but when you’ve had to overcome near-death experiences, small-town bullying and worse of all, the grunge boom, 30 years is most definitely something to celebrate. Louise Brown talks to the queen of survival about how there’s 30 more years in her yet

When did you first discover your passion for music? Doro: “I was three-years-old. The first real experience that totally got me hooked was Little Richard’s ‘Lucille’. That song was so high energy. When I listened to it I thought, ‘I want to do that, I want to sing’. Later I had some contact with some older boys. They had posters of Alice Cooper, Sweet, Slade, T-Rex. I was always singing along to their hard rock records and they thought it was very funny. I was screaming my heart out, I could really yell. They were shocked, they said, ‘Wow, how can a little girl make that noise?’. I was fascinated with all the guys with long hair, like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and the glam rock. And then there was Suzi Quatro, the first girl I heard, I loved her. Metal didn’t exist and when I was 15 then … Read More

Back from exile, RUNNING WILD returned in 2013 more ‘RESILIENT’ than ever. LOUISE BROWN traced his career from the very first hammerblow to the legacy ROCK ‘N’ ROLF continues to forge in Iron Fist #7, republished here as we blast their latest album ‘RAPID FORAY’ into the new year…

“You know, Running Wild is still here, it’s been 35 years, next year, so I must be resilient,” says a defiant Rolf Kasparek, aka Rock ‘N’ Rolf, guitarist, frontman and Cap’n of the band who formed in 1979. We’re sat at his label’s studio in Hannover, Germany, where select journalists have been invited to hear the band’s newest album, ‘Resilient’, Running Wild’s 15th album, and second since Rolf got back on the ship after a seven year break (bar an explosive “final” show at Wacken 2009). Kicking off with ‘Soldiers Of Fortune’, the new album comes with as much roaring thunder as ‘Soldiers Of Hell’, from their 1984 debut full-length ‘Gates To Purgatory’, and marks a fist-raising return for the Gods of the Iron. Hoist the flags. The tyrants of the waves are coming back on shore and have a veritable booty of diabolic force to dish out. Rolf looks meaner than ever, talking as … Read More

Blazing a burning path in the ‘80s, LEATHER LEONE fronted bands like Rude Girl, Malibu Barbi and the mighty CHASTAIN. But after a 12 year break, where she felt side-lined by the over-sexualised music industry, she’s back with a vengeance and SARAH KITTERINGHAM finds out that the reign of Leather is still going strong…

Chastain could have been, but sure as shit should not be, one of those bands consigned to the “who the hell is that?” bin. Lead by guitarist, songwriter and “guitar god” David T Chastain, they blasted through the ‘80s, combining classic heavy metal with the driving, melodic, anthem qualities of power metal. Fronted by the snarling Leather Leone – whose style is oddly comparable to Metal Church’s David Wayne – the band lost their footing in the early ‘90s. Tired of working her ass off and not seeing results, Leone departed. The band’s bassist and drummer followed suit. Although new members rounded out the lineup, the magic was gone and over the next two decades, Chastain releases were sadly sub-standard.

Then something changed, and Chastain has now returned in a classic guise: Leather is back from her self-imposed musical exile, bassist Mike Skimmerhorn has returned, and Mr David … Read More

Pinpointing a certain sound to a geographical place has become almost impossible, mainly thanks to the internet and how it globally manipulates trends. So, it may be with some skepticism that people would meet WHIPSTRIKER, a Brazilian band. If someone told you that some of the most brutally honest metalpunk came from Rio, albeit tinged with the elixir of the metal gods, you’d probably tell them the next classic TNBM record would come from rural Ireland. However, living in Rio seems like living out a Discharge lyrics sheet, and Whipstriker mainman VICTOR took time out from his hectic recording schedule to talk about metal and life in Rio’s favelas. Historians can write what they like in their textbooks, but musicians (usually) tell the truth in their songs…                                                                                                                          

How did you get the name Whipstriker exactly? Victor Whipstriker: “I really don’t remember. I … Read More

As tempting as it was to name every feature in our anniversary issue after Bathory songs, it made sense to title both the Watain feature (‘Wild Hunt’ being an ode to Bathory at their most epic) and this one after the songs of Quorthon. However, we best not call TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, a new band put together by PRIMORDIAL frontman ALAN AVERILL, a Bathory tribute band anymore. They’ve moved on. Get it? The name remains, the story is so very, very different. GUY STRACHAN gets to the bottom of the how a tribute band became a full-on project and gets to grips with his “other” bands while he’s at it

