By the grace of god, Iron Fist #19 has head off to the printers, and while it’s been a bit supershitty to the max to get this magazine into some degree of high visibility, we managed to finish off 100 pages full of the most grande rock, with the usual mix of new bands who will refute the claim that rock ‘n’ roll is dead, and the bands who have been around for years payin’ the dues. Now, we don’t want to be giving any clues as to who’s on the cover but we’ve been giving some hard stereo time to the type of band of late who know that you can’t pull from one limiting genre pool to create musical genius.

If you’re inspired by the three ring rock n roll circus of the ‘head, missed the last bus home like Lynott, live your life on Permanent Vacation, chill out to a bit of jazz, cool down with the blues, rev it up with some sleaze, are born to be wild and walk on the wild side, then you belong in our pages and over the next few days we will be highlighting some of the bands we think will take … Read More

When not sticking to a good ‘ol cuppa at Europe’s most psychedelic festival, Patrick Walker is 40 Watt Sun, Britain’s most evocative doom band since, well, Warning. In Iron Fist #10 Sarah Kitteringham spoke to him about musical catharsis, influences and a potential new album…

Two years on and that album is here. To mark the release of ‘Pictures’ (scroll down for a sneak preview), a new song from the forthcoming ‘Wider than the Sky’ (out on October 14 on the band’s own label Radiance Records) we are re-publishing that article in its entirety. Welcome back Mr Walker.

Guitarist and vocalist Patrick Walker was just 17-years-old when he formed Warning. The band, and the project that followed in the wake of their final breakup in 2009 – the luminous 40 Watt Sun – inspire flagrant emotional hyperbolic description that seem entirely out of place within the realms of metal. This is music that gives you the “feels”.

Emotive descriptors aside, 40 Watt Sun’s music is slow and dense with dynamic Sabbathian bass lines and reverb soaked percussion; the cymbal work gives the music light and shade, bouncing alongside Walker’s simple, cascading riffs. The vocals are expressive and clean; in contrast the guitar tones are beefy and … Read More

Stating that their influences are simply Pentagram and Johnny Winter, Brutus are from Oslo, Norway, but feature three Swedes amongst their ranks. Back in Iron Fist #16, as part of our special report on modern bands with that oh-so-vintage sound, guitarist Johan Forsberg told us how he and Krille Hellqvist talked about starting a band in that vein and found Kim Molander, Knut-Ole Mathisen and Jokke Stenby in 2006 to make it a reality.

“We started to jam and drink some beers every Saturday for a while,” he explains. “Good times and the songs kept coming. We released two full-length albums and right now we’re mixing the third.” That was then, and this is now as that third album ‘Wandering Blind’ is ready and being streamed right here at Iron Fist.

Talking of their influences beyond Messrs Leibling and Winter, Johan tells us that “bands like Jerusalem, Bang and of course, Sabbath was in the early stage of Brutus, but we’ve got our own style of more bluesy heavy rock now. We all listen to Grand Funk, Deep Purple that I think coloured our songs too. A lot of blues bands too, I listen maybe more to the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac, Bluesbreakers, … Read More

On repeat on the Iron Fist HQ stereo, the new album from Finland’s Jess & The Ancient Ones (‘Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes’, Svart Records) is out today. You can read about it in the newest issue of Iron Fist, but back in February 2013, just before they were about to tread the boards at the hallowed Roadburn Festival, we asked Olivier ‘Zoltar’ Badin to grill them alongside their comrades, Seremonia. 

Since The Devil’s Blood arrived on the scene in 2006 there has been a steady flow of priestess-fronted occult rock bands following their path. Jess & The Ancient Ones and Seremonia, both from Finland and both with female singers, have been tarred with this association, despite sounding very different from each other. How do you feel about that? And have you had the chance to meet and play together? Thomas Corpse, Jess & The Ancients Ones: “No, not yet. I do have a feeling that we will meet though. I don’t believe that either one wants to belong to any scene. We just want to storm our own way, and forge our own true identity. It’s not our fault that people tend to drop everything in the same box.” Ville Pirenen, … Read More

One of our favourite feel-good hard rock boogie bands, The Golden Grass (previously on psychedelic powerhouse Svart Records) have partnered up with France’s Listenable Records, home to NWOBHM masters Satan, dark doom band Saturnalia Temple and stoner lords Saviours.

As well as working on a new album, which will be out in Spring, the Brooklyn-nased band will be touring Europe again in May 2016, including a spot at Freak Valley Festival.

The label have said “Their sound majestically encapsulates the timeless feel of ’60s/’70s influence. Taking a nod from legends like James Gang, Allman Brothers & Grand Funk, the soulful British psych/mod of The Move, The Pretty Things & The Action, and the heavy umph of Budgie, Blue Cheer and Blackfoot to seal the deal, The Golden Grass synthesise these influences into a seamless, memorable, and high-energy performance that screams from the past but is a welcome and much needed presence in the now! Hard rock lives! Keep on grass in’!”

Speedtrap are a five-piece speed metal band from Lappeenranta, Finland that formed in 2007. To date they have released a demo, an EP, a split EP with fellow Finns Death With A Dagger and a full-length, ‘Powerdose’ (2013 – Svart Records), which garnered positive reviews from numerous critics and found its way onto several year-end lists. This fall they are set to release, their second full-length under the Svart banner, ‘Straight Shooter’. According to guitarist Ville Valavuo, “We started in Lappeenranta, yes, but originally I was the only band member from there. The other members were from small towns surrounding it, and nowadays none of us live there anymore. Currently three of us live in Helsinki and the other two in Joensuu, cities which are quite far apart actually.” It was this collective isolation that provided early influence and inspiration while their love of all things heavy metal, especially the NWOBHM, provided the rest. “I would say our physical environment had a bigger influence when we started in 2007. There weren’t any bands like us in Lappeenranta, or even Eastern Finland for that matter, and actually the reason for starting a band like this was that no one else was doing it at … Read More