In a statement echoing Iron Fist’s own sadness and anger toward horrific orders passed by the USA’s newest president in his first week of office, online streaming community Bandcamp have announced that all proceeds from music sold on Friday, February 3 will be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union, who are “working tirelessly to combat these discriminatory and unconstitutional actions”.

Bandcamp founder Ethan Diamond’s letter called out President Trump for his actions, writing, “Last week’s Executive Order barring immigrants and refugees from seven Middle Eastern countries from entering the United States is not simply immoral, it violates the very spirit and foundation of America.”

With its tagline of “Discover new music and the artists who make it”, Bandcamp has become Iron Fist’s go-to source for so many of the bands you read about in our pages, so if you want to support them this Friday (and we urge you do) here a few bands we recommend.

THE ORDER OF THE SOLAR TEMPLE (CANADA) Soundtracking a new era of Satanic Panic, Matt Emery told us in Iron Fist #16 that “All I can say is that I wear my influences on my sleeve. It’s both a blessing and a curse, there’s a lot of ‘70s … Read More

NYC noise duo Uniform have gotten into the Halloween spirit by trick or treating (depending on where you stand on their take on the Gods) us with a cover of Sabbath’s ‘Symptom Of The Universe’. Taken from their brand new 12″ ‘Ghosthouse’, out via Sacred Bones Records, their version is a tad more bleaker than the “summer skies of love” of the lyrics. 

Sabbath are no strangers to having their catalogue covered; it’s a standard go-to for almost all burgeoning bands jamming in garages around the world, and most covers tend to stick pretty close to the original. We here at Iron Fist want to tip our cap to the brave and downright blasphemous, like Uniform, who take the blueprint laid down by Iommi and co, and fuck with it. Here are a few of our favourite shocking takes on the Sabs from over the years…

LISTEN TO UNIFORM’S ‘SYMPTOM OF THE UNIVERSE’:

Ghosthouse by Uniform

GONGA – BLACK SABBETH – FEATURING BETH GIBBONS Black Sabbeth by GONGA This one came out of the leftfield, as who knew trip hop chanteuse Beth Gibbons from Portishead would lend her ethereal charm to Sabbath’s self-titled classic so flawlessly. But back in 2014, Bristol-based doom trio Gonga not only … Read More

With albums from Atlantean Kodex, Argus and Age Of Taurus riding high in our albums of the year lists, and of course the final ever album from the true masters, Cathedral, it seems that traditional doom, steeped in the roots of heavy metal, is, once again, genre du jour, and now Esslingen’s Mountain Throne are joining the ranks with their debut album ‘Stormcoven’ on Cyclone Empire. Forming in 2009 guitarist A tells Iron Fist that he, “always wanted to have a band playing this ancient kind of metal” and had been writing songs in that vein for years. Drummer J joins A in the doom band Mirror Of Deception, while cracking singer F and bassist S are in the power metal band From Beyond, so the cachet is hot for this German four-piece. When asked what attracted them to the traditional doom genre, A says firmly, “It’s the choice of champions really, isn´t it? There is a sense of a tradition… knowing where things came from and how they developed. Real heavy metal and classic hard and heavy rock are incredibly soulful. In real metal you definitely have that spirit. For me, this magic is epitomised in the songs of … 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

That Cathedral mainman Lee Dorrian has a soft spot for hardcore, punk and grindcore is no secret. But on some downtime from writing the last ever Cathedral record he, guitarist Gaz Jennings, bassist Scott Carlson and producer Jaime Gomez Arellano picked up their weapons of choice and a new(ish) band was born. Miles Hackett finds out more…

Late last year, when it was announced that seminal grindcore legends Repulsion were making a rare trip onto UK soil in May there was a wave of excitement at IFHQ, but upon further inspection, who was this band Septic Tank billed as opening up? The press release spoke of Replusion’s own Scott Carlson being a member alongside Cathedral men Lee Dorrian and Garry Jennings alongside music producer Jaime Gomez Arellano. We had to speak to Lee to get the lowdown on this mysterious band that have been under our radar since 1994. Lee tells the story of how it came about: “Well, it dates back to the time that Cathedral were signed to Columbia, we had a lot of line up changes and due to the money we were receiving from the major, we took advantage and hired people from bands like Pentagram and … Read More