Iron Fist Magazine

ISSUE 24 – SOUND OF THE DEMON BELL

We’ve all got a different story about the moment we were introduced to Heavy Metal, when its sound and fury lit the blue touch-paper on a passion that in most cases has lasted the rest of our lives to date. Central to this has been escapism – an ability to transcend the everyday and offer a world of mystery and imagination beyond the mundanities of our surroundings.

You might even argue that the last eighteen months have given us plenty cause to be looking for escapism, and with this in mind here at Iron Fist we’ve done everything in our (considerable) powers to summon the most thunderous sturm-und-drang, the most demented geniuses, the most inspiring madmen, and the most furiously potent of metal protagonists we could possibly throw together.

Who better to lead the charge than King Diamond, the banshee-shrieking legend whose aural nightmares and moonlit serenades have haunted the darker quarters of our imaginations for near as dammit four decades now. Obsessed as we are always with the genesis of this kind of visionary work, we delve into the very early days of Mercyful Fate and the origin story of this particular metallic supervillain.

Needless to say it wasn’t only the King … Read More

Issue 23 – Career of Evil

We’re not sure whether you’ve noticed, but 2020 hasn’t been the easiest year to negotiate. Yet rather than affecting our resolve one iota, this has only made us more determined than ever to carry on the chronicling the glorious and never-ending continuum of heavy metal through the ages. With that in mind, we’re very happy – at long last – to present another Iron Fist for your delectation. Rest assured there‘s no danger of the rivetheads who run this magazine running out of sounds to raise our pulse and get our dandruff flying, and thus putting this one together has been an almost indecently exciting experience Who better to have on our cover than a legendary band who’ve kept their strange flame alight an entire half century now, through all of manner of trials and travails: Blue Oyster Cult.  We chat to sage wizards Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom in a quest to tackle the band’s enduring charm, their uncanny allure and the fact that against all odds, reason or logic they’ve just making killer records well into their seventies.

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Reflecting the fact that our passions extend across all of that half-century, we have Electric Wizard’s Jus Oborn waxing lyrical on the … Read More

ISSUE 22 – DON’T CAST YOUR SPELL ON ME

Who knows how many hours that have been wasted arguing over our favourite heavy metal bands?

At gigs, in teenage bedrooms, down the pub – and now online – tempers have frayed, voices have been raised and eyeballs have rolled over matters that the majority of the population might foolishly consider trivial.

Yet one fact cannot be denied, and this is that Black Sabbath are the most important heavy metal band of all time. For this reason, Iron Fist are delighted to welcome the Brum beserkers to the cover of Issue No. 22.

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He’s watched the dogs of war enjoying their feast. He’s seen the Western world go down in the East. In fact, Bill Ward has doubtless seen countless things in the last half-century that would send the vast majority of Sabs heads spinning in a manner to shame Linda Blair. Yet he’s still standing, and here his disarmingly self-effacing legend regales Chris Chantler with the tale of his life as an architect of the unhallowed, dealing with everything from his discomfort with hit singles to the trials of Geezer Butler as a vegan on tour in the ‘70s.

Yet the unstoppable global metal machine rolls … Read More

Issue 21 – Like A Battering Ram

Strange as it may sound to some, at Iron Fist we don’t consider ourselves a retro magazine, exactly as we don’t consider Heavy Metal a thing of the past, more a timeless force. Therefore it’s something of a delight to unveil a new issue – a staggering thirty-six pages fuller and printed on a much heavier, more tactile paper-stock – that does more than ever before to unite past, present and future into one everlasting continuum of steel.

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Who better then for the cover, indeed, than modern Metal’s most towering progenitors, the mighty Judas Priest. Currently traversing the globe on a tour that takes them across the States, to Bloodstock and beyond, this titanic troupe’s storied career is covered in depth in a chat between Dom Lawson and Rob Halford, from the 40th Anniversary of Sin After Sin to the ripping new album Firepower, and all points in between on the eternal heavy metal highway.

We’ll also be taking you all the way back to the big bang, courtesy of an illustrious new addition to our writing team. Electric Wizard’s Jus Oborn waxes lyrical here in passionate fashion, and in the first of a regular series on his essential touchstone … Read More

ISSUE 20 – BLACK MAGIC RITUALS & PERVERSIONS

Heavy Metal is our religion and as the season of goodwill is truly upon us, we bring you Iron Fist Issue 20 in its full glory!

“I don’t want people to chin stroke, I want people to lose it!” Doom veterans Electric Wizard grace our cover and their leader Jus Oborn talks to Jim Martin about the creation of their epic opus ‘Wizard Bloody Wizard’ and what it means to play doom in 2017.

To commemorate it’s 30th anniversary, Tom G. Warrior looks back at the creation of ‘Into The Pandemonium’, still one of the most forward-thinking and adventurous albums to birth from the fertile spawning ground of 1980’s heavy metal. More importantly though, Tom also talked to us in order to pay his respects in a tribute to the passing of Martin Ain. Elsewhere Messrs Oliver & Dawson spread their wings again to talk about the early days of Saxon and the heavy metal crusades of yesteryear; we get the beers in with Tankard who simply cannot remember the old days, and talk to Steve Ramsey about the formative years of UK folk metal legends Skyclad.

