The Netherlands may be small, but this scenic, friendly country has more or less got the market cornered on soul-sucking doom, mind-bending psychedelia and toke-totin’ stoner rock, thanks to the mighty riff Mecca that is Roadburn. There’s plenty of homegrown evil lurking through the tidy streets of Tilburg, Eindhoven, et al, and Groningen collective Herder are a particularly ugly example. Their latest release, the ‘Horror Vacui’ EP, came out on Reflections Records just before the new year dawned and is a nasty chunk of lumbering, miasmal doom that could’ve just as easily clambered out of a Georgia swamp, and should serve them well when they hit the stage come this year’s edition of Roadburn. The understated Southern influence bleeds through in the riffs’ occasional bluesy swagger; the rest of the time, Herder stick to their guns and hit hard, all tense chords, hardcore barks, feedback whine and near-fatal slugs of sludge.

“We are attracted to hard and extreme music, with a fucked up atmosphere. Although most Herder members come from a different musical background whether that’s black metal, death metal or hardcore, we are all attracted to the darkness and what it has to offer,” bassist Blitzer told us of their … Read More

Formed in 1983 by guitarist Kenny Powell, Omen were part of a thriving scene that included the likes of Fates Warning, Jag Panzer, Helstar, Shok Paris, Virgin Steele, Liege Lord and Queensrÿche. Dubbed power metal years before it became a term of abuse, these outfits played a muscular, aggressive style far removed from the AOR and glam which dominated America at the time. Influenced by British bands and the culture of old Europe, Omen’s epic tales of sword and sorcery never brought them major success, but in terms of kudos, respect and sheer cult worship, they’re as good as Gods. Like many bands of their era, Omen lost their way as the years rolled by and fashions came and went. More than once they tried – and failed – to change with the times. But it takes more than a couple of dodgy albums to wipe out the golden legacy of their early days and in 2013 – thanks in no small part to the Internet and a few thousand Greeks – Omen’s popularity is at an all-time high. Currently hard at work on a brand new album, guitarist Kenny told Greg Moffitt about the highs, the lows and the lessons learned…

How did your … Read More

Imagine if your job was to travel around Europe, drinking beer and playing heavy metal? They might mow Geddy Lee’s lawn and work in a pig-themed toy shop [true stories] when they’re at home but for two months CAULDRON quit life and hit the road – and remembered all the gory details for Iron Fist

BRITISH STEEL Myles [Deck, drums – the new boy!]: “A six week European tour?! Yes please! Having only done a handful of DIY tours in Eastern Canada – not to mention having never set foot on European soil before – I was very eager to hit the road as the new Cauldron drummer and prove my metal to the band and its fans. Spanning from the end of November to the first week of January, I gladly informed my family that they’d have to suffer the holidays without me and set off on a wet and wild, 35 date adventure of heavy metal bliss. When we landed, we met up with our driver and grindcore enthusiast, Luuk and friend Inti who worked the merchandise table for us all tour. Inti is the star of our ‘Nitebreaker’ video and goes by a number of aliases such as Merch … Read More

Welcome to the “difficult third issue” – difficult only because we put this magazine to bed with serious post-festive hangovers – not doing that again in a hurry!!!!

This issue of Iron Fist ended up being actually the most fun to make – and not just because we were still pissed. It had a real spirit of the blitz vibe to it, as our editor Louise and her trusted sidekick Kim knuckled down to some serious pizza eating and sub-editing all-nighters, while our designer Adam told us were we dickheads for keeping him up all night – but the dude is a legend – look at that SAXON cover! The guy’s a genius. I’ve been editing magazines for years and reading them for even longer and that’s seriously the best-looking magazine cover I’ve ever seen.

It was also a bit of a fluke that all the articles in this issue kinda follow the same theme – we didn’t plan it, promise! You got the men that brought us all together on the cover and without knowing Ms Kelly opened her article about the METALPUNK crossover scene with that very sentiment, citing Mr Byford for opening the gates for the myriad heavy metal … Read More

Kurt Brecht is man whose lungs have earned him his name firmly carved into the walls of crossover thrash history and as 2012 heralded DRI’s milestone 30th birthday, the band, fronted by Brecht toured the globe in celebration. However, as the band have decided against recording any new music the dirty rotten singer has gotten himself embroiled in a side project, Pasadena Napalm Division. Taking their name from their Texan hometown and not the Californian suburb, PND were founded back in 2008 when local Houston death thrashers Dead Horse split and were looking to form a new band. Guitarists Greg Martin, Scott Sevall and drummer Ronnie Guyote set about recruiting bassist Bubba Dennis who’d served time in Texan/SF hardcore punks Verbal Abuse and when they heard Kurt was back in Houston on downtime while DRI guitarist Spike recovered from cancer surgery he was the obvious guy to get on board.

