Italian masters of occult horror doom metal Abysmal Grief, who formed in 1996, have reissued their latest album ‘Strange Rites Of Evil’ on cassette via Horror Records and after seeing them at Roadburn Festival where they stole the crown “band of the weekend” (according to our editor, Louise) we needed to interrogate them about the album and their future plans. Known for their dark, occult imagery and lyrics, Kat Gillham caught up with guitarist Regen Graves to get his take on the band’s themes and the state of modern doom. 

Your excellent new album ‘Strange Rites Of Evil’ was unleashed upon mankind recently, please tell the readers what they can expect from it in your words.  The new album was released on digipack CD by Terror From Hell Records on November 2, while the LP was unleashed by Horror Records on Christmas eve and just now on cassette. Yes, we’re satisfied with the whole work, and I can say this is exactly what Abysmal Grief look like today: a punch in the face of positiveness and life.

Please tell us a bit about the lyrical concepts on this album, what initially made you so interested in such dark and esoteric subjects? This album is quite different … Read More

One of our favourite new bands (well, they formed in 2006), Black Oath perfectly meet at the cursed crossroads of misanthropic Peaceville death/doom, ancient NWOBHM and, of course, their Italian homeland’s rich history of occult rock. Obsessed with their latest album, ‘To Below And Beyond’ (just released on cassette by Equinox Discos), we sent Kat Gillham to get the skinny on why and how it’s so fucking perfect from frontman A.th.  Hails! Your excellent third album ‘To Below And Beyond’ was unleashed upon mankind recently, how would you describe it for those who perhaps haven’t heard of you… yet… Thank you for appreciation! I would recommend the album for those into old heavy/rock with a strong passion for occultism and a touch of black metal atmosphere. Most describe us as a typical doom band (due to lack of knowledge about music) but we call it Cursed Rock Musick! We are extremely glad how the album turned out as it represents 100 percent of the band and our feelings.

What formats is it currently available on? As of now it is out on CD but soon we will have both LP and tape. We like all kinds of formats and take care of every … 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

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