Swedish death metal veterans Sarcasm have recently unleashed an album (yes, an actual album!) full of dark melodies, razor sharp riffing, atmospheric passages and catchy hooks. ‘Within The Sphere Of Ethereal Minds’ (recently released on Dark Descent) takes the listener on a multi-faceted musical journey with many twists and turns that takes you right back to the glory days of the early to mid ’90s melodic death metal scene before the genre became oversaturated and commercialised. There is a blackened edge to their aural aggression too much in the same vein as their fellow countrymen Unanimated and Dissection. Iron Fist spoke with frontman Heval Bozarslan to find out more about the album and comeback.

Your latest full-length ‘Within The Sphere Of Ethereal Minds’ just came out, what can we expect and are you pleased with it? They can expect 35 minutes of jaw-dropping, ball-crushing, catchy yet face-melting death metal. I’m more than satisfied, even though I listened to the pre-production demos a thousand times and knew that this material was strong I didn’t know it would turn out this good. All the people involved really gave 100 percent and believed in this. And so far the reaction from people who have heard it … Read More

Craven Idol return with a crash of thunder after almost four years of deadly silence. Not only do the London Black metallers have a killer new release, ‘Shackles Of Mammon’ (Via Dark Descent on April 14), they will also open for Nifelheim at the Underworld on May 26. All this with a brand new line-up, as guitarist Scourger and drummer Volgard, have been replaced by Obscenitor (also of Crom Dubh) and Heretic Blades.

“We entered Greg Chandler’s Priory Studios last year and emerged a week later with around 40 minutes of old school extreme metal swearing by the legacy of the first god.” That’s how frontman Wrath starts his epic story about their latest album, which the band launch with a gig at The Black Heart, Camden, this Saturday April 8.

“Our new album ‘The Shackles Of Mammon’ is more varied and way more aggressive than its predecessor ‘Towards Eschaton’,” he continues. “It is a ‘complete’ album with significantly better song-writing and a rawer, old school production. Greg Chandler, from Esoteric, is a brilliant producer and we spoke to him at length during the run-up to the session, and we had a clear vision for the sound. I had in mind the first wave … Read More

The Colorado-based Excommunion were one of the too many unsung heroes of the underground ‘dark’ death metal scene. MIA after only one monstrous full-length, ‘Superion’ in 2001, their vocalist Christopher ‘Christbutcher’ Clark moved to Finland in January 2007 after a tentative reunion with his first proper band Dethroned fell apart. But in no way did this mean he gave up completely.

“I started looking the very day we had set it in stone that we were emigrating. I emailed like-minded musicians who were in the area and eventually put together our first line-up, although it seemed at first that the north Savonia region in the middle of Finland was the wrong place to play death metal!”

Even if it took Maveth three years to come up with their first EP (‘Of Serpent And Shadow’), that recording and its follow-up ‘Impious Servant’ proved to be of such high-level that they soon got re-released together on one single CD by Nuclear Winter Records in 2011. And with their now first proper full-length, ‘Coils Of The Black Earth’, ready to hit the stores later this year through Dark Descent, Christbutcher feels he’s come full circle.

“At first, I made a conscious decision to use all the … Read More

Don’t you dare tell RS that Lie In Ruins and Desolate Shrine, the two bands he’s part of, are alike; “That’s total bullshit. The only link between those two is I’m doing the vocals for both, but I don’t have any lyrical nor musical responsibilities in the latter.” Ask Desolate Shrine’s ‘real’ boss LL what he thinks then and he’d agree that that, “the only link those two are our singer and the fact that we all know each other, share a rehearsal place, drink some beers now and then and operate the within the vast genre that is death metal, but even that’s a bit different.” Indeed, while Lie In Ruins’ 2009 ‘Swallowed The Void’ release was a classic yet solid throwback to the good old days of early ’90s Finnish death metal, Desolate Shrine’s 2011 debut ‘Tenebrous Towers’ and brand new ‘The Sanctum Of Human Madness’ album are different beasts altogether, two epic albums released only a year apart. Described by its creator as an album whose “lyrical, musical and graphic concept all revolves around the darkest corners of human mind – you can see it as a journey to the gates of hell if you will,” ‘Sanctum’ is … Read More