KING DIAMOND + ANGEL WITCH THE FORUM, LONDON JUNE 2016

It’s been a long time since since King Diamond played a theatre show in London. The last time was a sweltering night in June 2006, yet almost a decade to the day he’s back and this time he’s not some cult, underground curiosity. Years of touring the big international festivals and a surging interest in traditional heavy metal has meant the corpse-painted, baby-wielding, ghost-believing raconteur has become a Danish cultural icon on a par with moody gothic crime dramas, bacon baps and controversial doodles of religious prophets.

The King, as he’s affectionately known in Iron Fist circles, does not elicit the kind of fair-weather fan merely intrigued by his kitsch theatrics and soaring voice, they are devotees and tonight, The Forum, a grand proscenium arched arena worthy of the Mercyful Fate mainman, has gathered the familiar and the frenzied into its halls. What is so great about intimate theatre shows is that while festivals are 30,000 strong, the few – in comparison – that are here tonight are the dedicated ones and you can feel the energy brewing in the queue snaking around the venue.

In the run up to the concert the rumours of … Read More

BLITZKRIEG LIVE AT THE PENNY GILL, SPENNYMOOR JUNE 18 2016

It’s not very often you see a legendary NWOBHM band play in the back room of a small pub, in a small town, in North East England. Especially one that had such a notable and huge influence on the likes of Metallica, undeniably one of the biggest metal bands ever and even covered and recorded a cover of their self-titled classic anthem on their ‘Creeping Death’ EP way back in the early ’80s, playing it live well into the touring cycle for ‘Master Of Puppets’.

Along with bands such as Angel Witch, Diamond Head, Raven and Venom, Blitzkrieg were at the forefront of the early ’80s burgeoning heavy metal movement and have been recording albums, playing live and touring ever since. This was the second time the band played The Penny Gill, a small lively rock/biker pub in Spennymoor a small ex-mining community in County Durham. This was a no airs, no graces affair, as close and personal as you can get; no stage, barriers or security separating the band from the fans.

There was no support band either, this was merely an intimate warm-up show for the Garage Days Revisited festival in London … Read More

From being one of the most hated early thrash bands to one of the most cult, Italy’s BULLDOZER forged their own path throughout the ‘80s, burning the rule books along the way. From being signed to Roadrunner, almost collaborating with King Diamond and inspiring The Prodigy. GUY STRACHAN relives those days of wrath with frontman AC WILD

Before the release of ‘Reign In Blood’, thrash metal was generally treated as a bad joke by much of the mainstream media. Bathory, Voivod, Hellhammer, Sodom and even Slayer themselves received at least one vicious slaughtering from at least one major metal magazine during their tentative years, but there was one band who, perhaps more than any other, was on the receiving end of continual, indescribably harsh criticism (such as Kerrang!’s “the worst band ever”) that commenced with their debut 7″ and taking until the band’s fourth LP before they finally received some grudging respect outside of their fan base. That band was Italy’s Bulldozer who, after calling it quits as the ‘80s ended, surprisingly picked up the baton again in 2009 with the release of ‘Unexpected Fate’. “We had several requests from fans but Andy [Panigada, guitars] and I were conscious that we could … Read More

With The Golden Grass playing in London tonight and their new album ‘Coming Back Again’ recently released via Listenable Records, we revisited the time we put them in our Into Battle section way back in Iron Fist #10

Adam Kriney is the epitome of the modern and urban bohemian. A proud NYC-born and bred artist with a zillion ideas yet, first and foremost, a drummer he nevertheless has an extremely versatile musical pedigree that saw him hijacking free jazz, heavy rock, stoner, psychedelic rock, electro and everything in between. Until last November, his ticket that connected all those dots was La Otracina, whose career culminated in 2012 with their first, and so far only, DIY 46 date European tour and a storming Roadburn appearance.

However, upon their return another addition to their already long list of line-up overhauls knocked the wind out of Kriney. So despite being seated on a stack of unreleased recordings that could fill up “something like five albums” according to him, he put the band on hiatus and chose to focus on his other two musical activities, the instrumental kraut-rock inspired Zoned Out and Grateful Dead tribute band, the Dead Tapes. Only when those two also ran into … Read More

We love a mixtape here at Iron Fist. The ritual of choosing the track, pressing play and record at the same time, perfectly timing songs to fit on one side of a C-90, doodling your own hand-written cover. Days were endlessly passed doing this in our youth. Bringing back the tradition we ask some of our favourite musicians to make us a tape and let you know, via the magic of YouTube, what they picked for us.

In the first instalment, JB Christoffersson of Iron Willed warriors GRAND MAGUS picks twelve songs that inspired his band’s latest album ‘SWORD SONGS’ in a mixtape called ‘SWEDISH STEEL’.

1. BATHORY – ‘Shores In Flames’ This is the opening song on BATHORY’s masterpiece ‘Hammerheart’ and one of my favourite songs ever. No one combines atmosphere with power like Quorthon did.

2. DISSECTION – ‘Xeper-i-Set’ The Reinkaos album was very controversial when it came out. Personally I think it’s a fantastic album with brilliant playing and songwriting. This is probably the fastest and most aggressive track on that album and it’s ferocious.

