One of our favourite feel-good hard rock boogie bands, The Golden Grass (previously on psychedelic powerhouse Svart Records) have partnered up with France’s Listenable Records, home to NWOBHM masters Satan, dark doom band Saturnalia Temple and stoner lords Saviours.

As well as working on a new album, which will be out in Spring, the Brooklyn-nased band will be touring Europe again in May 2016, including a spot at Freak Valley Festival.

The label have said “Their sound majestically encapsulates the timeless feel of ’60s/’70s influence. Taking a nod from legends like James Gang, Allman Brothers & Grand Funk, the soulful British psych/mod of The Move, The Pretty Things & The Action, and the heavy umph of Budgie, Blue Cheer and Blackfoot to seal the deal, The Golden Grass synthesise these influences into a seamless, memorable, and high-energy performance that screams from the past but is a welcome and much needed presence in the now! Hard rock lives! Keep on grass in’!”

Twin innovators who forged metal in their own wayward images with nary a thought for either compromise or common sense, BUDGIE and DIAMOND HEAD were enormous influences on the early days of Metallica, with Dave Mustaine even claiming that it was his love of the former that sealed the deal when it came to his gig with the Four Horsemen. Yet, as Diamond Head’s Brian Tatler confirms, they both might have been forgotten had it been for the aforementioned San Fran saviours. Never fear; interviews with both Tatler – who takes us back to the making of the debut ‘Lightning To The Nations’ – and Budgie frontman Burke Shelley in our second anniversary issue mark the perfect reminder of a maverick spirit that embodies why we started Iron Fist in the first place.

Acrimoniously ejected from Metallica in 1983, it didn’t take long for guitarist Dave Mustaine to saddle up and form MEGADETH with a glint of revenge in his eye. By May 1985 he had delivered the ultimate comeback in the form of ‘Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good’, with more spite, more speed and more “state of the art heavy metal”than the majority of that era’s rivetheads could believe. With the album reissued this month, Jim Martin talks to Dave Mustaine, Dave Ellefson and man-on-the-scene Brian … Read More