German death metallers Venenum have recently unleashed their debut full length album ‘Trance Of Death’ upon the extreme music scene via Sepulchral Voice Records, a multi-faceted album full of twists and turns that will slowly coil it’s way around your senses upon listening.

We caught up with vocalist/bassist F.S.A (who joins P.T. on guitars, D.P. on guitars and keys, and F.J.L on drums) to find out more about the album and gain more of an insight into the dark musical world of this very exciting new malevolent force in death metal.

Your debut album is due to be unleashed in the near future – what can the readers expect from your first full-length offering? Immense. Intense. In trance.

Where was the album recorded? The album was recorded at Tonstudio Katzer in Nuremberg, Germany. Our new guitarist suggested Romin Katzer because he did an internship at his old studio once. Since we hadn’t made up our mind on where to record the album, we visited Romin at his new studio, which is close by where we live and instantly knew that we wanted to work with him. At first we only booked one week with the focus on getting the drum tracks … Read More

As the celebrated Geordie folk song ‘The Lambton Worm’ kicks off; “Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs, I’ll tell ye aal an aaful story”.

Or for those of us who don’t speak Geordie, the awful story we’re asking you to hold your mouths for concerns an early-‘80s period in which the North-East was an epicentre for a shockwave of pulse-racing Heavy Metal whose influence can still be felt in extremis some thirty-five years on. Whereas The Lambton Worm was a mythical beast that rose to terrorise the North-East, a certain strain of terror was spawned in just such territory by three Tyne & Wear lads ripping apart the metal rulebook in search of shocks, horror and glory galore. This band, of course, was VENOM, and in this issue Iron Fist talk to Cronos on a four-decade mission of life as a blasphemous iconoclast and full-throttle Black Metal bezerker.

What’s more, we travel back in time to the dawn of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal to chart the roots of NEAT RECORDS, harking back to an era in which the upstairs of a bingo hall in Wallsend was the launchpad for a strain of supercharged audial aggro that would inspire a generation. … Read More

Friends since their school daze, CC Company is yet another infectious rock ‘n’ band outta Stockholm, in the vein of Hellacopters and Motorhead, but with some recognisable faces at the helm. It makes sense that the three-piece should consist of Enforcer guitarist and bassist, Joseph Tholl (also of Black Trip) and Tobias Lindqvist (also of Dead Lord) – after all there is that throwback vibe that all three of their other bands showcase so perfectly, but CC Company is pure, unadulterated rock swagger this time around. They’re joined on drums by Tribulation vocalist Johannes Andersson, but don’t call this a supergroup.

“We’ve had lots of side projects with this line-up during the past ten years,” weighs in frontman Joseph about the band’s formation. “It’s been all kinds of different stuff, depending on what we feel like doing for the moment, just for fun, you know?

This latest incarnation of their jamming habit was born last summer and they’ve already racked up gigs at the infamous Pussy-A-Go-Go bar and caught the attention of new label (and Fist cohorts), Bad Omen Records. “The songs came out very natural with a sound of rock ‘n’ roll and heavy metal,” Joseph explains. “Our first 7” is … Read More

It’s apt that issue 4 of Iron Fist came out in that twilight zone between the beginning of Spring and Easter, a time of death and rebirth.

Because that’s what this issue feels like. When we came up with the idea for Iron Fist we knew we would give it a shot at three issues, see what the reaction was and who knew? We might not have even made it this far. But you, the readers, have been so supportive and it’s thanks to you that there is an issue 4, and will be an issue 5 and beyond. We owe you. Remember this is as much your zine as ours so get yourself onto our Facebook page and tell us what bands you want to see interviewed in future tomes.

This is also the most personal issue of the mag so far. On January 22, The Devil’s Blood announced they were calling it a day, and as one of my favourite modern bands I was obviously crushed by the news. But after talking to their founder and architect Selim Lemouchi, he offered the opportunity to give Iron Fist the most definitive interview about their split and give us some hope about … Read More

By now, it’s been three years since Tribulation’s breakout LP, ‘The Horror,’ was unleashed, and fans of their sinister death metal odes have been clamouring for more. The album dropped just on the cusp of what would become the recent old school death metal explosion, and immediately stood out from the pack with its sheer power and diabolical intent. Turns out this Swedish mob were just as impatient to record its successor, but, like any good band, were unwilling to sacrifice quality for speed.

“It’s actually been over five years since we recorded the album,” their guitarist, Adam Zaars, reveals from their studio in Arvika. “I wouldn’t say that anything kept us from doing it, it just took that long because of the way we worked on it. When you write songs in an unconventional way, as we did this time, things might take time. We waited for the album to come to us rather than sitting down forcing it out.”

Good things come to those who wait, and it already seems like we’ll be in for a treat come 2013, thanks to Ireland’s mighty Invictus Productions.

“We actually had a lot of labels hover over our heads trying to pull us into … Read More