3. WOLF – ‘The Bite’ When it comes to proper heavy metal in the modern age, I think that WOLF is one of the best bands … Read More

Doom rock legends The Obsessed (Maryland, USA), led by the infamous Scott “Wino” Weinrich (Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, Place of Skulls, The Hidden Hand and W.I.N.O.), formed in 1976. The band have split up and reformed numerous times, first splitting in 1986 when Wino joined Saint Vitus, but reformed four years later and released two very influential albums via the Hellhound Records label and Colombia that are regarded as classics – namely ‘Lunar Womb’ and ‘The Church Within’. After releasing three albums (including the self-titled that was originally recorded in 1985), The Obsessed broke up for a second time in 1995.

Wino reappeared on the scene a few years later with Shine who later became Spirit Caravan and released a demo as well as a couple of albums and EPs, touring Europe and the UK twice in 1999 and 2000. The band called it quits soon after and Wino pursued other projects for quite a while before reforming Spirit Caravan and rejoining Saint Vitus for another stint, which included a new album, 2012’s ‘Lillie F-65. their first since the 1995 album ‘Die Healing’. Some heavy touring culminated in Wino being arrested for drugs possession at the Norwegian border on the way … Read More

Following on from yesterday’s Top Five TEMPLES FESTIVAL Metal of Death tip top Topcat list by M of Funeral Throne, we asked another Iron Fister on the bill, Birthday girl Kat ‘Shevil’ Gillham, throatscorcher of crusty devil worshippers WINDS OF GENOCIDE to run down the top five bands on the line-up that she’ll be upfront and centre for…

SHEER TERROR Because their ‘Just Can’t Hate Enough’ album is one of my fave HC albums of all time and probably my favourite NYHC album. A lot of metal bands would love that totally fierce Celtic Frost style guitar tone!!

GRAVE I’ve loved this band since the early ’90s when I was a teenager starting to discover death metal and starting to delve deep into the abyss that is the underground death metal scene. But I’ve never seen them live in person, so Temples will be my first time.

VICTIMS I haven’t seen these guys live since 2009 but they are such an energetic live band, and their new album ‘Sirens’ is totally awesome so looking forward to checking out some new material in a live environment through a huge PA!

MELVINS I’ve been a huge fan of their older stuff since my younger brother turned me … Read More

Doom Metal has its roots way back in early ’70s and Black Sabbath (the masters of all), followed by bands like Pentagram, Trouble and Saint Vitus. But the origins of epic doom metal are traced back to ‘Epicus Doomicus Metallicus’ of Candlemass, who along with Solitude Aeturnus, are the most iconic bands of the sub-genre. Monasterium, a new band hailing from Poland, are following the path of epic doom and Iron Fist is honoured to introduce them to the metal battlefield.

Introduce yourselves, ye humble knights of doom… Hails Iron Fist! We are Monasterium – a brand new Polish band formed in 2014 and dedicated entirely to epic/heavy doom metal. Doom metal in its traditional form has always been our passion and we believe it’s actually one of the noblest genres of music in general – that’s why we follow this path. How did you come up with the band’s name? We longed for a name that’s meaningful, powerful and at the same time carries all the mystical and spiritual vibes present in our music and lyrics. Unfortunately Candlemass has already been taken, so out of all the ideas we came up with, Monasterium seemed like the best choice.

Your first same-titled album is coming on … Read More

TEMPLES FESTIVAL returns to Bristol in June and alongside Desertfest, Live Evil and Damnation proves that grassroots, DIY fests keep the wellspring of British underground heavy metal alive and kicking. Settling somewhere between doom pilgrimage Roadburn Festival and extreme grind holiday destination, Maryland Deathfest, Temples is the go to fest in the West (of England!!). Headlined by gore veterans Carcass and black metal cult Mayhem, alongside Melvins, the festival also boasts Iron Fist regulars The Gentlemans Pistols, Iron Reagan, Revenge, Mare and your dad’s favourites, Groundhogs.

Over the next few days we will be running through our tips for the festival. The whole line-up is unmissable and to start with we probed black metal upstarts Funeral Throne bassist and vocalist M (also known as Iron Fist scribe, Jack Welch) to give us his top five tips of bands you need to see…

DEGIAL Uppsala, Sweden: famously home to Watain and a whole host of demons residing in its blood-blackened soil. Uppsala is also home to snot-nosed upstarts Degial who have drawn from this wellspring of Chaos and spewed its black bile into their true Metal of Death. Their first efforts were very akin to Morbid Angel (no bad thing) but last year heralded their second … Read More

Legendary German thrashers Exumer (who formed in 1985) have returned to the scene with their fourth album ‘The Raging Tides’ (their second since reforming in 2008). It’s a fierce slab of energetic Teutonic thrash metal that showcases a band clearly firing on all cylinders, sounding rejuvenated with new blood in the ranks and burning bright with musical fire. Original vocalist Mem Von Stein gave Kat Gillham an insight into the new album and the recent events in the Exumer camp…

Your new record ‘The Raging Tides’ has just been released, are you satisfied with how it turned out? Mem: It’s definitely a step up from our last album ‘Fire And Damnation’ in terms of how it’s a lot more direct, I think. We tightened the edges in many ways and I think it just pops a lot more. It just has a bigger punch than ‘Fire And Damnation’, we did like the sound of that album but I think this is a step forward in regards to bringing the mix upfront and really making sure that the guitars and drums are really punching you in the face so to speak, so yeah we were really happy with how it turned out overall. … Read More