Leif’s a busy guy. Which is surprising since he promised us all he needed a break from his main vehicle of doom, Candlemass. While he’s stepped away from performing with the three-decade-old gloom godfathers, he still had time to record an EP with them this year (‘Death Thy Lover’, Napalm Records), finish Avatarium‘s second album late last year (‘The Girl With The Raven Mask’, Nuclear Blast) and form a new band, The Doomsday Kingdom.

The band’s demo EP ‘Never Machine’ will be out on November 25 via Nuclear Blast marking Leif’s new reign of doom metal.

“I’m so happy that things are moving in the right direction,” Leif comments. “I’ve been putting my heart and soul into the new EP and album for about two and a half years now. So it’s very relieving to finally see an end to all the work. Soon the world will hear the sound of the catacombs coming to life! “I’m currently doing the final touches to the album. It is recorded, mixed and mastered, and has come out absolutely fantastic! Just a few graphic things left with photos, booklet etc. and then it will be ready. I’m very proud of this album! It sounds so good, therefore the visual aspect … Read More

We can hear the hound dogs on our trail. All hell breaks loose, alarms and sirens wail, and it gives Iron Fist the utmost pleasure to have THIN LIZZY gracing its cover for issue number 14. Within its pages, we chat to SCOTT GORHAM, the man who helped birth the style of glorious twin-guitar harmony that would resonate throughout so many of our cherished slabs of wax, and resided in the eye of this life-affirming band’s particular hurricane for its glory years and beyond.

For all that band’s turbulent and tragic history, THIN LIZZY’s grit, balls and outlaw chutzpah remain central to Heavy Metal, and there are plenty of other tales of trials and tribulations tackled and often overcome in this issue, and of artists elevated by the all-consuming power of their music to levels bordering on the realm of mythical superheroes. Jon-Mikl THOR’s is one of these, and the legendary thundergod’s story in this issue is proof positive that the love for his chosen steel-bending metier could triumph against all adversity. Similarly stirring is the tale of GIRLSCHOOL’s KIM MCAULIFFE and ENID WILLIAMS, who spill the beans on four full decades of tireless and inspirational hard rocking in often somewhat … Read More

Keep It True Festival, Germany, 2011. The storm is coming thick and fast and whenever there’s a flash of lightning some guys start singing ‘Lightning Strikes Again’. Suddenly there’s a crash of thunder and another group of guys on the opposite side of the field started singing ‘Thunder On The Tundra’. It’s a moment we’ll never forget, and proves how much THOR has become a heavy metal legend. Once we heard he was working on a new album Dave Sherwood tracked down the hero to talk movies, music, comics and hot water bottles.

I can’t honestly think of any other acts hailing from Canada during the early to mid-’70s who were playing heavy rock and metal; do you think you were the first? Were you aware of any other bands playing with such force back in the day? “There was no one else in the world who not only played heavy rock/metal with such force but also performed the concept of the superhuman frontman who could bend steel in his bare hands in the arena while singing and performing theatrics on stage. I started the first Muscle Power Gladiator rock band ever. There were other rock acts in the ’70s as the tag … Read More