“I tried to explain something the other day to somebody who wasn’t remotely into metal, that when you’re inside the bubble you see what other people find curious about it, and the things that they perceive as clichés, you understand that they are borne of the original blueprint of heavy metal; that you didn’t second-guess yourself. There was a naïve bluster and charm because of the era that it was in, so when some kid in 2013 assumes that everything has to be pastiche and parody and they can’t take … Read More

When we knew MOTÖRHEAD were coming out with a new album, despite all the rumours of Lem’s ill health, we knew we wanted to catch up with the band that gave us our name for our birthday issue. PAUL SCHWARZ got to talking ‘Head with guitarist PHIL CAMPBELL and found out that nothing will tear ’em down

It all starts a bit uncomfortably. Upon arriving at Gibson’s offices – what better place to stage an interview with a guitarist than surrounded by 100-plus guitars? – I am grilled about what I will ask Phil Campbell. I blather that I will ask about the new record, touring plans, how Lemmy is getting on… “No, do not start by asking about Lemmy. Ask about the All-Stars,” recommends Ute Kromrey, Motörhead’s independent PR for the past 15 years (she coordinates press for the band worldwide and you can see why they’ve stuck with her: not for nothing does Lemmy call her The Germanator). At the time I feel silly – I’d quite forgotten about the All-Stars, who just played Bloodstock. Quickly reading up on the Motörhead guitarist’s covers combo while waiting for Campbell to finish his preceding interview, I am intrigued to note that … Read More

“We got drunk with Satan, man! It was pretty cool.” You read Iron Fist, so the fact that Ryan Waste of trad metallers Volture is referring to the NWOBHM legends and not the dark overlord surely doesn’t make this story any less enticing. “Wings Of Metal in Montreal, that’s the festival I just came from,” he elaborates. “Me and Nick [Poulos, guitars], we flew up there as fans just to go hang out, see Satan and Manilla Road and a bunch of my friends’ bands like Midnight and Goat Horn. It was amazing.” Waste and Poulos are the partnership at the heart of Volture: a pretty amazing band with a pretty amazing story. That story kinda begins a long time ago, when Waste was in his early 20s, had just started out with Municipal Waste (they hadn’t blown up yet) and decided to try to fulfil a lifelong dream: playing in a traditional heavy metal band. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but you know, I hadn’t found the guy with the ‘voice’. Brent had that amazing, falsetto voice. I was like: man, you need a band! I didn’t even know the guy, I just heard him sing. I was like: we need … Read More

Renowned Dutch death metal brigade, Hail Of Bullets, recently completed their third Metal Blade full-length, ‘III The Rommel Chronicles’. According to drummer Ed Warby, “After a half-year period of slightly worrying metal fatigue I finally started writing in June 2012. I had to recover from several years of doing one album after the other: Gorefest, Hail Of Bullets, Demiurg, Star One, 11th Hour, etc, without time to breathe. I needed to recharge the batteries so to speak. But once I had the basis for what would become ‘Farewell To Africa’, the floodgates of inspiration opened wide and with contributions from Stephan [Gebédi – guitars, also of Thanatos] and Paul [Baayens –guitars, also of Thanatos and Asphyx] we soon had a full album.”

Ed explains further, “In the months before I had no desire to even pick up a guitar or play metal, so when that [‘Farewell To Africa’] riff finally came to me it felt like such a relief. It was one of those moments where the song almost writes itself, one riff leading to another until you have a fully-formed song. That gave me such a confidence boost, and even more importantly it put me back in ‘metal’ mode. At … Read More

25 years in the making, PENTAGRAM CHILE, are finally ready to unleash their debut album, and it’s made the wait all worth while and a true contender for death metal album of the year. OLIVIER ‘ZOLTAR’ BADIN meets ANTON REISENEGGER to find out what took so long…

Anton Reisenegger is a man that loves to defy time. Even if like most of his contemporaries he first picked up a guitar in his early teens, a couple of years later his penpals were riding high the wave of extreme metal and being sent overseas to record with fancy producers while he was struggling just to do gigs in his own country, let alone do an actual album. It was only at the turn of the century, when his now fully grown compadres were starting to drop the ball that he, on the other hand, was finally starting to reap the harvest of what he had sown. And now 44 years old and a family man living in the south of Spain, he’s never been busier. Although Criminal, his main priority in the early 2000s, has been put “on ice” until further notice, he’s been replacing the late Jesse Pintado in the international … Read More