The Portland black metal scene is famous for twisting and manipulating the blackened template into whole new forms, but MATRON THORNS, former collaborator with Bethlehem, has come up with a new nightmarish vision that he believes takes the essence of the genre right back to its pure evil roots. OLIVIER ‘ZOLTAR’ BADIN gets a sermon from the ÆVANGELIST…

How do you come up with such a strange and disturbed entity like Ævangelist? Matron Thorns: “With no particular agenda in mind, I’d say. We don’t approach music with any specific genre in mind. As the title of this album implies, it’s meant to be an experience happening to you as opposed to something you are only listening to. We wanted to take the idea of evil in music out of the realm of just hypothetical.”

It is almost as if your music was strongly seeking to install an almost masochist relationship with the listener. To many, it’ll sound much too chaotic and suffocating, yet those who’ll dare look into it will most probably end up being drawn to it, as if they were looking to be swallowed by the void it created… “When you’re saying that, I can’t help but recall the ’90s when it … Read More

We have plenty to thank ROSS ‘THE BOSS’ FRIEDMAN for. In 1973 he formed the metalpunk pioneers THE DICTATORS, in 1980 his band SHAKIN’ STREET were opening for Black Sabbath when Dio introduced him to a bass player looking to start a new band. That opportune meeting paved the way for the one and only MANOWAR but our hero did not stop there. Still killing with power, this time with DEATH DEALER, YIANNIS STEFANIS charts the history of this true King Of Metal

Your first high-profile band, The Dictators, is considered by many to be the ultimate proto-punk band, among the main instigators of the legendary CBGB’s scene. Quite an accolade – what is your take on this?  “You know, that is a good question. I would say that The Dictators are… punk, like the Ramones were not like the safety-pins and torn-jeans Malcolm McLaren type of punk. We, in the United States and especially in New York, were more street punk. We were kids that were growing up in The Bronx and Queens but the same could be said about kids growing up in England, where the economy at the time was bad. For us things were less style-orientated and more … Read More

When Live Evil was launched in 2010 it made the crazy decision to base its booking policy 100 per cent on the acts picked by Fenriz’s then-new Band Of The Week blog. It’s a policy that they’ve stuck to through to the third edition this month – if he keeps unearthing great new bands they’ll keep booking them. But of all the bands that have trod the stage at Live Evil, it’s Swedish thrash pack Antichrist that have played every single edition… it’s become a tradition. On the eve of Live Evil Attack III Dylan Hughes of A Fist In The Face Of God blog along with Brad Smith of Nocturnal Cult blog tracked down the hard-to-reach band for Iron Fist zine…

A few years ago on an email to a certain Mr Gylve Nagell I was warned to check out a new thrash band from Sweden called Antichrist. I never heard of this band and there was nothing about them anywhere online. I was ordering the Bastard Priest demo from Blood Harvest at the time and noticed they had Antichrist’s ‘Crushing Metal Tape’ demo so I added it to my order. Fuck it, a recommendation of anything with a hand-drawn cover should … Read More

With our friends in Sweden and Belgium tantalising us with tales of KING DIAMOND‘s recent European Festival tour and the fact that ‘MELISSA’ is rarely off our stereo in the run up to its 30th Anniversary this Autumn, we knew that we wanted to interview the King of all evil. We sent GREG MOFFITT off for a dangerous meeting with the man himself to talk about his whole career from BLACK ROSE to BLOODSTOCK and most importantly the fate of MERCYFUL FATE…

How and when did you first get into music? “I had a little transistor radio with a cassette deck built in and I used to listen to rock programmes in the afternoon and record some of the songs. Then I saved up from my allowance and eventually got a reel to reel tape machine, which was great because I could even record from the TV with that! Then in ’71 I got my first turntable, which I could plug into the reel to reel machine. That was stereo and that was a big deal! The first three vinyl albums I bought were Deep Purple’s ‘Fireball’, Black Sabbath’s ‘Master Of Reality’ and Jethro Tull’s ‘Aqualung’. Obviously I’d already heard ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Black … Read More

Scott ‘Wino’ Weinrich and SAINT VITUS… ubiquitous, right? Wrong! According to Iron Fist’s resident doom archivist OLIVIER ‘ZOLTAR’ BADIN the sole album with CHRITUS LINDERSON and the final album from original singer SCOTT REAGERS deserve a place in the hallowed halls of metal just as much as ‘Born Too Late’…

There’s a black hole in Saint Vitus’ story. No, not the early days when spat on by punks and metalheads alike in the mid-’80s at low-key shows in shitty clubs, where they still delivered the goods and released all-time classics like ‘Saint Vitus’ or ‘Born Too Late’. Nor during that 12 years silence when their legend kept growing, despite the band’s lack of activity. We’re actually talking here about the first half of the ’90s when everybody seemed to be against them, including their core fanbase and even of some their own former members. Sitting in the accusation chair is 1992’s ‘C.O.D.’ and 1995’s ‘Die Healing’: while the first has gained the rare status of being their less-revered album, right next to ‘Mournful Cries’, the second split opinions with the return of their melodramatic original singer Scott Reagers and it’s very-metal production. The fact that the latter would turn out to … Read More

