We’ve been enjoying our recent C90 series. Okay, fair enough, it’s hardly original. What music magazine has not, in one form or another, asked musicians to create a playlist of bands rarely off their turntables? It’s a classic and we have no shame. But this one is especially exciting as it’s actually happening. This is not a fictitious mixtape of songs and bands that inspired the artist, this is a list of songs and bands that the artist – none only than King Fowley of the mighty Deceased – has covered and gathered together on the aptly-titled ‘Metal Massacre 31’ with his equally mighty band October 31. Out on November 25 via Hells Headbangers King kindly explained his reasons behind each cover and offered us the first full stream of the album to get your teeth into. If you’re a sucker for those early Metal Blade compilations and love early American heavy metal from Hallows Eve to Omen then this will get your engines revving. All hail King Fowley. All hail ‘Metal Massacre’ compilations. All hail propa ‘eavy metal.

STREAM ‘METAL MASSACRE 31‘

Metal Massacre 31 by OCTOBER 31

1. ‘Cross My Way’ by DEATH DEALER “This is track 2 from ‘Metal Massacre 4’. A killer French Canadian … Read More

Leif’s a busy guy. Which is surprising since he promised us all he needed a break from his main vehicle of doom, Candlemass. While he’s stepped away from performing with the three-decade-old gloom godfathers, he still had time to record an EP with them this year (‘Death Thy Lover’, Napalm Records), finish Avatarium‘s second album late last year (‘The Girl With The Raven Mask’, Nuclear Blast) and form a new band, The Doomsday Kingdom.

The band’s demo EP ‘Never Machine’ will be out on November 25 via Nuclear Blast marking Leif’s new reign of doom metal.

“I’m so happy that things are moving in the right direction,” Leif comments. “I’ve been putting my heart and soul into the new EP and album for about two and a half years now. So it’s very relieving to finally see an end to all the work. Soon the world will hear the sound of the catacombs coming to life! “I’m currently doing the final touches to the album. It is recorded, mixed and mastered, and has come out absolutely fantastic! Just a few graphic things left with photos, booklet etc. and then it will be ready. I’m very proud of this album! It sounds so good, therefore the visual aspect … Read More

Snotty, brash, Entombed and Darkthrone worshipping metalpunks OKKULTOKRATI are about to lay waste to the UK next week with a short tour of London, Sheffield and Birmingham. With a new video for ‘Magic People’ from their blistering new album ‘Raspberry Dawn’ just released we caught up with the band to find out what songs will be on the van’s clapped out cassette player as they drive between the homes of Sabbath and Priest. Out now on Southern Lord, their label’s boss Greg Anderson described them best: “Fucked up in all the right places! Super original and I can say that I’ve definitely never heard anything like this! Visions of Bauhaus and Darkthrone listening to Joy Division albums by torchlight in the dark forests of Oslo.” Actually that’s something we can imagine Fenriz doing… enjoy the sounds of darkness

SIDE A

The Spits – ‘Tomorrow’s Children’ “This is our favourite band.”

Emperor – ‘Cosmic Keys to My Creations And Times’ “Imagine being 17 and writing songs like this…”

New Order – ‘Dreams Never End’ “We covered this song on all of our tours in 2014. I like to think we took something from that song, and New Order in general, with us into the new album.”

Alan Vega – ‘Ghost Rider’ “Obvious pick, … Read More

When we came up with the idea of doing a Mix Tape idea for the Iron Fist website there were three people we knew we needed to ask. Jason Decay and Ian Chains from Cauldron were a given, at least one of them were bound to put Bleak House on there, and the other was Ryan Waste. Now the latter has a brand new album out for his snotty speed metal punks BAT, we knew the time was right to hit him up. Ryan has spent the summer driving a taxi (seriously, read the latest Livin’ Fast column in Iron Fist #17) and on the tarmac in Europe with his thrash comrades Municipal Waste so we know his ear is gonna be trained to the right songs for the right road so we asked him to gather together some of the songs that inspired BAT’s latest album, ‘Wings Of Chains‘. It was through MW that we first met Ryan and got to know just how vast, and how perfect for the party, his music taste is. Buckle up and hit play!

SIDE A:

SLANDER ‘Lonely Nights’ Let’s set the mood here. I feed off the sound of desperation in music, so what better way to … 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