Italian masters of occult horror doom metal Abysmal Grief, who formed in 1996, have reissued their latest album ‘Strange Rites Of Evil’ on cassette via Horror Records and after seeing them at Roadburn Festival where they stole the crown “band of the weekend” (according to our editor, Louise) we needed to interrogate them about the album and their future plans. Known for their dark, occult imagery and lyrics, Kat Gillham caught up with guitarist Regen Graves to get his take on the band’s themes and the state of modern doom. 

Your excellent new album ‘Strange Rites Of Evil’ was unleashed upon mankind recently, please tell the readers what they can expect from it in your words.  The new album was released on digipack CD by Terror From Hell Records on November 2, while the LP was unleashed by Horror Records on Christmas eve and just now on cassette. Yes, we’re satisfied with the whole work, and I can say this is exactly what Abysmal Grief look like today: a punch in the face of positiveness and life.

Please tell us a bit about the lyrical concepts on this album, what initially made you so interested in such dark and esoteric subjects? This album is quite different … Read More

It was so good to have KING DIAMOND back on British soil this weekend… and it’s good to have the King on the cover of Iron Fist issue 6. When we started this magazine a year ago (yep, we can’t believe it either!) it was always our dream interview and with the 30th anniversary of ‘Melissa’ coming up (we can’t believe that either!) Damien spoke to the man himself about his whole career, from Brainstorm to Bloodstock… he even hinted at a possible Fate reunion… we live in hope!

Putting issue 6 together was carnage, we must admit. It’s festival season, which means that most of our team were lying face down in a field somewhere in Europe rather than tethered to our keyboards, but we managed it – despite insane hangovers from Muskelrock, Metallsvenskan, Bang Your Head or Hell’s Pleasure.

In this issue we’ve tied down some in-depth exclusive interviews with cult Italian masters DEATH SS, British thrash overlords ONSLAUGHT and death dealers EXHUMED. Olivier ‘Zoltar’ Badin also spoke to both Chritus Linderson and Scott Reagers (who NEVER does interviews) about two SAINT VITUS albums that he believes deserve more attention.

We’ve also got interviews from RAMMING SPEED, CAUCHEMAR, GORGUTS, BESTIAL MOCKERY’S … 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

Just before December 31, as the world turned from 2012, a year that was meant to see humanity hurtling towards its prophetic end, into the unlucky 13, Black Oath, a band we have been feverishly evangelising, offered a new song to their most devoted disciples, and not only that but announced it featured guest guitars from Sebastian Ramstedt of Nifelheim/Necrophobic fame. We had to find out more…

“We met the Nifelheim freaks two years ago at Metal Magic Festival in Denmark,” the collective voice of the band tell us of this exciting partnership. “Some days after we received a message from Sebastian asking if we were interested to collaborate with him. At first, he was supposed to play an Alice Cooper cover with us at Hell’s Pleasure, but, due to time it wasn’t possible, so we asked him to play some guitar on the new record and the final result is now online.”

Wanting to know as much as possible about this forthcoming record we asked the band for more details, but they were typically cloak and dagger. The band told us that, “yes, that track will be on our next album [‘Ov Qliphoth And Darkness’]. We already played it live twice and … Read More