“This is the end”. At least so croons Master Motorsåg of warlusting black metal maniacs BESTIAL MOCKERY. Coming straight of stage at New York’s Marytrdoom Festival and into the inquisitive lair of KIM KELLY, she finds out about best-laid plans and how it’s better to burn out than fade away

It’s a clear, humid night in one of Brooklyn’s many warehouse districts, and you’re sweating like a whore in church. The concrete maze you and a few hundred other leather-clad, sticky longhairs have crowded into smells of sulphur and swamp-ass; the air conditioner’s broken, the toilets are backed up, and the drinks are overpriced. This is Hell, and fittingly so, for the murderous apparition that’s just stalked onstage demands nothing less. Martyrdoom, NYC’s nastiest annual underground black/death metal festival, is upon us, and the reason we’re all suffocating ourselves and clutching $10 whiskies is about to begin. This is fucking Bestial Mockery’s final live performance, and they make sure it’s one to remember. Gasoline and chainsaws and ragged, hoarse howls punctuate the rapacious din, as some of Sweden’s most demonic souls hurl themselves towards oblivion and we hurtle down alongside them. It’s hard to believe that this night marks the end … Read More

Horror-obsessed and death metal maven VANESSA NOCERA has been on our radar these past few years, whether it’s been through her death/doom band WOODEN STAKE, trashing death ghouls HOWLING or simply through running the ghastly Razorback Records. Now with a new splatter platter from SKELETAL SPEKTRE on the loose KIM KELLY caught up with her to find out how she has the time for all these nightmares

When I was a tiny tyke, I remember singing along to my dad’s Hank Jr. tapes and pretending to interview Tina Turner with my little Fisher-Price radio. Not the most auspicious of beginnings for a budding metal journo (though do I remember throwing a few hardballs at my imaginary interview subjects) but then again, we weren’t all ripped from the womb clutching a Massacre album. Some of us, however… “I have audio tapes of me at age three singing made-up songs about monsters named ‘Shitbones’,” multi-instrumentalist and hellacious vocalist Vanessa Nocera laughs, thoroughly shutting down my nature versus nurture argument. “I’ve been singing since I was able to talk. According to my parents, I have always had a crazy imagination and I’ve always been vocal. I took inspiration from all kinds of musicians and … Read More

Another band that ranks high in the kvlt stakes, the name Death SS evokes an aura of darkness, of classic metal, of a band whose legendary period is of a time when little was recorded and even less released. I’m sure that mentioning the very name of the band to you, the Fist readership, brings about the sort of reverential talk normally reserved for the most sacred of acts, quickly qualified by a statement along the lines of “well, up until their first demo/single/album” [delete as appropriate].

Even the briefest of internet trawls for reviews of ‘Resurrection’, Death SS’ latest album, generates an opinion that is overwhelmingly negative, most notably from newbies wondering what all the fuss is about and for whom the 2013 incarnation is their fist encounter with Steve Sylvester [born Stefano Silvestri] and his occult-fuelled outfit. Many comparisons are made between the Italians’ latest and Morbid Angel’s ‘Illud Divinum Insanus’, seemingly by virtue of the industrial overtones of both albums providing a common link more than anything else. While it is true to say that ‘Resurrection’ is several miles removed from the likes of ‘Heavy Demons’ in many respects, at the same time it certainly isn’t the car … Read More

Fuck Conan and his hearing the lamentations of your women bullshit, true heavy metal warriors VOMITOR think there’s much more to life – metal, hanging out with friends and downing a few jars. ALASDAIR BULMER couldn’t agree more as he hangs with DEATHDEALER on the eve of their latest Aussie Assault.

Born of the Black Jackal’s womb in 1999 Australian alcoholocausters Vomitor have consistently flouted any inflated notions of trend and musical sensibilities, opting for beer-fuelled chaos and destruction via the “Death Metal or Die!” philosophy. Amassing a sizeable arsenal of splits and demos, they released their third full length ‘The Escalation’ through Invictus Productions last year. What’s more, with Europe anticipating the ‘Satan’s Escalation Vomitour’ in July, and the Yanks getting their due last December with a short Northeast stint, it’s all part of a burst of activity not least related to frontman and mastermind, Rob, aka Deathdealer, and his strategic relocation to Dublin.

A change of scenery, maybe, but a change of heart, never. Even with the most subtle hints of added complexity (‘The Escalation’ utilising two guitars no less) the aural clusterfuck that is Vomitor remains the same. “For me death and black metal should be raw, nasty, horrible, … Read More

There have not been so many wicked women bewitching the heavy rock world as there is now. Jinx herself must be so proud. But the high priestess of them all is most certainly the majestic JEX THOTH. With a new EP and album out this summer, KIM KELLY comes listen to her sermon

Jex Thoth is a busy woman. Fawned over and fetishised as one of occult rock’s true High Priestesses and a devilishly talented musician in her own right, she is a quiet enigma floating airily through a thicket of over-sharers. There isn’t a ton of information about her out there, and this wilful silence has led many to style her as a mystical entity, or at the very least, one that likes to keep people guessing. That’s how she likes it, too, telling Iron Fist, “Jex Thoth is the most personal to me of all my projects and too much tampering with how I relate to my own experience will most certainly have an effect on the music over time.” Right now, her ambient ‘Circle’ EP’s still cooling gently on the windowsill while Jex preps for the release of her next full-length, ‘Blood Moon Rise’ (on I Hate Records). … Read More