“What was it like having Tony Iommi as your manager?” Frank Hall from riff-lords Necromandus reveals all, and … Read More

ISSUE 19 – WHERE THE ACTION IS

Heavy metal will never die and because of this – neither will IRON FIST (although we almost did)

From the depths of hellfire and brimstone, Iron Fist 19 is finally out – only print is real and only Iron Fist can give you the best in all classic, and brand new, heavy metal thunder!​ This issue’s cover star is one of Sweden’s most prolific and long-standing characters, Nicke Andersson.

We discuss all aspects of Nicke’s career, leaving no stone unturned. From his early memories of what kickstarted his love of music, Nicke talks frankly about the revitalised Entombed and just why he felt he needed to go back to his death metal roots; the Hellacopters; and of course his latest band Imperial State Electric. To coincide, we also have a killer chat with celebrated artist Dan Seagrave about his own career as one of metal’s most renowned and distinguished artists. Dan of course worked on Entombed’s ‘Clandestine’ masterpiece and has also reworked the artwork for the year 2017. See both of these pieces in their full glory inside Iron Fist – side by side, just as Dan himself requested, to enjoy the visual experience even more. Issue 19 features brand new and in-depth interviews with … Read More

ISSUE 18 – TRUE AS STEEL

It may seem like aeons since our last issue but we’re back and raring to go and continue our indulgence in all things denim, leather and everything in between! Heavy metal will never die! Patience is a virtue and we hope you’ll be rewarded with the enjoyment everything in these 100 pages will bring.

The Queen of metal, Doro graces our cover to celebrate her 30th anniversary in service. And as well as our chat with Ms Pesch, this issue features some of the most revered bands including the ultimate power trio Budgie, the UK’s longest serving thrash band Onslaught, a retrospective look at one of Germany’s best metal labels, Noise Records and a welcome return to Aussie underdog Hobbs Angel Of Death. Staying Down Under, we talk to the notorious Destroyer 666 about how wildfire is needed to create a new underground and Annick Giroux heads beneath the Southern Cross in her regular World Downfall column. We also launch a brand new regular section, Pictured Life, that casts a well -deserved spotlight on some of the great cover art artists from the world of heavy metal, kicking off with a close look at the latest coffee table book featuring art from Timo … Read More

ISSUE 17 – BORN TO RAISE HELL

It’s been a difficult time for heavy metal of late. We knew he was sick but Ian Fraser Kilmister, with that indomitable spirit, wouldn’t let us, his fans, down. Recording albums and playing live right up until the end, it’s as if we knew the day would come but neither he, nor us, would accept that crushing fate.

For weeks there seemed like an outpouring of collective grief. Even when the godlike Bowie and then the rock of which so much of heavy metal is built, Jimmy Bain, passed away it all got caught up in this exhausting wave of despair.

Doing a new issue of Iron Fist felt meaningless; we were named after a Motörhead song and now Motörhead was no more. While every other magazine poured over the details of Lemmy’s life, we wanted to mourn the band as well as the man and through our haze turned to the only person we could think of, Jase Of Spades from the blog 366 Days Of Motörhead to help us both with our office playlists and tribute. In this issue he reminds us of the many albums, live recordings and rare tracks that the ‘Head have left as their … Read More

ISSUE 16 – HOLD YOUR FIST UP HIGH

The torture never stops over here at Iron Fist and Issue #16 is finally ready to be unleashed like the unruly wild child it is. With the ballcrushing tormentor himself, Blackie Lawless on the cover we are on our knees (okay, enough W.A.S.P puns now) with pride to have the veteran rock journalist, Martin Popoff on our team. He talked to Mr Lawless about new album ‘Golgotha’, his faith and how a career breeding horses was not to be.

Elsewhere, Louise Brown met the ultimate polymath and heavy metal hero Bruce Dickinson to talk about being utterly unstoppable and Guy Strachan talked to Big Boss from Root about the making of black metal blueprint ‘Zjevení’, while Toby Wright tracked down two founding members of Belgian heavy metal maniacs, Acid.

Black Trip told Kevin Stewart-Panko that they should be played on the radio (we agree), My Dying Bride confirmed they’re still as miserable as ever (we wouldn’t have it any other way) and we caught up with Dead Lord, Satan’s Satyrs, Black Breath, Christian Mistress and many more bands old and new in this issue – from Flight and Honeymoon Disease right through to Saxon and Denner/Shermann.

It’s sad that Iron Fist … Read More

Issue 15 – LAY DOWN YOUR SOULS

As the celebrated Geordie folk song ‘The Lambton Worm’ kicks off; “Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs, I’ll tell ye aal an aaful story”.

Or for those of us who don’t speak Geordie, the awful story we’re asking you to hold your mouths for concerns an early-‘80s period in which the North-East was an epicentre for a shockwave of pulse-racing Heavy Metal whose influence can still be felt in extremis some thirty-five years on. Whereas The Lambton Worm was a mythical beast that rose to terrorise the North-East, a certain strain of terror was spawned in just such territory by three Tyne & Wear lads ripping apart the metal rulebook in search of shocks, horror and glory galore. This band, of course, was VENOM, and in this issue Iron Fist talk to Cronos on a four-decade mission of life as a blasphemous iconoclast and full-throttle Black Metal bezerker.

What’s more, we travel back in time to the dawn of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal to chart the roots of NEAT RECORDS, harking back to an era in which the upstairs of a bingo hall in Wallsend was the launchpad for a strain of supercharged audial aggro that would inspire a generation. … Read More

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