Brecht’s spoke of his choice to join PND saying; “I listened to the songs they had and realised that it wouldn’t be too hard to write some lyrics for them. The guys in the band all seemed really nice too. I’d never jammed with anyone outside of DRI before, except … Read More

“This album has been a long time coming and it’s very fulfilling to see a project, which was started a long time ago, finally nearing completion,” says a very relieved Age Of Taurus guitarist Toby Wright, fresh from the studio. We’re relieved too – it’s been three years since the then London-based doom mob released their demo ‘In The Days Of The Taurean Empire’. Part Candlemass, part Pentagram, part Sabbath and part Trouble, Age Of Taurus were doing doom the right way, but the demo was rough and ready and we at Iron Fist were eager to see what Toby, along with ex-Mourn guitarist Alastair Riddell, drummer Darius Claydon and bassist Richard Bruce could come up with once they had time, and a record deal, on their side. The wait is almost over with ‘Desperate Souls Of Tortured Times’ due out this Spring on Rise Above.

“The delay was mostly down to my relocation from London to Oslo in 2011,” Toby admits. “It definitely took me some time to readjust and also to find the best way for a pan-European AOT to work.” Three years is more than enough time for the band to hone their chops and find their sound, so … Read More

He was one of the first to come out in support of Iron Fist, sending us constant emails of support (and scoldings when he disagreed with our Attic review), so it was a pleasure to interview the ultimate metal fan FENRIZ. Just so happens he had an album out, too…

Phone interviews can be a bitch for a number of reasons; let me give you a nice little example. So it’s almost 3pm on a dreary weekday afternoon, and I’m swearing like a lovesick sailor at my obstinately blank Skype screen. I’m meant to be calling Fenriz “Rock ‘N’ Roll Gas Station” Nagell for an interview in roughly ten minutes, and nothing’s working. A flurry of frantic emails to him and my long-suffering editor later, I realize – fuck, it’s Wednesday. Our interview’s scheduled for Thursday. I’m what someone on this side of the pond might charitably refer to as “a knobhead”. Fast-forward 24 hours and a few effusive apologies, and I’ve finally got the phone to ring.

“Hey, Fenriz? This is Kim Kelly from Iron Fist.”

“So, Sebastian Bach is quite a character, hey?” an excited, lightly accented Scandinavian voice squawks back at me. Without so much as a “hello”, black metal’s … Read More

Just before December 31, as the world turned from 2012, a year that was meant to see humanity hurtling towards its prophetic end, into the unlucky 13, Black Oath, a band we have been feverishly evangelising, offered a new song to their most devoted disciples, and not only that but announced it featured guest guitars from Sebastian Ramstedt of Nifelheim/Necrophobic fame. We had to find out more…

“We met the Nifelheim freaks two years ago at Metal Magic Festival in Denmark,” the collective voice of the band tell us of this exciting partnership. “Some days after we received a message from Sebastian asking if we were interested to collaborate with him. At first, he was supposed to play an Alice Cooper cover with us at Hell’s Pleasure, but, due to time it wasn’t possible, so we asked him to play some guitar on the new record and the final result is now online.”

Wanting to know as much as possible about this forthcoming record we asked the band for more details, but they were typically cloak and dagger. The band told us that, “yes, that track will be on our next album [‘Ov Qliphoth And Darkness’]. We already played it live twice and … Read More

With the likes of Coffins and Abigail flying the Japanese flag in the underground scene, it was only a matter of time until more promising contemporary acts started to get the attention of the West. Darkcorpse’s black metal angst, fuelled by a DIY passion reminiscent of the punk era may have only started a couple of years ago, but the five-piece already have two demos up their sleeves. After playing in other bands and vocalist Kraahl setting up underground zine, the Japan Metal Guide, the band, now made up of Harbinger and Korvus (guitars), Marax (bass) and drummer Skuld, were able to gig around Yokohoma.

“Playing here has been an amazing experience. The sense of community within the scene is really strong and bands really look out for each other,” explains Skuld. “I suppose the only bad part is how expensive shows are here due to the prevailing pay-to-play system. Actually, this system has a seriously crippling effect on the bands, making it difficult for most bands to scrape together enough money for recording and touring.”

Despite this, Darkcorpse’s independent approach has created two misanthropic records, with a third already in the pipeline. “As a band we tend not to mull over … Read More

Angist are one of the most compelling bands to have catapulted into this writer’s ears in ages, and these chilly, jaded fingers don’t type that lightly. It’s all a matter of taste, to be sure, but man, have you heard this fucking band? If not, allow me to suggest that you put this magazine down, lovingly close its covers, and hop on over to your internet machine to look up the audio for their 2011 EP, ‘Circle of Suffering’. Drink that shit in, give it a good swish around in your mouth, then rumble back up to this article. We should be on the same page now. Their story is novel, to say the least – little band from Iceland makes good – but the quality of the music goes far beyond sheer gimmickry. Angist are a death metal band at heart, but like to mix things up with shades of black metal and thrash and moments of devilish melody. The vocals come howling out of the void, guttural, menacing, and pained; Edda Tegeder Óskarsdóttir is a force of nature.
That sounds all well and good, but the icing on the cake is the way they manipulate the lightless, gloomy and … Read More