Iron Fist Magazine

INTO BATTLE: HUNDRED

From the mean streets of West London come Hundred, a band with a passion for balls out NWOBHM and a love of the old gods. With a style influenced by Iron Maiden, Manilla Road Mercyful Fate and Bathory, Hundred are right up Iron Fist’s street. While they might still be in college, they’re clearly no slouches with regular gigs happening in Kingston and beyond. Guitarist David Pike gave us the details; “We formed in 2006 as Gravstead, just Adam, Patrick and Myself, with no real direction – we just wanted to get a band together to play metal!” explains David. “We had difficulty finding a committed drummer and vocalist. After a couple of years we had some luck, we hooked up with Eddy Knight through the Kingston Youth Service! He isn’t into metal, but he’s a great Drummer and he’s passionate about any projects he’s involved in.” It was a triumph of the internet that gave Hundred their distinctive vocals. “An ad we’d placed on the Gumtree website yielded a response from Alex Storrsson, very talented and reliable; our line-up was now complete and we became Hundred! Having brought together all of the elements, our direction was clear. Fast-paced, riff-based heavy … Read More

INTO BATTLE: METAL GRAVE

If you’ve been paying any attention to the bludgeoning South American underground there is a fair chance you’ll be able to name one or two Chilean black or death metal bands such as Pentagram, Death Yell, Force Of Darkness or Unaussprechlichen Kulten. But heavy metal warriors? Okay, we’re stumped. “It’s true that the genre has always been under-represented over here,” agrees Metal Grave‘s bass player Christopher Falk. “In the ’80s there was only Tumulto, Feedback, Panzer or Vastator to speak of. Then later on Inquisicion, but that’s about it. But, even though there are few of us, each one is unique and very dedicated!”

Formed in 2010 by the two guitar players of local thrash heroes Sacrilegio and influenced by “Mercyful Fate, Iron Maiden and Running Wild”, but also more obscure doom outfits, after two demos in 2011 and 2012, they’re about to release their debut full-length ‘The Eternal Flame Of Deception’, a seven tracker that includes a re-recording of their nearly ten minute epic ‘Journey Into The Unknown’. A conceptual album inspired by Dante’s ‘Inferno’, it tells the story of “one crusader knight, led by Richard Lionheart, who dies on the battlefield. However, unlike all his beliefs, he wakes up … Read More

INTO BATTLE: CORSAIR

Corsair are a rare treat: a classic hard rock sounding from the US (Charlottesville, Virginia to be precise) who proudly wear their influences on their sleeves – think Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden and a hell of a lot of vintage progressive rock – yet they have never sounded like a tribute-in-disguise, but more like a richer and more interesting act that is just getting started. Since forming in 2008 after guitarists Marie Landragin and Paul Sebring met at a local Black Sabbath tribute show they have released two EPs and one self-titled full-length. The latter has just been reissued worldwide by Shadow Kingdom Records, just in time to coincide with Marie and bassist Jordan Brunk’s bass return from a six months stay in France. “Paul has always been into those instrumentals Metallica had on their earliest albums and Marie loved Thin Lizzy so Corsair spun from both,” suggests Jordan, who joined a bit later. “But after we put a lot of effort into being cohesive, we started to branch out and break apart from each other as well. We love getting our guitars to intertwine while playing totally different parts.”

If their name was suggested by Paul “because of his love … Read More

INTO BATTLE: ALPHA TIGER

The demise of the local record shop is saddening on many levels, but the pinboards consigned to the skip out back is maybe the most heart-breaking. For where else can you find notices about crates of NWOBHM 7”s for sale, weed-smoking/doom-loving room-mates needed and most importantly little tabs of scrawled phone numbers asking if anyone wants to start a band. For that is exactly how the ’80s obsessed metal nerds of Alpha Tiger met. “I saw a notice on a board in our local music store. Someone was searching for another guitar player so I called him and we met,” explains guitarist Peter Langforth. “It was Alex [Backasch, guitars] and fortunately we had a similar taste in music.” That similar taste is music encompasses everything from “Metallica, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Queensryche, Crimson Glory, Fates Warning and Riot,” which is alright in our book! The band formed as Satin Black in 2007 and were quickly snapped up by Karl Walterbach, he of Noise Records fame, for his new imprint Sonic Attack, but a line-up change and name change later and the band found themselves on the stages of Keep It True and Hellfest festivals and on Century Media Records for their new … Read More

HEAVY METAL WARRIOR: SHARON EHMAN/TOXIC VISION

Doro’s got a contender for most famous bum in metal. Recently the social networks have been in awe of the designs (and derriere) of Canadian seamstress Sharon Ehman and her label Toxic Vision. Inspired by King Diamond, Venom, Bathory, Iron Maiden and Saxon we had to track her down and talk to her about her love of denim and leather.

Hi Sharon, when did you begin to start tinkering with your own designs and why? “Everyone has the choice to create their own world or live in someone else’s. There was never a specific moment when I sat down and articulated what I was going to do for the rest of my life, it just happened naturally. At 17 years old, I knew I had a hunger to create something of my own. Toxic Vision is the world I have created for myself. I think having the courage to break the mould is a very powerful tool that will inspire others to live their lives for themselves. Many people fear the cauldron, they dip their fingers into it and back away from the heat. I believe you should fully submerge yourself and hold your breath to the very end.”

What is it that … Read More

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