The musical spider’s web cast by Black Sabbath 46 years ago has mutated in many directions, and here at Iron Fist we often forget the crawling, deadly, filthy tentacles that became droning, sludgy doom metal. Germany’s Black Shape Of Nexus are here to remind us of the dread and unease that this genre permeates with a cover of Fist favourites, Hellhammer.

From their 1983 demo ‘Triumph Of Death’, this eponymous song reeks of decay and BSON have dragged it even further into the grave.

Featured on their new album, out on March 18 through Exile On Mainstream Records, ‘Carrier’ stinks like hell, as this song dictates. Drenching their songs in atmosphere, aggression and/or even speed, it is described as “a tour de force that will exhaust all but the completely deaf”.

The band said of this cover version: “Chris from Fucking Kill Records asked us if we would be willing to cover ‘Triumph Of Death’ for his ‘A Fucking Tribute To Hellhammer’ sampler 12”. The result was in our opinion so good, that it also deserved to be released on ‘Carrier’. ‘ToD’ (what a perfect abbreviation!) is a typical BSON track, beginning well-structured and ending up in full deconstruction. Our approach to the … Read More

Even if they only had their first ever rehearsal back in December 2012, Possession are already making a stir in the underground with their debut demo ‘His Best Deceit’. Pressed initially on tape (at 666 copies of course) and now available on CD courtesy of Invictus Productions, this quartet led by Mestema on vocals are completed by Viriakh (bass), I.Dveikus (guitars) and PzKpfw (drums).

Performing a hybrid of thrash, black and death with shrieking vocals that betrays none of its Belgium roots, Possession are adamant about how “spontaneous” the whole thing has been from day one. “We recorded our demo live in the studio because we didn’t feel like spending hours overdubbing minor sound issues and mistakes,” specifies Mestema. “Instead of that, we thought that the bestiality and the energy of our music were far more important things to capture. We think this example clearly shows the way we see our band: we try to work seriously but we refuse to let some details turn into some exhausting pain in the ass. We wouldn’t call ourselves thrash or even black thrash but still we can understand why some people tend to label us as thrash. At the end of the … Read More

“The Tower is a musical and spiritual expression stemming from the need to express and articulate the otherworldly, but also the need to groove and need to make common things magical.” Sweden is utterly relentless in its output of traditional hard rock, and the newest band bringing the summer of love (love of the devil, that is!) vibes to the Iron Fist stereo is The Tower. “Let that boy boogie-woogie; it’s in him and it’s gotta come out,” screams drummer Tommie. “We see ourselves as a cult, gang or family, and a strong bond is necessary if one is to move into the other worlds, and also the world of music. The Tower embraces the timeless, and thus we have no idea how long we have been doing this. The myth says we started in 1938, but our friends say we begun in earnest last summer. We see life as a magical theatre, and it gives us plenty of inspiration. We are also very influenced by old blues records and Link Wray, The Doors and Hellhammer. Fuzzed up guitars, ’60s bass and pounding drums. Soulful cacophony. We are working hard to capture the vibe that we create, and the dirt, … Read More

Something wicked this way comes, billowing down from the decaying North on winds of plague…or of genocide, as the case may be. Visions of nuclear fallout and apocalyptic raids summon wrenching flashbacks for some, and provide lyrical fodder for others; Durham’s Winds Of Genocide have always fallen into the latter camp, but now, with death/doom project Uncoffined, two of its members have ventured further afield, beyond the outskirts of Chernobyl and down along the cemetery road.

 “The band formed officially in early 2011 after myself and Glynn [Alkohall, guitars] started jamming on doom riffs during breaks at Winds Of Genocide rehearsals, where I would jump behind the drumkit and we would start jamming on Vitus riffs,” Kat Shevil explains. “I personally have always loved the dark, evil, morbid vibe of a lot of the bands who blend such a mix of traditional doom and ancient death metal together, it has a certain atmosphere in it that other styles do not possess, plus the crushing heaviness of such music has always attracted me to it. We are definitely much more inspired by the old school doom metal stuff, old Black Sabbath etc, but there is some ancient death metal, death/doom, Hellhammer, old … Read More